Donald Vernon Burrows was an Australian jazz and swing musician who played clarinet, saxophone and flute.
Life and career
Burrows was born in Boorowa, New South Wales, into a musical family. His father, Bill Burrows, was a baker and played the piano and trumpet while his mother, Ivy, sang and played the piano. His parents had their own band and played for dances at the Boorowa Mechanics Institute in Pudman Street and the Town Irish Guild Hall in Marsden Street as well as dances at Murringo and Rye Park. Bill Burrows was also a member of the town band under conductor Albert Bryce, the father of noted Australian composer Eric Bryce. In 1933, Burrows moved with his parents to Bondi in Sydney where his father purchased his own bakery. Burrows attended school at Bondi Public School. In 1937 a visiting flutist and teacher, Victor McMahon, inspired him to start learning the flute. He began on a B-flat flute which he later played at Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival. By 1940 he was captain of the Metropolitan Schools Flute Band and studying at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. By 1942, Burrows had begun playing clarinet and appeared on The Youth Show, a Macquarie Radio show. In 1944 he was invited to play and record with George Trevare's Australians. He became well-known in Sydney jazz circles and was performing in dance halls, nightclubs and radio bands. During the 1960s and 1970s, Burrows had many engagements in Australia and the United States, including six years performing at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. In 1972, he was invited to perform at the Montreux Jazz Festival and later the Newport Jazz Festival. The year 1973 was a watershed one for Burrows as he received the first gold record for an Australian jazz musician for his record Just the Beginning, instigated the first jazz studies program in the southern hemisphere, at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In 1979 he was appointed Chair of Jazz Studies at the conservatorium. Burrows performed to mostly classical music audiences through tours with Musica Viva and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation concert series. He led the nationally televised show The Don Burrows Collection for six years. He had an extensive recording career with his groups and performed on albums by others. In the 1980s, Burrows mentored and was closely associated with James Morrison. He formed the Don Burrows Quartet with George Golla, Ed Gaston and Alan Turnbull. He also worked with Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Oscar Peterson, Tony Bennett, Stéphane Grappelli, Cleo Laine, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, Burrows toured with a small band that included the Australian jazz pianist Kevin Hunt. He used his photographic images with his music in a show called Stop, Look and Listen. Burrows had arthritis from age 38. In a 2008 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Andrew Ford, celebrating his 80th birthday, he said that "arthritis is not the greatest for playing a musical instrument. But playing a musical instrument is very, very good for arthritis". In later years he had Alzheimer's disease and lived in a nursing home in northern Sydney. He died on 12 March 2020, aged 91.
