Muso’s sax appeal wins funding for trip to New York

Alex de Vos
MUM and dad warned they would have to put their fingers in their ears if Jon Crompton fulfilled his childhood dreams of owning a drum kit.
So instead, he took up the saxophone.
“I wasn’t really allowed to play the drums,” he says, “so I jumped on the sax and really got into it pretty quickly. I think my parents thought drums were a bit rough and too noisy – they preferred something with a bit of melody rather than a lot of crashing.”
The 24-year-old remembers his Geelong family home when he was a kid was filled with his parents’ favourite Fleetwood Mac songs.
But Jon will hear his sweetest sounds when he gets the chance to “suss out” the famous saxophone tunes found on most New York street corners and in the city’s clubs and concert halls.
An Australian Council for the Arts $10,000 study grant will next year provide Jon with private tuition, master classes, audition and collaboration with some of the world’s leading saxophonists who are “on a plane to a gig most nights”.
“It’s a pretty big deal for me – I’m pretty young for this,” Jon says.
A national jazz award finalist last year, he was up against experienced 35-year-olds for the scholarship from a field of talented musicians around Australia.
Jon confesses he “didn’t really know what it was” when he first picked up the saxophone in a year seven music class at Geelong High School.
Now he juggles commitments to teaching the saxophone to children and studying a Diploma of Education.
“One hour practice is equal to about three hours work in terms of it being so physically and mentally taxing because you’re concentrating the whole time,” Jon says.
“I’ve been practising hours and hours each day and it’s unpaid, so you’ve just got to love it.”