CLARE HANSSON: A PROFILE

After the death of her bass-playing husband, Bernie Hansson, Clare got hooked on pianist Bill Evans.  ‘As soon as I heard him I thought “this is the complete lyrical experience.  Nothing can follow Bill Evans, nothing can add to Bill Evans.  It is complete and emotionally satisfying in itself.  I think I heard him painting pictures.”  He touched my emotions in the way I that I would like to paint pictures and touch other people’s emotions in my playing if ever that happens.  If ever somebody wrote on my tombstone “for one moment she sounded remotely like Bill Evans”, I’d die happy.’  Clare greatly admires Marian McPartland and plucked up the courage to write to her.  They now correspond regularly and it is Clare’s dream to get Marian to Australia.  Clare sent her a tape of the All Blues recording, and Marian wrote back ‘You play beautifully!’.

Shirley Jeffery,
Quarterly Rag, New South Wales, 1993