Frank Traynor

Who was Frank Traynor?

Frank Traynor was an Australian jazz musician, trombonist and entrepreneur based in Melbourne. He led Australia’s longest continuously running jazz band, the Jazz Preachers from 1956 until his death in 1985. He founded the Victorian Jazz Club in 1956. He founded and ran Frank Traynor's Folk and Jazz Club, which played a central role in the Australian folk revival. The club featured performers including Martyn Wyndham-Read, Danny Spooner, Brian Mooney, David Lumsden, Graham Dodsworth, Trevor Lucas and Margret RoadKnight.

Traynor formed his first band, the Black Bottom Stompers, in 1949. In 1951 he joined the Len Barnard Band and that same year was voted best trombonist in the "Make Way for the Bands" poll. He also made his first recordings with this band. He and his band were also a regular feature at Athol's Abbey, an underground bar and grill on the corner of St Kilda Road and Park Street