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.

A REVIEW OF THE ABC-TV SERIES ‘THE PULSE’

by John Clare

JazzChord, Jun/Jul, 2001

The Pulse, a ten-part Australian jazz series, directed by Doug Aitken and videographed by Kim Batterham for Hilton Cordell Productions, will commence on ABC-TV at 11 pm on July 19, 2001. Shot in ten venues and clubs in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, it was curated by the prominent Sydney bassist Jonathan Zwartz. The series is supported by a $15,000 grant from the Australia Council's Music Fund. More than 100 local artists appear. Having agreed to be part of a rival bid for this project - alternating as presenter with James Morrison and with some influence on content - I would have disqualified myself from public commentary had I found reason to detest the successful bid. Not so. This is closer to what I would have done, given control…

12TH TAC WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OF JAZZ 2001

by John Clare

JazzChord, Dec 01/Jan 02

There are morons in Sydney who call Melbourne 'Bleak City', having no receptors for the subtle and intense atmospheric changes of our most fascinating capital. But everyone I know loves Melbourne, and at any rate all that nonsense is left behind when we meet at Wangaratta. Therefore I was distressed to hear rumours of a jihad stirring in the warm South. Some Bin Laden type was howling a prophecy that would madden the remotest resident of Reservoir with dreams of paradise. If enough hatred was directed north, infidel Sydney would explode in time loop for ever and ever and ever. On the first night I did encounter some infantile chauvinism. A group of good old southern boys gave the stranger the dead eye each time he tried to be friendly…

OBITUARY: KEN JAMES 1944-2012

by John Clare, Peter Rechniewski, Sandy Evans, Cheryl Kelly, John Pochée

Sydney Improvised Music Association (SIMA) website in 2012

John Clare writes: “Many of one's friends are now younger than ever - or to put it another way, one has far more young friends than those near one's age, as contemporaries die or somehow disappear from view. Young as many of my friends have become, most of them have heard - or heard of - Ken James. Some have told me they have been listening to him with The Last Straw on YouTube. As a musician he was an exemplar of sound practice and theory. As a stylist and creative improvisor an inspiration. For those of us who knew him well he seems to be still here. It was not until I began writing these recollections that I fully realised he was gone”…