Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognises the passing of Don Burrows AO MBE on 12 March 2020, especially noting his:

(a) lifetime contribution to the Australian music industry; and

(b) contribution to music education and Indigenous communities; and

(2) further recognises the:

(a) contribution that creative arts and culture make to Australian society; and

(b) impact of COVID-19 on the creative arts sector.

It is appropriate that the House recognise the passing of Australia's legend of jazz, Donald Vernon Burrows AO MBE on 12 March in this year of 2020, aged 91. I pay tribute to my good friend, Don, on behalf of all Australians. Don's friendship, patience and deep love for musicianship, the art of jazz and his extraordinary gift of music profoundly impacted the lives of thousands, including my own. At 14, he nicknamed me 'Zootina' after the sound of the American jazz saxophonist, Zoot Sims.

Don was born on 8 August 1928 in Berowra in Sydney to musical parents. In 1937, a visiting flutist Victor McMahon inspired him to start on flute. At age 12 and during his early teens, he played in Victor's band on various reed instruments in clubs. Don told me that he played more than two dozen woodwind instruments—26 to be precise.

He went all the way to the top on flute: Carnegie Hall, the Newport Jazz Festival at Montreux in '72 and he recorded the album Flute Salad in '92 with Dutch flutist Chris Hinze, one of his 40 records. By 1942 Don had begun his love affair with the clarinet, which he learned in three short weeks before a radio appearance. He told me that during the war years due to cane shortages that he fashioned his clarinet reeds from wooden toothbrushes just so he could keep playing. In '68, the year I was born, he played a residency at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney with Ed Gaston, Alan Turnbull, Julian Lee, Jude Bailey, Errol Buddle, John Sangster and George Golla, with whom he played for some 38 years. I pay my respects today on their behalf, as I have met all of them, Don's jazz contemporaries.

Don studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as a young man and soon became principal clarinettist with the ABC's Symphony Orchestra. In '73—it was a big year for Donnie—he won the first gold record for an Australian jazz musician for his record Just the Beginning. It was the first to win a Keating, a creative fellowship scholarship. He was awarded a Member of the Order of the British Empire and instigated the first jazz program in the Southern Hemisphere at the Sydney Conservatorium. In '87 he was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia. Don worked over the years with jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson—excuse me, Deputy Speaker—Tony Bennett. Stephane Grappelli, Cleo Laine and the Sydney Symphony. Can I just have a moment? I'll get there. Thank you. For six years he presented his own TV series—Australians will remember The Don Burrows Collection. In 1991 he was inducted into the ARIA Music Awards Hall of Fame. In 1989 and 1999 he was named one of Australia's living treasures. With two honorary music doctorates from the University of Sydney and Edith Cowan, and one in education from CQU, he also received the Ted Albert Award for outstanding services to Australian music at the APRA awards. In 2007 he was inducted into the Australian Jazz Bell Hall of Fame.

Visiting Don at his Church Point home, he shared stories of his life over a glass of Scotch and showed me his cherished photographic collection. Don was passionate about educating Indigenous children in regional and remote communities through the power of music. Later he suffered from arthritis, and once he could no longer play woodwinds he joined his local community brass band. He picked up the trombone, having never played it before. Not knowing who Don was, a young girl in the band offered to teach him all seven positions. He said to me, 'I sat next to her and she taught me how to play the trombone.'

In the 1980s I was a member of John McKenzie's Adelaide Connection jazz choir. We toured Sydney and played the Manly jazz carnival and the Don Burrows Supper Club. We played in the South Australian Riverland with James Morrison, George Golla, Craig Scott and Laurie Kennedy. The connection recorded the albums Makin' Whoopie and Nice and Easy, of which I am proud to say I was a part. I was honoured to stand beside Don on a few occasions and follow him to do a solo on the tenor sax, a very hard act to follow.

Life can be truly amazing, and Don's certainly was. The last time I saw Don was at the Gold Coast City Jazz Club at HOTA in my electorate of Moncrieff, the very club of which I am now a patron. I took him a bottle of Scotch to thank him for his kind and enduring friendship. Rest in peace, Don Burrows.

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