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.

BIRTH OF A NEW ALL-AUSTRALIAN JAZZ RECORD LABEL

by John Clare

Australian Disc & Tape Review, December, 1975

I have never added so many albums to my collection of Australian jazz on record as I have over the last year. The fact that many of them have been representative of recent and contemporary developments is a healthy sign. In my experience only fools turn their backs on the inspiration of the past, but at the same time, when the past obscures the present, the force of immediate creation begins to falter…

AUNTIE LEADS DISC RENAISSANCE

by John Clare/Gail Brennan

Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday, July 14, 1990

It is the best of times, it is ... the best of times! A monarch is on the throne at ABC Records, who believes there are higher priorities than recording another direct-to-air broadcast of the jazz establishment. The independent label, Spiral Scratch, has had what they call a crossover hit: a jazz CD that is extensively played on 2JJJ, whose New York correspondent reports feverishly on the jazz (do not adjust your sets, we said jazz) he has heard. And the manager of INXS instigates a jazz division of the cool rock label, Roo Art…

JAZZ ROCK DEVELOPMENT

by John Clare

Music Maker, March, 1971

Jazz and rock come not from parallel but from interweaving traditions, which makes it rather hard to make valid distinctions. Here we are not trying to prove anything but musing a little, simply because we find it interesting. In the simplest terms, the rhythmic feeling of very early jazz was of an emphatic and distinct bounce on every beat. The Beatles' When I'm Sixty Four has some of this feeling, and so does Count Basie's rhythm section to this day. To this, syncopation was added by, most commonly, accentuating the second and fourth beat: the backbeat…