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.

JOHN CLARE ON DAVE LEVY

by John Clare

Sydney Morning Herald, On The Street, Rhythms, 1991-99

During the 1990s John Clare, sometimes writing under his pseudonym Gail Brennan, wrote reviews for several publications, including the Sydney Morning Herald and On The Street, where he invariably commented favourably on the playing of pianist Dave Levy. This is a collection of six such reviews….

TWO REMARKABLE NEW JAZZ VENUES

by John Clare

Encore magazine, May 1979

There is more jazz being played in Sydney than ever before, but ubiquity does not guarantee quality. Nor does respectability. Indeed, now that jazz seems to be respectable it is being booked into venues for which jazz-inflected dinner music is what's called for, and what's being played. I have no objection to that. It gives musicians work, and hopefully it acclimatises the ears of many people, so that they are more receptive when they do blunder into a place where full-blooded jazz is happening. Two new venues have materialised, whose policies are the presentation of jazz for its own sake rather than as background…

THE LA FOUR IN SYDNEY

by John Clare

Jazz Down Under, March, 1975

The Peter Boothman Ensemble (Sid Edwards, vibes; Phil Treloar, drums; Jack Thorncraft, bass and Boothman on guitar) played a 20-minute set before the visiting LA Four. They opened in the low key, lightly swinging vein of what was expected to follow. Essentially modern syncopated chamber music, slightly incongruous in the rococco setting of the Capitol Theatre. Boothman is not usually so restrained. He often backs Jeannie Lewis, and he can play in a hypnotic style drawing on rock, contemporary ‘free’ jazz and Eastern music. Only when they played Herbie Hancock's Cantaloupe Island did Boothman open up with some of the tonal possibilities suggested by blues and rock guitarists…