Ben Apfelbaum

MANLY INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL 2019

If you are in Sydney over the October school holidays , then the long weekend belongs to the Manly International Jazz Festival. This year’s festival marks 42 years  of jazz celebration in stunning locations near Manly Cove and on Manly beach.

Although some jazz acts occured in venues for which an entrance fee was required, the overwhelming number of acts were free to the general public over the three days.

There were five outdoor venues at which these performances took place and they included  the beachside arena at Manly beach, Sydney  Road stage, the John Speight stage, Jazz Stars Of The Future stage which hosted school bands and was located near Manly Cove. A fifth free venue was St Matthew’s Church but I must confess in all my years of attending this Festival I have never ventured into this venue, as I find the outdoor atmosphere intoxicating.

I was only able to attend on the Sunday and although parts pf the day were overcast, the jazz sounds never failed to pop and create splashes of sonic colour.

A highlight for me was the Soul Gospel choir called ‘Jubilation’, just ahed of all the other bands which were hugely entertaining.

The Artistic Directors of the Festival are Caroline and Andrew Speight and they were especially proud that they had snared the services of US bassist Rodney Whitaker who performed a tribute to Duke Ellington. As in previous years, for some sessions, they enlisted the talents of swing  dance groups from various parts of Sydney.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum (c)

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.