A New Groove for Indigenous Songs

What happens when an Australian jazz musician living in the mainstream decides to team up with aboriginal women singers from the tiny Tiwi Islands? A new music blend which is like no other!

The jazz musician in question is Genevieve Campbell: "The idea for this project started in late 2006 when I heard a tape of the ladies singing and thought it might be fun to put my music together with theirs… just to see what might happen. The journey since then has been one of song, laughter, friendship and sandfly bites. On the face of it there's perhaps not much in common between the main street of Nguiu and the inner city of Sydney, but we've found, having talked and played and sung and danced together that in many ways we are coming from the same place."

Of course the Tiwi Islands are also the home of the famous Tiwi Bombers. Some of these women singers are mothers and aunties of these emerging stars.. and on Saturdays can always be found at the football.

Old Friends

What happens when you receive an email from a friend from your distant past? Of course You read it and discover all manner of surprises.

When I opened an email from a schoolmate Andy A. I was directed to the most amazing MY Space site. I have to share it with you.. http://www.myspace.com/andyatwill

Andy is one of the most accomplished jazz bass players on the planet. (Back in our school band Andy played guitar and I played bass). He certainly has kicked on!!

Do you like it?

The Fourth Estate

As you would know the term Fourth Estate refers to the press, both in its explicit capacity of advocacy and in its implicit ability to frame political issues. The term goes back at least to Thomas Carlyle in the first half of the 19th century.

Novelist Jeffrey Archer in his work The Fourth Estate made this observation: "In May 1789, Louis XVI summoned to Versailles a full meeting of the 'Estate General'. The First Estate consisted of three hundred nobles. The Second Estate, three hundred clergy. The Third Estate, six hundred commoners. Some years later, after the French Revolution, Edmund Burke, looking up at the Press Gallery of the House of Commons, said, 'Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all.'" How true.

On this theme, add typewriters, guitar, bass and drums and you have Darwin's 4thEstate which provides a very interesting twist.