Media Release

A Free Public Lecture by Professor Bruce Johnson

During the first phase of the history of jazz in Australia, there was a mutual antipathy between the music and the sense of Australian identity. By the late 20th century however, the two had become mutually supportive. This fascinating change, and how it happened, is examined in a free public lecture by Professor Bruce Johnson.

Bruce Johnson is Australia’s pre-eminent jazz historian. He is currently a Scholars and Artists Fellow at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) where he is researching the shifting relationship between jazz and the Australian identity.

Formerly Professor in English Literature at the University of New South Wales, he is now Adjunct Professor in Contemporary Music Studies, Macquarie University, and Docent and Visiting Professor in Cultural History, University of Turku, Finland.

Using film clips and sound recordings from the NFSA’s collection, this lecture will be available on the NFSA’s website as a vodcast.

This lecture is the first of three, the second to be held in Melbourne on 2 December and the third in Canberra on 3 December.


WHAT:  Free lecture: Jazz and Social Change in Australia in the 1920s

WHERE: Main Theatre T1, Department of Media, Music and Cultural Studies,
               Macquarie University, Sydney

WHEN: 6.30pm, Thursday 12 November