(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.)
(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.
