Australian Jazz Convention

The Australian Jazz Convention is the longest running annual jazz event in the world.

The idea for the event originated when Abe Monsbourgh was serving in the RAAF in 1944 and wrote to a friend with an idea to run a “jazz convention” once the war had ended. The first Australian Jazz Convention was then held in Melbourne in December 1946, and was attended by musicians across Australia. It was preceded by a one-off Sydney Jazz Week in 1919 as one of the earliest jazz events in the world.

The jazz convention has since been held in different cities and states across Australia each year, with the 76th edition held in Newcastle in 2022.

The archives of the Australian Jazz Convention are held by the Australian Jazz Museum in Victoria. Volunteers at the museum have been digitising audio and video recordings of past events. The National Film and Sound Archive have also released recordings, including of 1949's convention, and have a video recording of the 1970 convention featuring Graeme Bell.