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.

RECORD REVIEWS: JAMES MORRISON, KATE CEBERANO, VINCE JONES, MAX ROACH

by John Clare/Gail Brennan

Sydney Morning Herald, October 9, 1990

At last, James Morrison's outstanding competence on a number of instruments has been channelled into a good, mainstream to middle-of-the-road album. Far from being a quick elimination, as the excruciating title might suggest (and which certainly applies to his previous two efforts), this is the product of intelligent planning…

JUDY BAILEY

by John Clare

Encore Magazine, May, 1979

Pianist and composer Judy Bailey established herself as an important voice in Australian music very soon after her arrival here from New Zealand in the early sixties. Those were the last golden years of Sydney's famous jazz club, the El Rocco. To play at the El Rocco was to be accepted as one of the top jazz players in the country. That is where Judy soon found herself, in the company of Graeme Lyall, Don Burrows, Errol Buddle, Lyn Christie, John Sangster, Lennie Young, Stewart Speer and a number of others. At the same time, Judy landed a job with Tommy Tycho's band — on the recommendation of Julien Lee...

JON ROSE: MUSIC THROUGH THE TIME BARRIER

by John Clare

Encore Magazine, September, 1979

Even those who detest the avant-garde music of Jon Rose must, however grudgingly, admire his enterprise. Since he arrived here from England in 1977, he has staged many concerts and has formed a record company, Fringe Benefit, on which he has so far released no less than ten recordings of improvised music. As I can be heard, very briefly, on one of these recordings (Towards A Relative Music) it might be wise to define my relationship with Jon Rose, so that readers can decide what axes, if any, I might be grinding. Apart from that consideration, Rose's ideas might be best presented by me from the point at which I dropped by the wayside…