The Perth International Jazz Festival celebrated Western Australian jazz vocalist, bandleader and mentor Helen Matthews with a tribute concert at The Rechabite on 6 November 2021. Presented by Ali Bodycoat and Libby Hammer, the concert honoured a musician whose influence reached well beyond the stage.
What happened at the Helen Matthews tribute?
The concert took place during the Perth International Jazz Festival’s 2021 program. Ali Bodycoat and Libby Hammer presented the tribute at The Rechabite on 6 November. The festival’s post-event account recalled a deeply emotional audience response, while a later profile in Australian Jazz described the performance as a celebration of Matthews’s music and life.
Festival Artistic Director Mace Francis wrote afterward: “There wasn’t a dry eye in the house at the tribute to the great Helen Matthews.”
Who was Helen Matthews?
Matthews was a central figure in Western Australian jazz, known as a vocalist, bandleader, teacher and advocate. During the 1970s and 1980s, she fronted JT & The Jazzmen, A Slight Diversion, Nova Dreams and the Helen Matthews Quartet. She performed at venues and festivals across the state and taught and mentored musicians, while advocating for women and for musicians in Western Australia.
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Her work in jazz programming
Matthews also helped shape the region’s jazz scene from behind the scenes. She was Artistic Director/Manager of the Fremantle International Jazz Festival, part of Perth International Arts Festival, in 2001–02, and Jazz Program Producer for Perth International Arts Festival from 2003–06.
Albums to explore
Three releases named in her career profile are A Long Time Coming (1993), Raising the Standard (1997) and A Slight Diversion (2010), completed with guitarist Ray Walker. The last offers a direct entry point to her recorded work; current availability is not established here.
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The wider 2021 festival program
The contemporary preview described a three-day Perth festival running 5–7 November 2021, followed by an event in Busselton on 13 November. It reported eight venues and more than 50 performances in Perth’s central business district. At the program launch, Francis said, “There’s eight venues and over 50 performances in the CBD.”
The program mixed free and ticketed events and included performances by local and interstate artists. Its activities and venues included a Hyde Park jazz parade, open to people bringing instruments, along with events at The Rechabite, Cathedral Square, Forrest Place and WA Museum Boola Bardip. The festival’s post-event report counted 128 musicians in the Hyde Park parade. These details describe the 2021 edition, not a current festival schedule.
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Why the tribute matters
The tribute placed Matthews’s performing career alongside her broader contribution as a mentor and programmer. Her work leading bands, supporting other musicians and shaping festival programming made her a significant presence in Western Australian jazz. Her farewell to Perth Jazz Society, as quoted in the later profile, was “to jazz – Long may it flourish”.
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