Barry Guy
Barry John Guy ( born April 22, 1947 in London ) is a British bassist (classical music, jazz, contemporary improvisation music) and composer. As a bassist, he uses various unconventional techniques he has developed partly self. According to Martin Kunzler he is considered one of the most important musicians of the English avant-garde music, but also works with Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music, the London Bach Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the New Philharmonia Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta together.
Life and work
Guy went to school trumpet and trombone. Parallel to night school and training to become an architect, he made music, Dixieland first, then swing, blues, bebop. Then he learned bass with Graham Collier and studied composition at Goldsmiths College. While he continued his musical studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he played with John Stevens and Trevor Watts in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble. Mainly he played until 1991 in Christopher Hogwood's Academy of Ancient Music. In addition, however, he has in the trio of pianist Howard Riley, groups of T. Watts, Tony Oxley, worked in a duo with Peter Kowald, the Open Music Trio by Bob Downes and in the Michael Nyman Band. Together with Derek Bailey and Paul Rutherford, he founded the trio Iskra 1903 (later replaced Phil Wachsmann Bailey ).
With other members of the Musicians Cooperative, he played in the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, whose core initially alongside those named Evan Parker, Kenny Wheeler and Paul Lytton belonged. Guy gave most of the pieces for the large-scale ensemble, which existed for almost 30 years and wanted to explore the relationships between individual improvisation and composition organized ensemble sound. For Ekkehard Jost Guys Ode for Jazz Orchestra represents the " most successful attempt at a combination of orchestral writing and free-jazz improvisation" in the period around 1970.
Appeared in 1976 Guys solo bass album statement. He is since 1980 member of the trio Parker - Guy- Lytton, together with Parker, Eddie Prévost and Keith Rowe, the group '' Super Session '' and also belongs to the Parker Electro- Acoustic Ensemble was founded in 1992 (Memory / Vision 2002). He also plays in a duo with Parker and occurs in trio with Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton or with Jacques Demierre and Lucas Niggli and Agustí Fernández and with Ramon Lopez. In the group he worked with Elsie Jo Parker, Lytton, Conny Bauer, Irène Schweizer and Barre Phillips, with whom he recorded also duos on. In his New Orchestra, founded in 1998, he played with pianist Marilyn Crispell, saxophonist Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson and Hans Koch, the brass Hannes Bauer, Herb Robertson, Per Ake Holm and percussionist Paul Lytton Lander and Raymond Strid together. With the NOW Orchestra in Vancouver, he took up his work Study / Witch Gong Game II/19. In 2006, he starred in Evan Parker's Transatlantic Art Ensemble ( Boustrophedon ) with.
Since 1988 Guy has, jointly performs with his wife, the Swiss Barockviolinistin Maya Homburger in Baroque chamber music concerts; The two have also founded the record label Maya Recordings and are increasingly in genre - border concerts in which both Baroque music as well as improvisation can be heard.
Guy has worked as a composer of instrumental, chamber and orchestral music in addition that included the Rova Saxophone Quartet, the Kronos Quartet and oboist Robin Cantor; He also writes vocal works, choral music and music for theater.
Lexical entries
- Wolf Kampmann Reclams Jazz Encyclopedia Stuttgart 2003
- Martin Kunzler Jazz Encyclopedia Vol 1 Reinbek 2002