Origins

Over the past number of years, the jazz fraternity throughout Australia, uncertain of the eventual fate of the large quantities of jazz recordings, publications, photos and memorabilia held by collectors and musicians, have discussed, and endeavoured to implement, the formation of an Australian jazz archive.

On Sunday 23rd June 1996, the National Jazz Co-ordinator, Eric Myers, convened a meeting in Sydney, with the late Graham Evans, Manager, Collections Development - National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), being the principal speaker.  It was decided at that meeting to explore avenues for the formation of an Australian Jazz Archive, but as no interstate representatives were present, a further meeting in Melbourne was proposed.  The Melbourne meeting was convened on Sunday 18th August, 1996, with 56 people present and another 27 apologies.  A lively two-hour debate took place.  The principal sentiment voiced by those present was that they wished Victorian material to be readily accessible within the State. 

It was agreed by a group at the meeting that an Archive would be established.  This group also agreed to work to achieve this end. Leading figures in this resolve finally became committee members of the Victorian Jazz Archive.

The initial thrust was to assess only Victorian jazz collections and pass the subsequent collection material with its data base information on to NFSA (also previously known as ScreenSound  Australia).

However, it soon became apparent that this was impracticable, as:-

• The NFSA stated that they would be in position to accept only a small quantity of collection material in the short term.  Their policy did not have room for the collection of material such as musical instruments, banners, posters, photographs, diaries and ephemera.  The result was a decision that a Victorian repository would be needed to house the material collected.

• Generally Victorian collectors expected that a Victorian Archive would hold their material in Victoria.

Out of all this the Victorian Jazz Archive Inc. was established with a Committee of Management and a governing constitution. The Victorian Jazz Archive Inc. became an incorporated 'not-for-profit' association on 15th October 1996.

Taking all the above into account, the VJA Committee wished to ensure that a constant dialogue be maintained with the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), through the subsequently created Australian Jazz Archive National Council (AJANC), to which the Victorian Jazz Archive sends a delegate annually. The Victorian Jazz Archive has now been designated by NFSA as part of the National Distributed Collection of Audio/Visual material.

Premises

In 1998 the Archive was able to negotiate, a lease on a 3+3+3+ years basis from Parks Victoria (then Melbourne Parks & Waterways) of a disused M&MBW motor vehicle workshop and Rangers office covering some 338 sq metres (3,500 sq feet) at “ Koomba Park”, 15 Mountain Highway, Wantirna. (Melways 63C8)

Raising finance, and help in kind

A major fundraising program was then initiated to finance alterations, and installations of equipment and facilities on this site. $30,000 was obtained through Arts Victoria from the Community Support Fund which enabled the initial work to proceed. Subsequently donations were obtained from the Myer Foundation, the Potter Foundation, the Pratt Foundation, the Helen M. Schutt Trust, and two grants from the Trust Company of Australia, the Besen Foundation, and the Ward McKenzie Food Processing Company. The Archive also received, free of charge, a vast amount of surplus shelves, cabinets, timber, floor coverings, furniture and equipment from the Museum of Victoria (following the closure of the Museum at 328 Swanston Street) and from the University of Melbourne and the Potter Gallery. Significant other donors include the Estate of the late Ron Halstead, the Estate of the late Don Boardman, David and Jilly Ward, Diana Allen, Maggie Fitzgibbon, and Marina Pollard.

Preservation  program   'Acetate action'

In the recording area, the Archive has a project “Acetate Action”, with the objective of rescuing Australian acetate recordings made in the 1940’s to 1950’s, from a time when commercial companies did not record jazz. 

These acetates are now mostly over 50 years old, and in many cases the surface is peeling off their glass or aluminium bases. They are being transferred to computer and then burnt to CD-R. for preservation. This programme has earned two important awards, namely the Museum Australia (Victoria) Museum Recognition Award for Conservation 2000 ($1,500) and the National Australia Bank Community Link Award 2000 in the conservation and heritage category ($5,000).

The Archive is presently transferring many original taped performances, from concerts, private sessions, hotel and dance halls, onto CD-R.           

The Data Base

The Archive has built a data base of the Collection holdings, done along completely professional lines - initially using the Inmagic DB/TextWorks software recommended by Museums Australia, modified for the Archive’s data base use. The work on the data base is extremely labour intensive, and would not be possible without the dedicated volunteers involved. Details of well over 8000 objects (i.e. 78's, 45's & LP's, Cassettes, CD's, DVD's, Posters, Photographs, etc) are now listed on a central local-community database (replacing the initial DB/Textworks database), and are easily accessible through the World Wide Web at http://www.erl.vic.gov.au/local/local.php?code=JAZZ. Details of individual items (i.e. music tracks, song titles, musicians and their instruments, etc) are included in the description of each object.

The Archive also has very large holdings of photographs, posters, ephemera, written material, runs of journals and significant historical musical instruments, some of the latter being in restored condition. The core of the holdings is of course the donated acetates,78’s, EP’s. LP’s reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes and CD’s

The foregoing relates to our Australian holdings

Overseas Holdings

The Archive also receives overseas materials and this is a considerable feature of the many estate bequests made to the Archive.

Staff capacity prevents detailed data basing of these items, but they are all catalogued with the record title and band.  This enables easy access for reference

Digitising of Photographs

The Archive has established a facility for digitising the photographic collection.  This includes the 9-year coverage of the Montsalvat Jazz Festival, 11 years of the Limerick Arms Hotel Jazz Club Collection, the Herb Jennings Eureka Jazz Fest Holdings and the Frank and Marg Burke Collection of photographs.

Oral history programme

This programme, which was started prior to the establishment of the Archive is now part of the Collection and the oral history tapes (Australian Jazz Interviews Project) are stored under the supervision of Oral Historian, Tom Wanliss, who is the original convenor of the Project.

Accreditation

The initial objective of the Archive was to become a Registered Museum under the Museums Australia (Victoria) Museum Accreditation Program (M.A.P.). This was achieved in 2001. 

After considerable effort by the Committee, Accreditation was granted in September 2003 through Museums Australia.

Australian Jazz Convention

The VJA also accommodates the holding archive of the Australian Jazz Conventions, held annually since 1946.  Committee member, Don Anderson, is the archivist of this collection.  The VJA passes any material received and which is directly relevant to the Conventions, to this collection.

Public interfaces

There is a regular stream of visitors, musicians, collectors and public on Tuesday and Friday opening days.  The Archive has had several very successful annual open days for Senior Citizens Week.  A number of researchers, including some from interstate use the Library for reference and research.  The premises are made available for rehearsal to young jazz musicians through a privately organised Junior Jazz Improvisation Workshop scheme - and tutored by professional jazz musicians. In addition since 2002 we have accommodated a senior jazz  musician’s rehearsal group and rehearsal facilities for the Knox City Jazz Orchestra.   The Archive have advertised Open Days, publish a quarterly newsletter and obtain publicity through local FM radio stations and other radio and media channels.

Monthly displays of archival material are rostered at the 13 Public Libraries within the Eastern Library  Zone.