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.
Miles Davis Photo credit Margaret Sullivan
MEETING MILES
John Clare interviews Miles Davis
Excerpt from the book Take Me Higher, 2001
I did not want to meet Miles Davis. Miles Davis would surely be rude to me, thus confirming the impression I had that he was a notably unpleasant man...
BOOK REVIEW: BODGIE DADA & THE CULT OF COOL
by John Clare, aka Gail Brennan
Reviewed by Eric Myers
JazzChord, Oct/Nov, 1995
If I know people in the jazz world, they will see what they want to see in Bodgie Dada, which is a history of Australian jazz since 1945. It’s certainly a multi-faceted book but, for me, it's above all a celebration of our jazz musicians since that year...
BODGIE DADA & THE CULT OF COOL
Eric Myers interviews the author John Clare, aka Gail Brennan
JazzChord, Aug/Sep, 1995
The original impulse behind this book was a very basic and personal one: to tell a story. In many cases these are things that I have seen and heard directly. They seemed very important to me at the time, and in retrospect they seem even more important...