JOHN CLARE

This section is dedicated to the work of John Clare, who began writing in the early 70s, and has long been regarded as the doyen of Australian jazz writers. Helen Garner, in her preface to Clare's book Take Me Higher, describes how she used to cut out his writings under his Gail Brennan pseudonym and paste them into her diary. Originally she thought the articles were written by a woman. She describes his writing as "superbly literate and articulate, deeply informed, yet completely ordinary in tone, even at their most elated. A relaxed freedom flowed through everything he wrote. He was fearless. He rejoices. He celebrated. Years later, an art critic who admired him said to me: John Clare’s an ecstatic.” Many of John Clare's articles that were published previously in various publications are collected here. Click on the INDEX button for a list of articles in this folder.

KEITH HOUNSLOW: MY JAZZ LIFE

John Clare surveys an autobiography on six CDs

JazzChord, Jun/Jul, 1999

The subtitle of Keith Hounslow’s My Jazz Life is 50 Years Of Playing Jazz in Australia, but if you are looking for opinions and academic themes, go browse, perchance to drowse, in the texts of journalists and professors. Keith Hounslow has given us a clear, uncomplicated view of a most fascinating current in Australia’s cultural life...

UNCHAINED MELODY

by John Clare

April 11, 2017

Let us move into a parallel idiom in order to make a point. When the painter Matisse was very old he kept painting through medical problems and sorrows, though everyone including his family assured him that he was saying nothing new…

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN... MR BERNIE McGANN

John Clare reviews Bruce Hart's photographic exhibition

JazzChord, Jun/Jul, 2000

The title is rather Las Vegas (I have never heard Bernie introduced as Mr Bernie McGann), but it is the only mis-pitch (no pun intended of course) in this very important exhibition and record...