home >> multimedia >> BOOK REFERENCES & INTERESTING QUOTES

Book References:

A list of some of the Books that mention Allan Zavod:

"MF Horn - Maynard Ferguson's Life In Music" by Dr William F Lee III
  ~  (click to read excerpts from book: written by Allan)

"Jazz-Rock Fusion" by Julie Coryell & Laura Friedman

"Fright Xmas" by Alan-Bertaneisson Jones

"Christmas in the Doghouse" by John O'Loughlin

"A CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN COMPOSERS AND THEIR COMPOSITIONS - Vol. 3 1985-1998" edited by Stephen Pleskun

"Her Majesty's Pleasure: A Centenary Celebration for Adelaide's Theatre of the Stars" by Frank Van Straten

"From This Side of Things" by Brian Cadd

"Frame by Frame Three" edited by Audrey T. McCluskey

"Pepper Adams' Joy Road: An Annotated Discography" by Gary Carner

"The Mississippi River Festival" by Amanda Bahr-Evola

"A Place Across the River: They Aspired to Create the Victorian Arts Centre" by Vicki Fairfax

"Australian Jazz on Record, 1925-80" by Jack Mitchell

"Asia Week, Volume 13, Issues 40-51"

"Classic Hymns: With Piano, Volume 1" by Allan Zavod

Quotes:

A list of some interesting or amusing quotes about Allan:

St Petersberg Orchestra cellist said after hearing Allan play for the Finnish Estonian Orchestra Conductors Function: "I can hear the Russian Masters in his playing".

Kenneth Hince's The Age article, Melbourne Summer Music Australian Pops Orchestra Concert (Jan 11, 1988): "The solo pianist in the Gershwin was Allan Zavod. He played with some brilliance and with a highly appropriate sense of theatre... It struck me as a performance of this ragamuffin Rachmaninov which tended to move away from the mordancy of Gershwin's blues into the deep purple of Hoagy Carmichael."

Bruce Clarke's Interview (1978), referring to a Jean-Luc Ponty performance in Australia: "You stood gaunt and slim among a forest of keyboards, long scarf waving in the wind and the lighting effects made you look like some demon out of hell twisting and turning and producing fantastic music from bat's legs and toads boiling down deep in your electric cauldron."

Bryan Patterson's Herald Sun article, Maestro Making His Own Music (Feb 12, 1995): "It is not stretching credibility too far to suggest some similarities between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of Austria and Allan Zavod of Melbourne. Both were piano prodigies born to violinist fathers. Both were ambitious men best recognized for their talents outside their homelands. And both had the grand view that music, the sublime force that governed their lives from birth, was a gift to be directly shared."

Charles Billich (artist) said about Allan when he was sketching "The Composers" (May 1997): "Allan Zavod is my favourite musical model. I have followed his climb to international musical success from Australia to Hollywood and back again. Not only is he a musical genius, he also looks the manic part. And I love capturing his musical lunacy."

When asked, Charles Billich (artist) said this about his last portrait he painted of Allan: "This is a portrait of a friend of mine, Allan. To my mind, the best composer and musician in Australia. He was a genius piano player both classical and jazz. And all of a sudden he was diagnosed with brain cancer. He thought they would operate and extract it but they never did; it was too far gone. I painted this about halfway between diagnosis and his death. And I came up with the tumour forming into something galactic; a Black hole. Something Hawkien"

Sting said about Allan's original composition "The Calm and The Storm" performed on Sting's 2008 Australian tour: "Wonderful, lyrical music, like a falling Mountain Stream".

Billy Joel said about Allan's original composition "Passing Scenes by Train" performed on Sting's 2008 Australian tour: "To Allan - Great Chops!"

George Benson maintains that Zavod is one of his favourite musicians.: "We love to jam together. First we introduce the song, then we show what we can do with it. Improvisation is the key, making the most of the moment, but it takes discipline to be a classical musician. That's what impresses me about him. Most jazz musicians don't have that kind of discipline. Allan's chops [technique] is exceptional."

Jazz Great Duke Ellington heard pianist and composer Allan Zavod perform in Melbourne (1969) and told him, "I'm going to help you get to America."

Cab Calloway, after performing with him in some blues gigs, warmly praised Zavod's "dazzling, original compositions."

In Pete Best's 2000 review of The Hobbit CD, he wrote: "Allan Zavod: genius"

In the "Real Frank Zappa Book", Zappa wrote: "In fact, Allan really is a great pianist (and film composer)."

Treasurer Peter Costello wrote to Allan, after Allan was awarded an Australian Council Music Fund Grant: "To be awarded this grant is an indication of the high esteem in which you and your work is held by your contemporaries."

After hearing Allan's Trumpet Concerto composition for James Morrison and the ASO, the Artistic Administrator of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra wrote: "The 'fusion' of jazz with symphonic music is a valuable pathway for contemporary music, and your work in this area is at the forefront,"

James Morrison wrote to Allan, about composing another Jazz Fusion Concerto for Trumpet: "I am amongst the many whom consider you to be one of the great innovators in this compositional style, and unique in the way you can bring the orchestra and jazz musicians together."

"Be passionate about your work. With passion you will love what you do as it becomes part of your very existence," Zavod now advises budding composers seeking career advice.

Allan Zavod said of his own creative gift: "The universal art form of music enables me to express my deepest emotions. To be able to communicate one's feelings through art is a gift I cherish and continue to nurture throughout the evolvement of my creative journey"