Don Burrows

Donald Vernon Burrows AO ( born August 8, 1928 in Sydney ) is an Australian jazz flutist, clarinetist and saxophonist. He is regarded as the most successful jazz musicians in Australia.

Life and work

Burrows worked as a teenager as a professional musician; 1944, at age 16, he was principal clarinetist at Jim Gusseys ABC Dance Band. In 1950 he undertook his first tour of the USA, where he was offered in Count Basie's band a job. He undertook many more tours of Europe, Asia, North and South America and worked with musicians such as Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, Tony Bennett, James Morrison, John Sangster, Bob Sedergreen, Cleo Laine, Frank Sinatra and Kate Ceberano. In addition to numerous albums as a sideman he took about forty albums with his own bands.

In 1972, he made ​​guest appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival, shortly thereafter at the Newport Jazz Festival. In the following year he became the first Australian jazz musicians a gold record with the album Just the Beginning.

At the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music, he initiated the first jazz studies program in Australia. For six years he directed the TV show The Don Burrows Collection. He was honored in 1973 as the first Australian jazz musician with the title Members of the British Empire. Burrows was established in 1987 in recognition of his services to music, especially jazz music, the title of Officer of the Order of Australia and was appointed in 1988 and 1998 on the Living National Treasure of Australia. The University of Sydney and the Edith Cowan University awarded him (2000 and 2001), an Honorary Doctorate of Music.