It’s 1957, and walking north on Queen Street just past Creek Street, there is a new arcade, the Picadilly Arcade, all marble and glass. In the basement of the arcade is a coffee lounge. The Primitif Coffee Lounge: dark and smoky, very chic. The coffee is terrific and the toasted sandwiches, legendary. Through the week it’s a trendy place to catch up with friends; there a notice board for messages, a chess club, a record player and some great records. And on Sunday nights (against Council regulations) there’s jazz - modern jazz. 

 

In 2022 Leah was awarded the Letty Katts Fellowship at the State Library of Queensland to research the modern jazz musicians of The Primitif Coffee Lounge, photographed by Kevin Anderson between 1957 and 1960.  

> See a video montage of these and other Primitif images​

> Read Leah's blogs about Peter Hackworth and the Primitif musicians

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​> For more detail about the stages of Primitif research so far...

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In 2026 

• Leah is working on a creative writing project based on the Primitif research.​