Alma Quon

​Jazz drummer and bandleader Alma Quon was born in 1911 and died in 2007. Her ensemble The Joybelles comprising women from a range of cultural backgrounds was active from the 1940s until the 1990s.

Episode Transcript

Nat Grant (00:06):
Welcome to season seven of the Prima Donna Podcast, Sonic
Portraits of Australian Artists.
This audio was recorded and producedon Wurundjeri Country, where I pay
respects to elders past and present.
To find out more about the projectand to hear more episodes like this
one, visit prima donna podcast.com.

(00:30):
The second episode in this seriesfeatures a posthumous portrait of jazz
drummer and band leader Alma Quon.
Born in 1911 in Bendigo, Alma wasone of seven children with all
the girls in the family takingmusic lessons from a young age.
She moved to Melbourne in the 1930s andperformed in the all woman jazz band
the Merry Makers with her sister Lorna.

(00:53):
The Quon sisters played with the Marymakers up until the Second World War.
In 1941, Alma formed herown band, the Joy Belles.
A group of women from mixed culturalbackgrounds also featuring Lorna.
With Alma on drums, the JoyBelles played for several years
at dances and functions in andaround Melbourne, and were still
performing up until the 1990s.

(01:20):
In 1995, an exhibition at thePerforming Arts Museum titled
Sweethearts of Melbourne paid homageto bands such as the Merry Makers
and Alma Quon and her Joy Belles.
Alma and Lorna's Chinese ancestry wasreferenced with Chinese style lettering
on the drum kit, and their musical setoccasionally included a popular Chinese
song played on Western instruments.

(01:42):
Alma gave dance lessons to childrenat state primary schools all across
Victoria and was known for her hardwork, focus, and no nonsense approach
to both teaching and performing.
She passed away at the age of 90.
I was fortunate in preparation forthis episode to record a conversation
with Alma's nephew Ray Quon from theAustralian Rock Band, the Blue Echoes.

(02:05):
Ray has many fond memories ofgrowing up at Alma's gigs and the
special connection they had thanksto their shared love of music.
All the drumming in this episode wasperformed and recorded by Luc Yong.

Ray Quon (02:21):
Yes, I really, really appreciate the past, you know,
especially when there's a bit ofhistory in people of, you know,
are very, like yourself, veryinterested in, in all of this.
And, um, but it wasn't until she passedaway that the real interest came out.

(02:41):
She, she initiated, uh, Ithink she wasn't a follower,
except that wasn't her band.
I think after that then she formed herown band and, uh, cause she realized
that the war was gonna go on I think.
That's the way I think that shewould've thought that, uh, the
war was gonna go on for a while.
So I think I'll get inon the ground floor.

(03:09):
She got taught up at the convent upthere at Rutherglen, and then she came
down and I think that she, um, I don'tthink she went and had lessons at all,
but there was another sister calledAmy who lived in New South Wales.
She was probably the best piano player.

(03:30):
She's best one of the lot.
She used to come down fromSydney and they used to play
for duos and all the rest of it.
To my knowledge, she didn't get taught.
She wasn't taught anymore.
She just learnt, youknow, learned it herself.
Alma, uh, I was always.

(03:53):
Uh, we were on the same level.
Uh, for example, you know, we'd goover and see her and I'm this high
10 or 11, she had no time for myother members of the family, even her
own brother and, uh, and my youngersister because they didn't play music.
So she used to usher them out theback and she said, She used to talk

(04:16):
to me like, um, come on Raymond.
She said, we'll go and talk some music.
The others can, uh, amusethemselves in the back room
reading some magazines, you know.
And, uh, so we'd sit down, and we'dtalk for ages and ages on music.
She was interested in what Iwas doing, and of course I was
interested in what she was doing.

(04:38):
And it got to one stage
when our band, theEchoes were very popular.
You know, we were on radio,we were on TV, you name it.
And she rang me up and whenevershe rang me up, I knew that
there was something happening.
So I'd drive over to her place.
She lived in Kew, lived there for years,and she'd call me in, sit me down like

(05:03):
we're doing, and she'd say, now, Raymond
I need some information from you.
She says, we're not getting thework that we used to, and they were
in their seventies then, you know,and let's face it, they, they'd
probably seen better days as theband, a lot of them had passed away.
She said, I need to get intothis music that you're doing,
this rock and roll music.

(05:25):
And I said, oh, okay.
She said, I'll do a deal with you.
And she was a very astute businesswoman.
She says, I'll teach you how to do allthe proper intros and dance tempos,
which came in handy to me later onwhen I was doing the old time dances,
you know, like the, the modern waltzes

(05:47):
all the six eights and theywere, had to be right spot on.
So she taught me those and Itaught her how to rock and roll.
And she was so grateful.
And I was so grateful too.
So we had that type of relationshipand then she, she said, I'd
like you to take over the band.
And, uh, I said, well, uh, it wasa bit of an awkward situation.

(06:12):
She said, well, you are theonly one with the Quon name.
She said, no one else can.
She said, and I want it to, to go on.
So, um, anyway, yeah, she, somemory started to go at that
stage, so it, it never eventuated.

(06:32):
Well, she learnt piano.
And, uh, they, the, the twogirls that's Lorna and Alma.
Iris wasn't born at that time.
They lived at Rutherglen and theirmum and dad, my grandparents, they
came out from well my grandfatherdid from China and they set up

(06:53):
the general store in Rutherglen.
They had that for yearsand there were seven kids.
They got taught the musicat a convent up there.
And then when they came downto Melbourne, I think Alma
then sought to learn the drums.
And that's when she played at thesebig, uh, teaching the kids at school.

(07:14):
She would play the drums and of courseshe was out there in front of the kids
and she'd also play piano sometimes.
But, um, you know, there's something upto about 800 kids at these schools and
I went out and saw them cuz I was one ofthose kids that, that got taught too at
school, we all did every, all the kids.

(07:37):
Um, but, uh, anyway, I went out tosee her and, um, just to give you
an example of where she was at.
If one of the kids started crying,you know, the seven or eight
year old kids, the normal motherfemale would say, now don't cry.
You'll be, you'll be right.
What's wrong?
Do you want a hanky dear, but not Alma.

(07:59):
Uh, she'd say she's crying.
Please, can we replace her?
And it was, even then, I realizedit was so embarrassing, but that.
Yeah, the show must go on.
Yeah.
I think that her work escalatedwhen the Second World War came along

(08:22):
because all the guys went overseas.
The only bands there werereally was, uh, Alma's Band
plus a couple of the others.
So they got a heap of workand I remember that one.
I was.
Very small in the early fifties.
I can remember, you know, my dadsaying, well, Alma's, the band are

(08:45):
doing a lot of work, was when the guyscame back from the Second World War.
They were one of the fewfemale bands that kept going.
A lot of them just fell by thewayside cuz she was a professional.
That was, her, you know, incomeand she was, uh, right into it
and they did all the mural balls.
That one there was taken, I think itwas at Myer, what are they called?

(09:09):
Before my time at Myer Music Hall,that's where all the big functions,
was probably like the equivalentof the Arts Centre, I suppose now.
So they used to do allthose big private functions.
They didn't record.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge,I've got no recordings of them.

(09:32):
Even at home here, you know?
playing music, which is a shame.
They all could read music,you know, they were all good.
They didn't tour like overseas oranything like that, but there was
just so much work, especially duringthe war years and everything that's,

(09:54):
that's where they made their mark.
And I used to look forward to goingin on the train with my mother
and, uh, Alma played at a, a placecalled the Gay Paris, which was a,
a French orientated eating place.

(10:16):
With the spiral staircase that used togo down and Alma could see me coming
down, she'd say over the microphone,now my nephew Raymond is coming down.
Didn't mention my mum.
And if he's in a good mood, Imight get him to play piano And I.
Freaked out because I was learningclassical and you, when you're

(10:37):
learning classical, you know,your repertoire is very minimal.
So, but anyway, she knew what she wasdoing and that sort of, uh, made me
comfortable in front of strangers from,you know, from about 18 years of age.
That would've been inthe mid, mid fifties

(11:00):
when I was a bit older.
They used to have functions, bigfunctions that they'd play at once
a year, being of Chinese extract.
We used to have a , it was aorganization called the YCL, which
was the young Chinese league, andall the Chinese used to go there.
And Alma had the band setlike that, seven, you know,

(11:21):
with the yellow outfits.
And they'd play there.
And, uh, she'd get me up to sing.
And also she used to play at the,uh, Cheltenham Repat Hospital.
I think that's what it was called.
It was a hospital for all the returnedsoldiers from the second World War.
Huge place on the corner of Warrigaland Kingston Road in Cheltenham.

(11:43):
And, uh, you know, there'd belots and lots of people there.
And, uh,
There was quite a few privatefunctions and occasionally she
used to ring me, uh, ring me upand not me, but my parents and say,

(12:03):
um, look, I think you should takeRaymond to this job that I'm doing.
She said, I think he'dbe very interested in it.
And they might've played a little bitof rock and roll, you know, something.
So that was good.
My auntie on the violin was anexceptionally good player and she played

(12:24):
at a couple of the festival hall showsthat came out cuz when she passed away I
found a couple of programs in the case.
Yeah.
Which are worth a bit of money now.
When Bill Haley cameout, her name is Lorna.
Lorna played violin.
Yeah.
Now, well they're all passed away to myknowledge now, but the trumpet player

(12:47):
in the band, Moya, Moya Brownhas her name come up there?
Yes.
Well, she ended up buying Alma's Home.
When I was very small, she livedin O'Shannassy St Kew, and then
Alma moved over to Henry StreetKew, which was just over the road.

(13:07):
Big house.
Moya Brown, I think I'm correct,bought Elmer's Place in O'Shannassy St.
And she used to, well herand her husband had a circus.
And, uh, and in O'Shannassy St, sheused to have monkeys there in on
the premises, cages and everything.
I used to love going over there.

(13:29):
So she was a bit of a character.

Nat Grant (13:39):
So Alma was married but didn't have any children?

Ray Quon (13:42):
Yes.
And, and Lorna was marriedalso and never had any.
Yep.

Nat Grant (13:46):
And were their husbands supportive of their music?

Ray Quon (13:49):
Supportive but not involved.
Probably the only involvement wouldbe that Lorna never drove anywhere.
So her husband, Glen would take hersome, or I think in the early days they
used to catch, um, public transport.
And I can remember my dad saying,and I said to my dad, my dad's

(14:10):
got two brothers, and the last.
Passed away a couple ofyears ago at 101, Dennis.
Cause I remember saying to my dad,I said, oh, I said, cause my dad
loved music on this piano too.
The same piano.
I got this in 1950 something andmum and dad bought it for me.
And I've always kept it, you know.

(14:32):
But I said, dad, I said, whydidn't you get taught music?
And he said that none ofthe boys got taught music.
Because mum and dad couldn't affordit, and their parents wanted the
girls to get a good grounding, whichthey did, but all the boys did was

(14:53):
help them get on the tram and bus andaccompany them on public transport.
And my dad was really, um, he, he reallywould've loved to have learnt music.
So that's why they insisted that I,and Alma was very, you know, Raymond

(15:15):
must be taught music and there'sa picture I think in there of all
the family and it shows the boys.
That's Alma's brother.
And brother and sonplaying the saxophone.

Nat Grant (15:30):
Okay.

Ray Quon (15:31):
They taught themselves a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah, but they never,
they never had formal lessons
and uh, I was a pretty good golferwhen I was about 13, you know, school
boy runner up golf champion Victorianschool boy and, uh, only and found

(15:56):
out that that was in 1960 that, uh,my dad didn't have long to live.
So Alma, uh, lined me up a, a job andI had a job offer to me in the golf
club is a, . A young kid, you know,learning all the ropes, and Alma
said, no, Raymond will make more moneyplaying music than he will playing golf.

(16:21):
Now.
, initially , she was right, butthe golfers now, they, they earn
much more than most musicians.

Nat Grant (16:36):
You've been listening to the Prima Donna Podcast.
I would like to thank Ray Quon, KayDreyfus, Claudia Funder, and Luc
Yong for their help with researchand preparation for this episode.
To find out more about the projectand to hear more episodes like this
one, visit prima donna podcast.com.