Above : Judy Bailey pictured in 2019. Photo credit Cary Bennett
The jazz pianist, composer, arranger & educator Judy Bailey was born in Auckland NZ on October 3, 1935. She passed away peacefully aged 89 on August 8, 2025, at Estia Health Willoughby where she had been resident since early 2021. She had already been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer in August 2020, and subsequently suffered from mild cognitive impairment as a result of a failed anaesthetic during a hip replacement operation.
Her two children Lisette De Gray and Chris De Gray were by her side at the end. Chris says “Both Lisette and I were privileged to have been with her and holding her right to her last breath. We are so sad right now but happy that she is free of her suffering”.
Bailey enjoyed a 48-year teaching career as a senior lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in the jazz studies program commencing in 1973, lecturing mainly in jazz composition and jazz piano. Many of today’s highly acclaimed jazz musicians were students of hers, including James Morrison, Tim Firth and Simon Barker.
Otherwise her extraordinarily full career in Australian music included activities as a television and recording session musician; jazz educator in the schools; cultural ambassador for Australia on overseas tours; composer of children’s music for the ABC; member of the Music Board of the Australia Council. The list goes on and on.
She was born in Auckland NZ in 1935 but raised in Whangarei, a small country town some 90 miles away. She always loved music and began ballet lessons aged seven. At ten, almost by accident, she switched to learning piano. Six years later, she achieved her ATCL Diploma, the performer’s diploma of the Trinity College, London.
From a young age she felt the influence of jazz. At 12, she heard recordings by pianist Fats Waller and later pianists such as George Shearing and Horace Silver. After completing her classical studies at 16, her interest in modern music rapidly developed, and she commenced arranging and composing jazz for the 16-piece Auckland Radio Band and for various small groups.
She arrived in Sydney in 1960, intending to go on to the UK to pursue a musical career. Already an accomplished pianist, she was recommended by another Kiwi pianist, Julian Lee, to Tommy Tycho who led the Channel 7 television orchestra. She became Tycho’s resident pianist, beginning her musical career in Australia virtually at the top, where she remained for the rest of her career. She also worked regularly with other television orchestras over the years such as those of John Bamford (Channel 9) and Jack Grimsley (Channel 10).
Along with other outstanding local musicians, such as Mike Nock, Errol Buddle, John Sangster and Graeme Lyall, she was a key figure at the El Rocco jazz venue in Kings Cross, which existed from 1955, closing in 1969. During this highly creative era, this club was an essential crucible of modern jazz in the city, where the country’s most advanced jazz was being played.
In 1964, Bailey recorded her first LP, You and The Night and The Music, accompanied by Lyn Christie (bass) and John Sangster (drums). It included one of her earliest compositions Night Dreams.
After 1970 Bailey increased her interest in writing original material, and blossomed as a composer.
On December 22, 1967 Bailey married the American bassist Richard De Gray. Their daughter Lisette was born on November 23, 1968, and their son Chris on April 21, 1971. She and her husband separated after four years and by 1972 Bailey was raising two small children on her own.
Such was her resilience, however, that she was able to convert this period into a positive experience. “It was a difficult time, but you cope”, she said. “Perhaps by having the extra chores which go with that particular set-up, you learn more of what you need to learn at a faster rate. I guess I always wanted sub-consciously to have children, and when it eventuated, it was the most natural thing in the world, and the most delightful thing to happen.”
In 1974 she formed a brilliant jazz group, the Judy Bailey Quartet, with herself on piano, Ron Philpott (bass), John Pochée (drums) & Ken James (saxophones & flute), later replaced by Col Loughnan. This group recorded the LP One Moment in 1974, featuring the title track which, in another orchestral form, would go on to win the APRA Award in 1985. The same group, with the vocalist Denise Keene, recorded the LP Colours in 1976.
Shortly before Bailey became ill circa 2021, she told me that the group of which she was most proud, was the celebrated trio she led for some 20 years since 2004, including bassist Craig Scott and drummer Tim Firth.
Bailey’s legendary achievements are too numerous to list here, but her appointment in 1999 as musical director of the highly influential Jazz Connection, a training big band as part of the Sydney Youth Jazz Ensemble, should be highlighted. Through this student orchestra Bailey mentored many outstanding musicians who have gone on to play jazz at the highest level in Sydney over the last 25 years.
Prestigious awards going to her included an OAM for services to music and education in 2004; an Australian Jazz Bell Award (Hall of Fame) in 2014; the Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award in 2018; and in 2022 the Don Banks Music Award, for her outstanding and sustained contributions to music in Australia.
One of Judy Bailey’s most endearing qualities perhaps was her fatalism. “My love of music has always been there”, she once said. “I never thought consciously of making a career of it; it’s just something that evolved. Opportunities came up to gain some immensely valuable experience that probably I would not have had access to, had I gone to London. I was so fortunate; it seemed as one job finished, another started.”
Judy Bailey is survived by her two children Lisette and Chris, and five grandchildren: Lisette’s three children, Mia 20, Elly 16, and Isobel 14; and Chris’s two children, Connor 13, and Austin 10.
Obituary written by Eric Myers August 19 2025
Thanks Eric for such a wonderful review of Judy Bailey’s life in music. She was an extraordinary musician and educator and a treasured colleague. We did 107 trio gigs between 2004 and 2020, plus a bunch of her quintet concerts. Every one of them was an adventure in music and a joy to be a part of.