WHEN music is your lifeblood and you want to pay homage to an uncle lost in the war, one with his own particular musical talents, it seems obvious how to do it.
Wentworth Falls jazz composer and double bassist, Lloyd Swanton, who plays with The Necks and The catholics, will give a premiere performance of Ambon on Saturday, June 6, inspired by the story of his late uncle, Stuart Swanton, part of the ill-fated Gull Force sent to defend Ambon in the Dutch East Indies [now Indonesia] against the massive Japanese advance in World War II.
The premiere performance, by a stellar 12-piece ensemble, will showcase Swanton’s new suite of 12 compositions — nine of his own pieces and three hymns composed by his uncle, Sergeant Stuart Swanton, before the war.
At great personal risk, Stuart kept a secret diary throughout his captivity. Written in a coded shorthand in the pages of a Dutch child’s schoolbook, it was smuggled out and later typed up and stored at the Australian War Memorial.
That diary, plus conversations with survivors, forms the basis of the production.
Lloyd Swanton, 55, calls the Ambon actions “a doomed objective”.
“It was a totally token force. They were lambs to the slaughter... it’s a scandalous part of our history.”
The force fought bravely “but had to surrender after only a few days of fighting, and spent the rest of the war imprisoned in appalling conditions, suffering the second-highest death rate of any WWII Japanese prison camp. Only Sandakan was worse,” he said.
He added the diary was “a very significant document because ... so few men came back to tell the tale.
“They had little or no food and the brutality of their captors ... only half a dozen or so survivors are still with us.”
Among the 1200 Australian men sent to defend the island of Ambon, Sergeant Stuart Swanton tried to keep spirits up in the camp by holding camp concerts.
“Stuart was a gifted musician from all reports, and in his diary there are numerous musical references,” he said.
“Even as late as May 1945, he was still working on a piece for a camp concert, he arranged a few of the pieces while in the camp hospital. He was very gifted musically. My uncle even made a tea chest bass from a chest holding tins of bully beef,” he added.
Ambon brings together hymns, gospel, military marches, island music and jazz, to create something of beauty out of great horror, in the process offering insight into a little-known tragedy.
“I have composed Ambon firstly as a tribute to the bravery and decency of my uncle, secondly because I wanted to salvage whatever beauty I could from a quite horrible story ... with many contemporary lessons for us.”
Mr Swanton’s uncle never made it back from the war. He died the day before the war ended and is buried on the island. Nearly 75 per cent of the captured died before liberation.
“On average well over one man died every day in the camp towards the end,” he said, adding he had made his own pilgrimage to his uncle’s gravesite, one amongst rows of other fallen soldiers.
Ambon will make its premiere in the new Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub in Springwood and is presented by the Live at the Village concert series. It will also be recorded in a studio for an album release on Bugle Records in October.
Joining Lloyd Swanton on double bass is Paul Cutlan (bass clarinet, saxophones, recorder), James Greening (trombone, cornet, pocket trumpet, tuba), Fabian Hevia (cajon, percussion), Chuck Morgan (ukulele), Jon Pease (guitar), Ron Reeves (kendang, percussion), Michel Rose (pedal steel guitar), Alex Silver (trombone) and Hamish Stuart on drums.
Of special mention is James Eccles who will be playing Lloyd’s uncle’s viola for its first public performance since the 1930s, and saxophonist Sandy Evans who has her own wartime story.
Sandy Evans had an uncle in Sandakan who suffered a similar fate, and her brother will participate in the 70th Anniversary Sandakan Death March this month in honour of him.
His uncle’s viola, which he has repaired, “is no Stradivarius,” Mr Swanton added, “but it’s perfectly decent”.
Dr Joan Beaumont’s history of the Ambon tragedy, Gull Force Survival and Leadership in Captivity 1941-1945, refers to Sgt Swanton’s diary “a great deal” and as an added bonus, she will present a talk earlier that day at the Springwood Presbyterian Church Hall at 4pm. The event is being run by the Blackheath History Forum and costs $5.
Tickets to Ambon are $40/$30 at www.get.al/ambon or via The Turning Page Bookshop in Springwood on 4751 5171.