Australian Jazz Convention

The Australian Jazz Convention is the longest running annual jazz event in the world.^[1]

The idea for the event originated when Abe Monsbourgh was serving in the RAAF in 1944 and wrote to friend Cedric Ian Turner with an idea to run a “jazz convention” once the war had ended. The first Australian Jazz Convention was then held in Melbourne in December 1946, and was attended by musicians from across Australia.^[2][3] It was preceded by a one-off Sydney Jazz Week in 1919 as one of the earliest jazz events in the world.^[4]

The programme for the first convention in 1946 was printed as an Angry Penguins Broadsheet.^[5] The program contained an introduction from Graeme Bell, an article on Duke Ellington, and articles from international critics.^[6]

The jazz convention has since been held in different cities and states across Australia each year,^[1] with the 76th edition held in Newcastle in 2022.^[7]

The archives of the Australian Jazz Convention are held by the Australian Jazz Museum in Victoria.^[8] Volunteers at the museum have been digitising audio and video recordings of past events.^[9] The National Film and Sound Archive have also released recordings, including of 1949's convention,^[10] and have a video recording of the 1970 convention featuring Graeme Bell.^[11]