Above pic : John Harkins Photo credit Cary Bennett
John Harkins, Jacob Graham, Andrew Dickeson, Warwick Alder on the Sydney Road Stage… Photo credit Caroline Speight
In 1978 I attended the very first Manly Jazz Carnival, and am surprised I’ve lived long enough to attend the 2025 event, now in its 48th year. It became the Manly Jazz Festival in the early 1980s, and from 1987 the Manly International Jazz Festival before “International” was removed by the local Council in the 90s. Given the crowds on the Manly peninsula on September 21, when I attended, it appears that the recent relocation of the festival from the October Labour Day long weekend to mid-September, has not dimmed the public’s enthusiasm for a full-on weekend of jazz music.
Part of a three-day program featuring scores of jazz bands, the John Harkins Quartet gig was only a 45-minute performance by one group on the Sydney Road Stage, so this review scarcely represents the totality of what the Manly Jazz Festival offers. Pianist Harkins, on a Roland electric piano, was accompanied by Warwick Alder (trumpet), Jacob Graham (double bass), and Andrew Dickeson (drums). I’m very glad I made the effort to attend because, not surprisingly for musicians at this high level, their gig was a real gem; I’m so glad I didn’t miss it.
Over many years there has always been in my mind, at any one time, a handful of local jazz artists whom I feel compelled to go and hear if, after a decent interval, events have deprived me of their music. The fact that in the past some of my very favourite musicians died prematurely I put down to the whims of Providence: pianist Roger Frampton, who died in 2000 at the age of 51; multi-instrumentalist Tom Baker, who died in 2001 at 49; and pianist Jann Rutherford who died in 2003 aged 38. That’s a deadly tally for the opening years of this current century.
I’m very glad to report that another of my special favourites, the pianist John Harkins, is well and truly alive, and on the evidence of this gig at Manly, playing as brilliantly as ever. Given excellent sound, courtesy of technician Ben Coventry, who’s been doing the sound on the Sydney Road Stage for many years, each player’s train of thought throughout the performance was as clear as a bell. When the sound is so good I’m immensely relieved that the great beauty of jazz is evident to all and sundry.
Even with only a handful of people in the audience when the band began at 11 am with the Charlie Parker blues Au Privave, a large crowd of some hundreds built up very quickly, taking all of the available seating, with a substantial crowd standing nearby, reacting to the music with real enthusiasm.
The quartet ran through an interesting repertoire which included well-known standards with familiar melodies, such as The Shadow of Your Smile, and I’ll Remember April. Other more esoteric selections included Mal Waldron’s great ballad Soul Eyes, Bud Powell’s Bouncing With Bud, and Denzil’s Best, composed by the drummer/trumpeter Denzil Best. Only six tunes in all were played in a short 45 minutes set but, as adequate time was given over to solos from all players, this was a solid workout, featuring improvisations which would have satisfied modern jazz enthusiasts.
I stress the term “modern jazz” because in contemplating the origin of the bop piano style which has inspired John Harkins, one should not conclude that he is playing in an idiom that’s no longer alive. That would be far from the truth. The greatest exponent of bebop piano was, of course, the American Bud Powell whose insights in the mid-1940s and early 1950s were kept alive primarily by subsequent African American pianists who came out of the Chicago and Detroit jazz scenes, such as Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones and more latterly Barry Harris. I would unhesitatingly add to that list of luminaries John Harkins himself who incidentally hails from Chicago. Such great players have not allowed that immortal bop style to disappear into the sands of time. On the contrary they’ve thankfully kept this approach alive to this day.
While Harkins’ style is drenched with insights from this immortal tradition it doesn’t mean in turn that he’s one of yesterday’s men. When one hears pianists who are seemingly more modern, with their jagged figures, abstract thoughts, and often self-indulgent impressionism, I tend to hear a chipping away at the more traditional approach which Harkins exemplifies. But even if Harkins’ style represents a certain tradition this does not mean that his style is not still evolving, nor that it’s not modern. On the contrary, with Harkins’ pianism characterised by impeccable logic, he exemplifies what is still to my ears the essential language of modern jazz. And at Manly it was highly energising to hear it once again.
I have in earlier reviews done my best to come to terms with the style of trumpeter Warwick Alder. What I like most about his playing is his willingness to place the bell of his trumpet smack dab onto the mike and confidently express his ideas. Hearing him play in several contexts now with groups led by saxophonist Dale Barlow and singer Gregg Arthur, not to mention his long-term work with the great Ten Part Invention – a band which still survives and performs occasionally – I’ve found his style uncategorisable.
That’s a compliment, as I can think of no trumpet player in jazz history generally, or in Australian jazz in particular, whose playing Alder obviously emulates. His style is entirely individual and unique to himself, with an unerring logic in his train of thought; I have found it riveting to hear. I can understand why he’s so widely celebrated and is increasingly being regarded as legendary.
What can one say about the playing of Jacob Graham (double bass), and Andrew Dickeson (drums), except that, on this gig, they were part of a supremely brilliant rhythm section doing everything right?
As usual, what caught my ear most about Dickeson’s playing was his willingness to use brushes, where he’s an acknowledged master. In Denzil’s Best he played a delightful drum solo with the brushes, then after Harkins’ piano solo, switched to sticks, cracking out on the rim the fourth beat of the bar. When Dickeson does this, I feel we are hearing one of the great sounds in Australian jazz. Dickeson took a similar approach in the closing number I’ll Remember April, which alternated between a Latin time-feel and the swing feel. Following a highly swinging solo from Harkins Dickeson went to the rim again, enabling the music to swing so irresistibly that one’s spirit was lifted. For me this is what jazz is all about.
In the case of Jacob Graham, I’m told that he met Andrew Dickeson at the Sydney Con some ten years ago. Since then, Graham has had a meteoric rise, so that he’s now deservingly one of Sydney’s leading double bassists, in demand and ensconced in the top echelons of jazz, able to shine in whatever context he finds himself. This excellent performance with the Harkins quartet inestimably underlined his current status.
This performance took place on the Sydney Road Stage of the Manly Jazz Festival on September 21, 2025, and featured John Harkins (electric piano), Warwick Alder (trumpet), Jacob Graham (double bass), and Andrew Dickeson (drums).
