About Keith. The Musician.

For any artist to keep mind and ears open to ideas after 50 years of playing Jazz in Australia is remarkable. Hounslow's style is melodic and expressive, bristling with eloquent lyricism. This has been the unifying theme that runs through any context he has put himself in, from the Trad Jazz years in post war Australia, to his bebop persona with Brian Brown at the old Jazz Centre 44 in St. Kilda, and his strikingly modernist McJad duets with Tony Gould.

What makes it fascinating is the way he can move so easily in and out of styles, each time he does it is absolutely convincing.

And how he swings! From the Joyous stomping bravura of trad to jarring freeform explorations there is some internal clock that weighs each accent to perfection. Such freedom is the key to Hounslow's autobiography, a 6 CD set that covers half a century playing different jazz forms.

Whereas peers like Graeme Bell and John Sangster put their stories in a book, Hounslow chose to let the music speak for itself by producing My Jazz Life. " You buy a book and then the reader thinks,: 'Now I got to go out and buy the records.' That's why I thought it was a good idea to combine the two," he says.

In addition to the sheer depth of contrasting colours on the 63 music tracks, there are some great anecdotes and word pictures in the narrative on the first two CDs. Like the Runyonesque atmosphere in the old Musicians Club bar in Little Collins Street in 1952, on which working musicians from all over Melbourne descended after midnight every Friday and Saturday to work off their thirsts.

They came from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, from the Tivoli Theatre Music Hall in Bourke Street, from the pit orchestra at Her Majesty's Theatre, from the Trocadero Ballroom, and from engagements at town halls and venues all around the city.

"What I play now is timeless. You don't have to be a bebop fan , or a Dixieland fan or Modernist to appreciate it. Melody will out."

Leon Gettler: Jazz Writer : Age Newspaper, Melbourne.