Jazz in Papua New Guinea

The country of Papua New Guinea, with its population of more than 8 million, maintains a jazz element in its University music department and has produced a significant handful of talented jazz practitioners. I do, though, confess to having trouble piecing together much of sense of how jazz has developed there.

Jazz was certainly among the genres which influenced the music of exploratory group Sanguma, who came together in 1977 at PNG’s National Arts School. The group toured their unique blend of traditional songs with jazz and rock instrumentation internationally into the 1980s. George Telek has managed to combine traditional PNG folk with pop elements with some commercial success, but jazz is an only occasional flavouring in his music.

One of Australia’s most successful singer-songwriters, Megan Washington, was born in Port Moreseby, and started out as a jazz singer after studying the music in Queensland. Her debut album Nightlight featured pianist Sean Foran and won ‘Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album’ in 2008. Her career has taken her down different roads since then. Another Port Moresby-born musician, who has stuck with jazz, is pianist Aaron Choulai, who moved to Melbourne at the age of 14. He was signed to New York’s Sunnyside Records at 21, and was named Young Jazz Artist of the Year in the Australian Jazz Awards in 2006.

Do please contact me if you can provide more information on the jazz history of PNG.