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.
Apart from a three-year break in the late-1970s 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.
Pochée's musical relationship with saxophonist Bernie McGann started in the early days of the Mocambo and the El Rocco and from the early 1980s he was a member of Bernie McGann's trios and quartets, performing at Ronnie Scott's in London and concerts in Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, India and Malaysia in 1988, Russia in 1990 and Canada in 1993 and 1996.
In September 2004 John Pochée led Ten Part Invention on a two-week tour of the US after the group were invited to the Chicago Jazz Festival, where he had performed with the Bernie McGann Trio in 1997.
The original rhythm section of Ten Part Invention was Roger Frampton (piano), Steve Elphick (bass), and John Pochée (drums) and this trio also achieved considerable success as the stand-alone unit The Engine Room.
They toured Russia in 1989, being the first Western band to tour there following Glasnost, and they played at various jazz venues during the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes working as a quartet when joined by top Australian jazz musicians such as Dale Barlow, Warwick Alder and Daryl Pratt and with international artists Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, James Carter and Vincent Herring.
Pochée played, toured and recorded with many other high profile international jazz musicians including saxophonist Dewey Redman and pianists Barry Harris, Andrew Hill, Kirk Lightsey, Stan Tracey, Don Pullen and the guitarist Emily Remler.
Ill-health forced him to retire as a player at the end of 2014, but he continued to take an active interest in music, managing Ten Part Invention, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in March 2016.