1914 - 2003

Dave Dallwitz passed away peacefully at home in Adelaide March 24 watching television. A pioneer of Australian classic jazz and ragtime, and composer of over 800 tunes, of which hundreds have been recorded. He was also one of the instigators of the first Australian Jazz Convention in Melbourne in 1947/48 and three times winner of the Original Tunes Competition at the AJC.

In 1986 Dave Dallwitz was awarded the AO. (Officer of the Order of Australia) for his "contribution to music (mainly jazz)". In the same year a commemorative plaque (one of 150 marking South Australia's sesquicentenary) acknowledged his services as "artist and musician". In 1987 he was invited to take an 8-piece traditional Jazz band to the Ninth Annual Chicago Jazz Festival. He was asked to present a program featuring two-thirds of his own compositions. This Dave Dallwitz Jazz Band played to an audience of 80,000, receiving much acclaim and a glowing review in the Chicago Tribune, Since his retirement from lecturing in 1974 he has had a one-man exhibition of his paintings every two years. He is represented in the Australian National Gallery, the Art Gallery of South Australia, and in public and private collections in Australia and overseas.