Welcome to the Frank Traynor's Folk and Jazz Club History Project.
A collaborative history of performers, people and events from the Traynor's Folk and Jazz Club era, written by the people who were there. We hope you enjoy your visit.
Background to the Project
Frank Traynor's Folk and Jazz Club opened in Melbourne sometime in late 1963, and quickly became a Melbourne icon, with folk music being performed 7 nights a week, with jazz on Friday and Saturday from midnight on.
To read more about the beginning of Traynor's, go here.
Since Traynor's closed in 1975, there have been periodic suggestions that "someone should write a history of Traynor's", with some attempts having been made, but they have come to nothing. More recently, the small group responsible for this project coming to fruition conceived the idea of a collaborative project, where, as far as possible, the individual performers and others would write, in their own words, their part in the history of Traynor's.
With many of the potential contibutors separated by vast distances, an innovative technical solution was needed to allow people to write their story in the time and place of their choosing, and this has been provided by an Open Source Software content management system (CMS) called Plone, which this project is based on. Further functionality specific to this project has been developed by one of us.
If you wish to become a contibutor to the project, you can do so by contacting the project administrator.
Goals
The goals of the project are to:
- Document the history of Traynor's and its role in the folk revival in Australia.
- Become an accessible multi-media repository of material of historical significance from the period (text, photos, recordings etc.)
- Allow individuals (performers, staff, audience) to write in their own words, in their own time, from wherever they are in the world, their own accounts and experiences of Traynor's.
- Allow individuals to upload other material of interest (photos, scanned images, recordings, video) directly to the project site in a structured way.
Project Originators
The people responsible for this project were all involved in some way with Traynor's from the early days. They are:
Mary Traynor - audience at Traynor's who married Frank, and then managed Traynor's.
Ken White - musician.
Fiona White - musician.
David Lumsden - musician.
Lynne Lumsden - musician
Don Williams - audience at Traynor's who has provided the IT skills to bring this project together.
You can read their stories in the various areas of this site.
Quick Start
Some useful hints if you are new to the project.
- Contributors - If you are an experienced computer user, familiar with word processors and other tools, and already have been issued with a contributor user name and password, simply login in the area on the right of the screen. You can then explore the site and begin to add content in the area(s) allocated to you as a contributor. A quick start guide can be found here.
- Visitors - Simply follow the links of interest as in a normal web site. If you wish to use any of the content of the site for any purpose, please contact the project administrator for permission to do so, as all content is copyright of the contributors to the site. Visitors are able to add comments or additional information to certain area of the site - simply click on the "Add Comment" button.
-
Please note that all comments are moderated and may not appear on the site for several days. If you include your email address in the text of the comment (at the end ?) we are then able to contact you.
If you wish to become a contributor to the project, please contact the project administrator on the link immediately above.