Len Barnard

Leonard Arthur "Sluggsie" Barnard, Australian drummer and pianist, was born into a musical family in Melbourne on April 23, 1929. His mother Kath was a singer and band-leader, and his father Jim played saxophone and drums. His younger brother is trumpet and cornet player Bob Barnard. As a teenager he began playing drums in his mother's band during World War II.

When he formed his own band to play this music he initially played piano, before taking over the drum throne. In 1951 Len Barnard's Dixieland Jazz Band recorded the first Australian long-play album. In 1955 his band undertook a major Australian tour which proved financially disastrous, and led to its demise. Len then worked in Brisbane for while, before returning to Melbourne in 1956, where he played in the big band of the Palais de Danse. During the '60s Len worked in Melbourne with such seminal Australian Jazz musicians. In 1974 he moved to Sydney where he freelances before joining Galapagos Duck in 1976. They toured extensively (including to Europe and America) and performed regularly at The Basement. His association with the band lasted on and off into the mid-'80s. He joined his brother Bob's band for a time, returning to his love of classic jazz. He then toured Asia with both Errol Buddle and Don Burrows, and continued to perform and record in Sydney with brother Bob, the American pianist Ralph Sutton and the late Tom Baker, among others. In 1994 he joined Geoffrey Ogden Browne's 10-piece Cafe Society Orchestra, recreating sophisticated arrangements from the 1920s and '30s, and enjoying a residency at Balmain's Unity hall Hotel. He died 5 November 2005 in Sydney.

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