Contrasting approaches to jazz education in regional communities: Findings from a study on Cairns and Mackay, North Queensland

Regional music communities are dependent on a variety of educational influences to be sustainable and successful. This article presents a subset of findings from a wider doctoral study on the development and sustainability of two jazz communities — Cairns and Mackay in North Queensland, Australia. This article discusses how these two regional jazz communities developed their own individual approaches to providing jazz education for their community members. The research project involved conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with 24 participants drawn from both jazz communities and analysing that data using the grounded theory methodology. The research findings suggest that these two communities differed quite markedly in their educational approaches, infrastructure and educators. This article compares and contrasts the Mackay jazz community’s influence from the Central Queensland Conservatorium of Music to Cairns’ own unique approach, which lacked the presence of a conservatorium.