John Surman
John Douglas Surman ( born August 30, 1944 in Tavistock, England) is a jazz musician and composer. He plays soprano and baritone saxophone, bass clarinet and synthesizer, as by an instrument, electronic instruments and recorders. He has composed and performed music for dance performances and film soundtracks.
Life and work
Initially he played Westbrook - band mid-1960s baritone saxophone Mike, he used soon soprano saxophone and bass clarinet. On record, he appeared for the first mail in 1966 with Pete Lemer Quintet. After further recordings and performances with jazz bandleaders Mike Westbrook and Graham Collier and the blues-rock musicians Alexis Korner, he released his first album in 1968: John Surman. In the same year he participated also on the jazz album Out of this World of the hitherto successful as a pop singer in Germany Danish Gitte Hænning with the big band of Kenny Clarke and Francy Boland.
In 1969, he took with John McLaughlin on (extrapolation ) and founded by two expatriate Americans, bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Stu Martin, the powerful and influential group "The Trio" in 1976 once again revived and strengthened by the trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff to Quartet MUMPS was. The mid-1970s, he founded one of the first bands that consisted of saxophonist: "SOS" with alto saxophonist Mike Osborne and Alan Skidmore tenor saxophonist. In this early period he also took along with saxophonist Ronnie Scott, on guitarist John McLaughlin, bandleader Michael Gibbs and Chris McGregor 's Brotherhood of Breath.
In 1972 he began experimenting with synthesizers. This year, Westering Home was built, the first of several solo projects, in which he played all the instruments himself and recorded using overdubbing. In 1975, he recorded his last album with Mike Westbrook, Citadel / Room 315. This album contains powerful Surman solos on baritone and soprano saxophone and bass clarinet, and is regarded by many critics as his best work with Westbrook.
Many tethered by Surmans in the 1970s musical relationships continue to this day. These include a quartet with pianist John Taylor, bassist Chris Laurence and drummer John Marshall, duets and other projects with the Norwegian singer Karin Krog and with drummer and pianist Jack DeJohnette. Surman has been working since the late 1970s to the present day with the ECM label together. In the 1980s, the Brass Project, among others arose. with Kenny Wheeler, Guy Barker, Harry Beckett and the long -standing members Chris Laurence and John Marshall; In 1992, Surman to the Canadian composer and arranger John Warren Album The Brass Project.
In recent years, he has several works composed in which his own game shows up in an unusual context, for example, with church organ and choir ( Proverbs and Songs, 1996), with string quintet ( coruscating, 1999) and with London Brass and Jack DeJohnette (Free and Equal, 2001). He also has a unique trio with Tunisian oud player Anouar Brahem and bassist Dave Holland worked ( Thimar, 1997) and recorded with singer John Potter songs by John Dowland ( In Darkness Let Me Dwell, 1999).
Other musicians with whom John Surman has worked, bassist Miroslav Vitous among others, bandleader Gil Evans, pianist Paul Bley, the guitarist Terje Rypdal and John Abercrombie, the bandoneon player Dino Saluzzi and the trumpeter Harry Beckett and Tomasz Stanko.