Jazz: The Australian Accent, by John Shand (University of New South Wales Press, NZ distributor Addenda, A$34.95, NZ$44.99) is an excellent introduction to current Australian jazz by the Sydney Morning Herald’s jazz critic says guest reviewer Fergus Barrowman.

There’s some unnecessary crashing about in the underbrush – claims for Australia as a ‘creative centre for jazz rivalling Scandinavian and Western European countries’ alternate with promises ‘not to bullishly trumpet national cultural triumphs’ – but once Shand gets up close to the game the interview-based profiles of 17 of Australia’s best contemporary jazz musicians are lively and interesting.

The select 17 run from pioneers like Mike Nock, Bernie McGann and John Pochée, through current stars The Necks, to recently emerged musicians like Phil Slater, Matt McMahon and James Muller. Of course, the jazz world is tight knit, and there’s seldom even two degrees of separation between any of these or the dozens of others also mentioned, and the picture built up is of an interwoven community.

An ex New Zealander, Shand notes our huge contribution to Australian jazz through the export of talents like Mike Nock, The Necks’ Chris Abrahams and many more. I hadn’t known that Mark Simmonds spent his first 10 years in Christchurch. Simmonds’ sole CD, Fire, with his Ornette Coleman-inspired Freeboppers quartet (Birdland, 1994) is (sorry) a scorcher. Shand confirms the sad story of the breakdown that stopped Simmonds playing soon after Fire’s release. But he tracked him down for some interviews in late 2007, and these provide some of the most vivid and insightful passages in the book.

Less happy is Shand’s two-page lament for ‘Missing Women’. If he cared, why not add to his 17 men Judy Bailey (another Kiwi, whose gorgeous piano trio CD Pendulum came out in January this year) or Sandy Evans or Andrea Keller or Jess Green or . . . ?

The generous sampler CD includes top cuts by Simmonds, Nock, McGann and The Necks, as well as the newer crew. It also illustrates the community aspect. Lloyd Swanton, slow-motion bass-player of The Necks, also turns up in saxophonist McGann’s propulsive bebop quartet and trumpeter Phil Slater’s abstract modernist quartet. The highlight though is ‘Five Bells’, an 11-minute response to the Kenneth Slessor poem of that title by Allan Browne’s Australian Jazz Band. Browne’s music is a delightfully witty blend of tradition and innovation, and his CDs Five Bells, East St Kilda Toodleoo and The Drunken Boat (after Rimbaud) are all terrific.

Jazz: The Australian Accent is distributed in New Zealand by Addenda sales@addenda.co.nz, and can also be ordered directly from Sydney specialist store Birdland http://www.birdland.com.au/, who are by far the best source for CDs.

Quite a lot of Australian jazz is also now available for legal download on iTunes and emusic.com (they’re miles ahead of us in making their music available to the world).

Fergus Barrowman is the publisher at Victoria University Press , and is a jazz columnist for Radio New Zealand and The New Zealand Listener.