John Pochee

John Kenneth Pochée, OAM (born 21 September 1940) is an Australian jazz drummer and bandleader. As drummer, bandleader and organizer he has played a major role in the history of Australian jazz.

His career as a professional musician began in 1956. He formed The Last Straw in 1974 and also played with the Judy Bailey Quartet from 1974 to 1979. Since 1978 he has played, recorded and toured internationally with The Last Straw, The Judy Bailey Quartet, The Engine Room, Ten Part Invention and Bernie McGann's trios and quartets. As a drummer he is a self-taught, original stylist, playing left-handed on a right-handed drum kit.

Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1940, John Pochée began his musical career in 1956, playing at the El Rocco and the Mocambo, Sydney's major jazz venues of that time. In the 1960s he worked as a professional musician with various groups in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. In 1974 he formed The Last Straw and also played and recorded with the Judy Bailey Quartet from 1974 to 1979. The 1970s were an exceptional time for jazz in Sydney and these two groups were in big demand, working at most major venues including The Basement, Sydney Festival and Horst Liepolt's "Music is an Open Sky" concerts

The original line up of The Last Straw was Bernie McGann and Ken James (saxes), John Pochée (drums and leader), Dave Levy (piano), and Jack Thorncraft (bass). Along with original material from Bernie McGann, Dave Levy and Ken James their repertoire also included pieces written by Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. When Dave Levy left the Straw in 1975 the piano chair was taken over by Tony Esterman, and the band's lineup generally remained intact for the ensuing years, the only personnel change being in the bass chair with Ron Philpott and then Lloyd Swanton taking over from Thorncraft in the 1980s. Apart from a three-year break in the late seventies the Straw continued to play until 1999, a 25 year run as unequalled by any other contemporary Australian jazz group until Ten Part Invention in 2011.

In 1987 The Last Straw recorded an album that won them an ARIA award for Best Australian Jazz Record (1990). They did three overseas tours, New Zealand (1988), Russia for the Australia Council for the Arts (1990) and the Montreal Jazz Festival (1989). In 1990 The Last Straw won First Prize for Best Band at the Leningrad International Jazz Festival.

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