1928 - 2020

As a child, legendary jazz musician Don Burrows loved standing on the sand at Bondi on weekends in his swimmers and listening wonderstruck to jazz musicians jamming on the beach.

Burrows was raised in Bondi by musical parents. At age four, he was using a comb and tissue paper to play along with music on the radio. He progressed to tin whistle and ukulele while attending Bondi Beach Public School.

At nine, he began playing a B-flat flute that he later played at Carnegie Hall in New York. At 12, he was captain of the Metropolitan Schools Flute Band. He left school at 14 and became the clarinet soloist with Jim Gussey’s ABC Dance Band at 16. At the Sydney Conservatorium of Music he excelled at flute, alto flute (in jazz jargon a ‘doubler’), clarinet and saxophone.

As a teenager during World War II, Burrows played gigs in swing venues and night clubs, covering the void left by musicians who enlisted. At 16, he played clarinet and recorded with the band George Trevare’s Australians. By the 1960s he was one of Australia’s best-known jazz musicians.

His international career took off in the 1970s, with a tour of the USA. He become the first Australian to perform at the Montreux and Newport jazz festivals in 1972. He received an MBE in 1973.

His enthusiasm for music extended to education, instigating the first jazz studies program at the Sydney Conservatorium. In the 1980s The Don Burrows Show was shown on ABC TV, helping people better understand jazz.

He performed with many international jazz greats over his career, including Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett and was asked to join Count Basie’s band.

In 1987 Burrows was awarded an Order of Australia and was inducted into the Australian Jazz Bell Awards Hall of Fame and the ARIA Hall of Fame for his impact on music culture. Twice he was named an Australian living national treasure.

Fellow musician James Morrison said Burrows “inspired generations of musicians and audiences alike, with his unbridled passion and a determination to spread the joy he felt when playing the music he loved so much”.

Courtesy James Morrison, Roy Ferin, Eric Myers, Peter Sinclair, the Australian Jazz Museum. Steve Robertson, Victoria Gaston and Ron Falson.