Modern Jazz in Ivanhoe: Studio One at Club Le Regale, 1956.

(The Argus, 18 & 14 Jan. 1956) 

I've put together all the fragments of information I've come across on Studio One, one of the early dedicated modern jazz clubs from Melbourne during the mid 50s. Established by Mike Coniston Nash & John Moore in 1956 Studio One was held on Tuesday and Sunday nights at the Club Le Regale in Ivanhoe, though I'm not clear on if Studio One managed to stay in operation beyond 1956 .Regarding the organisers I couldn't find any information on John Moore, though Mike Coniston was a young emigrant from London who was later involved in the art forgery market helping to sell fake Streeton's. A newspaper report on the fraud circle referred to him as as having once been a 'jazz entrepreneur'. While Horst Liepolt and the Jazz Centre 44 in St Kilda constituted the physical and psychic centre of modern jazz activity in Melbourne Studio One is an example of how the scope of musical activity in the period extended to a host of un(der)documented small coffee spaces, after hours clubs, art galleries and informal house shows. Beyond a passing note in Bruce Johnsons Oxford Companion to Australian Jazz (page 120 to be exact) I haven't come across any references to the club in the extant literature on the period, though Brian Brown does recall that his group "really started in a church hall in Heidelberg".

(Music Maker, April 1956)

(The Argus, 11 Sept. 1956)

I have no idea what the atmosphere of Studio One was like. Whilst the vision of the Jazz Centre 44 retrospectively presented is as a sort of casual interzone by the standards of the time (Pianist Dave Martin divided the audience of Jazz Centre 44 into three groups; "casuals who heard something strange…then there were two groups of regulars. One of these was middle class, interested in the arts generally…the third group was a bunch of very rough diamonds") I suspect the atmosphere of Studio One may have been closer to the more explicitly middle class atmosphere that characterised most of the general jazz activity in the period. Nestled away in Ivanhoe, an older, affluent outpost above the suburban expansion taking place in nearby Heidelberg, it sat quite distant from the supposed seaside sleaze and transgressive social milieu of St. Kilda. The atmosphere suggested by the advertising was of cultivated exclusivity, a specialist space. A report from The Argus notes "club cards and memberships have been planned to control the patronage". This chimes with a passing comment by Jeff Hawes, reminiscing on the Melbourne casual jazz dance scene in the period. Hawes noting that the formula for jazz clubs and dances was "…a catchy name, produce a key-ring medallion (which was the only way admission could be gained), sell the medallion membership for ten shillings or a pound, screen the patrons (no rough-necks), provide soft lighting, trendy decor, and no booze (only soft drink)"(from VJAZ #60, 2013, available here). Here membership cards were a mechanism to screen out undesirable types, presumably bodgies and rockers. On this theme of 'in' and 'out' amongst youths is a small contemporary article on how Eric Westbrook, director of the National Gallery of Victoria planned on 'dealing' with what was perceived as the undesirable patronage by Bodgies of the gallery, demarcating the borders of access. (It should be noted that for older people in 1955 the term bodgie doubled to cover the nascent middle class jazzers and the more broadly working class rockers. Smaller, specialist clubs such as Studio One could be argued to be the point at which a distinction was beginning to be made between the two in the popular imagination as the centrality of larger dance halls were side stepped.) 

(Mooma Rhythm Fiesta programme, taken with thanks from the Victorian Jazz Archive)

(The Argus, 2nd Feb. 1956)

 Studio One was host to the core of the younger musicians whom constituted the vogue vanguard of cool jazz and hard bop at the time, including Graham Morgan, Brian Brown, Keith Hounslow, and Peter Martin. They constituted the house band, the Modern Jazz Quartet/Combo. The Music Maker article notes that "opposition may come, not only from the general public, but from the local musicians themselves, some of whom may not understand, nor want to understand, these fresh, progressive improvisations in jazz music." These musicians were later closely associated with Jazz Centre 44, performing with their own individual groups. Beyond Studio One at this point Morgan and Brown were involved in the Downbeat jazz concerts staged by Bob Clemens, and their Modern Jazz Quartet had performed at the Rhythm Fiestas that were part of the early Moomba Festival. The Music Maker article also refers to "recording contracts already signed", which may be hyperbole on one hand, though Brian Brown would appear later in 1956 on Harold Blairs Australian Aboriginal Songs, playing saxophone ('roofter') and assisting in the arrangements. This was released on Score Records whom would also release Browns Australian Jazz 7" EP in 1957. 

I must also send a thanks out to the State Library of Victoria where I am presently embarking on a AGL Shaw Summer Research Fellowship. The above copy of Music Maker is photographed from their collection of periodicals, hopefully I will be able to post a further things I come across in their collection over the next month.