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 BARR

by John Clare

Music Maker, May 1971

Merv Acheson said to me, "Keith Barr is a brilliant musician, but whenever you see him, he doesn't seem to be getting anywhere. He won't compromise". No, let's not be prissy. Merv said that whenever you see him he seems to have the seat out of his pants. He won't compromise. Too much should not be made of that. I don't think that what Charlie or John Sangster do compromises them. They are able to do it and remain themselves, and there's an end to it. And the truth is that Keith does compromise, but usually when it is too late to be anything but total…

SERGE EMOLL

by John Clare

Jazz Down Under, September/October, 1975

Do you ever develop a prejudice against an artist without having seen or heard their work? I'm afraid that I do. I had to fight this kind of feeling about Serge Ermoll. For some reason I was sure that he was a ski lodge tinkler. Sven Masterful. Yaroslov Seduski. He was one of the few musicians who were around in the El Roco days in Sydney, whose playing I couldn't remember, so I felt he could not have been too sensational. Probably I never even heard him. Very likely I had it in mind that I knew all the important Australian jazz musicians, and I didn't want to cope with there being another one…

1995: A YEAR OF VINDICATION & SADNESS

by John Clare

JazzChord, Summer 1995/96

How much longer can we keep multiplying before catastrophe ensues? Not much, say the pessimists. Indefinitely, say the optimists. There is evidence to support either view. Similarly, there is always evidence to support or discredit the view that these are bad times for jazz. Still it has to be said that there have been no more self-contradictory, unfounded and destructive utterances in Australian jazz criticism than the two Kevin Jones bulls issued in The Australian in 1995. Both asserted that jazz was in a desperate state and that, in particular, nobody was listening to contemporary jazz…