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.

KINGS CROSS REVISITED: THE OTHER SIDE

by John Clare

May, 2017

I might well have preferred Paris, Hampstead, Fitzroy, Lizard Island, Kyoto, Penang, etc for revisitation, but I have not had the dough for some time. And I can ride my bike to the Cross in no time... 

BOOK REVIEW: WHY WANGARATTA? THE PHENOMENON OF THE WANGARATTA FESTIVAL OFJAZZ

by John Clare

Reviewed by Eric Myers

JazzChord, Summer 1999/2000

Why has the Wangaratta festival become, in ten years, the one festival which almost everyone regards as the best jazz festival in the country? Not only in terms of artistic excellence, but also in commercial terms: over four or five days, visitors inject some 15 million dollars into the local economy, and the accommodation within a 30km radius around the town is booked out 12 months ahead…

MIKE NOCK CONFOUNDS OZ JAZZ’S KNOCKERS

by John Clare

Nation Review, April 20-26, 1978

Excessively old readers who hung around the El Rocco at Kings Cross will remember Mike Nock, the small and rather goblin-shaped New Zealand pianist who played as though his bum was on fire. He had a big influence on Australian jazz...