John Sangster

John Sangster was a central figure in Australian jazz. He began playing traditional jazz with Graeme Bell and his Australian Jazz Band on trombone, later taking up the cornet, then drums. He toured with Bell (1950-55), playing in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Korea. While in England he appeared in two Royal Command Performances, and recorded his first composition while playing on the Humphrey Lyttelton/Graeme Bell recordings. In the late 1950s Sangster began playing vibraphone, and played other percussion instruments, including many of his own invention. After leaving Bell's band, Sangster joined the Don Burrows Group, with whom he was to record several compositions.In the 1960s Sangster formed his own quartet and with them experimented with group improvisatory jazz, after he became interested in the music of such American jazz musicians as Sun Ra and Archie Shepp