Jazz Articles about Barry Guy

Barry Guy/Marilyn Crispell/Paul Lytton: Ithaca

by Andrey Henkin
December 7, 2004

In 1968, three Europeans--pianist Irene Schweizer, bassist Peter Kowald and drummer Pierre Favre--privately released Santana , on the surface a traditional piano trio, but in fact a violent refutation of jazz' most dependable format. Laden with a brutality that may have made Cecil Taylor blanche, Santana was another example of European free improvisation cutting the cord from traditional American jazz. Now, 36 years later, another piano trio, comprised of peers of the Santana group (bassist Barry Guy and ...

Barry Guy: Symmetries

by Mark Corroto
July 4, 2002

Bassist Barry Guy has stepped away from his London Jazz Composers Orchestra to perform in small group settings and perform solo. His associations with the old and the new of the avant-garde have him collaborating with among many, Evan Parker and Mats Gustafsson. His solo recordings for bass, date back to 1976 with Statements V-XI For Double Bass & Violone, Assist (1985), and Fizzles (1993). His 1991 duets with bassist Barre Phillips on this same Maya records is well worth ...

Evan Parker/Barry Guy/Lawrence Casserley: Dividuality

by Mark Corroto
September 1, 2001

The United Kingdom musicians Evan Parker and Barry Guy have met and collaborated on many a project over the years. From the early days (1960s & 1970s) with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and London Jazz Composers Orchestra to a myriad of present day projects, they have defined and refined European creative music. In the late 1990s Evan Parker’s interest in electronics brought Guy together on Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble records, Drawn Inward and Toward The Margins, for ECM records. Parker mixed ...

Mats Gustafsson/Barry Guy: Frogging

by Mark Corroto
March 1, 2001

Spontaneous creative music, i.e. ‘free jazz,’ usually tends toward high-energy output and daredevil antics. The appeal is like that of theater, generated in the immediacy of the moment and sometimes the physicality of the creation. The charms of spontaneous music are often lost in the conversion from ‘live’ event to recorded disc.

Nothing though seems lost on this recorded duo between Mats Gustafsson and Barry Guy. The Swede Gustafsson has continued to generate excellent recordings these past six years, playing ...

The Howard Riley Trio with Barry Guy & Tony Oxley: Synopsis

by Glenn Astarita
January 1, 2001

Synopsis represents material originally issued on the “Incus” LP along with one additional and previously unreleased track, performed by the venerable trio of pianist Howard Riley, bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Tony Oxley who also utilizes live electronics on this outing. Essentially, this recording resides within the classic and oft pioneering British free-jazz style of improvisation, and as some of us might surmise, the band delivers the goods in artful and curiously interesting fashion.

Throughout these five pieces, the “Howard ...

Evan Parker - Barry Guy - Paul Lytton and Marilyn Crispell: After Appleby

by Glenn Astarita
June 1, 2000

After Appleby is a recently issued 2 CD-set from the powerhouse Trio of saxophonist Evan Parker, percussionist Paul Lytton, bassist Barry Guy and here teeming with pianist Marilyn Crispell for what heats up to be a - festive union of bleeding edge improvisational spirits! A supergroup for the – modern music – ages, these esteemed musicians perform a series of works that pretty much skirt the fringes of every conceivable tract of intuitive expressionism imaginable along with hearty injections of ...

Evan Parker / Barry Guy / Paul Lytton: At the Vortex

by Robert Spencer
July 1, 1998

Evan Parker's last disc for FMP called him “a star of free jazz," and that he certainly is. What's more, Parker / Guy / Lytton are a free jazz supergroup. They rank with Anthony Braxton's quartet with Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser, and Gerry Hemingway, as one of the most renowned, oft-recorded, and long-lived ensembles in the “avant-garde." At the Vortex (1996) is their seventh currently-available CD, featuring Parker once again on soprano and tenor saxophones, Guy on bass, and Lytton ...