COL NOLAN

Col Nolan had been in the music business over 50 years, much of his time was spent with leaders such as Frank Coughlan of Sydney Trocadero fame, Ray Price, John Sangster, plus The Daly Wilson Big Band (of which he was a founding member) and so on. He led his own groups at the El Rocco Jazz Cellar in the sixties. He was something of a pioneer of electric keyboards and Hammond B3 organ in Australia with Little Sammy and The In People in the sixties, and his own Soul Syndicate plus Galapagos Duck in the seventies and eighties. 

Col Nolan also enjoyed some fame in the mid-seventies with that rare phenomenon in popular music, a jazz record that made it big on the top 40. ''Theme from Picnic at Hanging Rock'' recorded in 1976 by The Nolan Buddle Quartet (with Errol Buddle) got as high as #15 on the national charts. This single was also released in France and South Africa. In recent years he had been busy working with other artists (eg: James Morrison, John Nicol, Harry Rivers, etc) as well as a few overseas tours. With the resurgence of the Hammond organ in popular music, Nolan enjoyed playing on albums and concerts with various jazz and blues bands, Janet Seidel, John Leigh Calder, The Foreday Riders, Warren Daly Quartet & Big Band to name a few.

Col shared the bill with such international artists as: The Modern Jazz Quartet, Benny Goodman, Dave Brubeck, Stephane Grapelli, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Roland Kirk, Carmen Macrae, Les McCann, plus many more along the way. His album 'Nolan's Groove' (La Brava LB9601) was a finalist in the 1998 ARIA Awards for best Australian jazz recording of the year. The Oxford Companion To Australian Jazz summarises Col Nolan in one sentence. “A player of greater stylistic versatility, possessing to an unsurpassed degree, that compulsive but indefinable capacity called swing”. Col played a Hammond XK2 through a Leslie 760. His left-hand bass playing was legendary. Col Nolan died in 2019.

SINGLES

''Learnin' The Blues / So What's New'' [The Col Nolan Trio Plus One] 1967 CBS

''Buckingham Palace / What's The Use'' [The Col Nolan Soul Syndicate] 1973 Avan Guard

''My Machine / Killing Me Softly With His Love'' 1975 M7

''Picnic At Hanging Rock (#15) / Picnic At Hanging Rock (Part 2) [The Nolan-Buddle Quartet] 1976 M7

''Love In Spring / Dry Country'' [The Col Nolan Quartet] 1977 M7

ALBUMS

'Crazy Crochet' [Col Nolan Soul Syndicate] 1966 CBS
'Whatever It's Worth' [Col Nolan Soul Syndicate] 1968 CBS
'Live At Jason's' [Col Nolan Soul Syndicate] 1973 Avan Guard
'Arrangements' [The Col Nolan Quartet] 1976 M7
'The Odd Couple' [The Nolan-Buddle Quartet] 1976 M7
'The Main Stream' 1990 2MBS-FM
'Nolan's Groove' 1996 La Brava Music