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Barry Guy: Back to the Drawing-Board (Part 3)
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 One of the things which may strike the listener on hearing the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra for the first time is just how much volume Guy is able to draw from just seventeen to twenty players. Some other big bands sound almost insipid in comparison. There is something about the way the composer is able to harness the power of his individual musicians and magnify it to something of symphonic ...
Continue ReadingBarry Guy: A Prophet is Not without Honour (Part 2)
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Barry Guy has been the artistic director and main composer of the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra throughout its now forty-five year history. Recordings and performances since Ode in 1972 have been sporadic but those forty-five years have resulted in eleven albums (including one with Anthony Braxton) and one DVD. In that time, the longest gaps in releases have been between Ode and Stringer (1972-1983) and between Double Trouble Two and ...
Continue ReadingBarry Guy: Ploughs into Swordshares, Part 1-3
by Duncan Heining
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 Edgar Varèse's defiant statement in the face of public and critical indifference -"The present day composer refuses to die"—could so easily apply to composer-bassist Barry Guy. He has earned over the years a deep and lasting respect from certain fans and critics, though more so in North America and Europe than in the country of his birth. Nevertheless, the struggles of the creative artist in a world where culture is ...
Continue ReadingBarry Guy: Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett
by John Sharpe
Not to be confused with Fizzles (Maya, 1993), which contains the first documented version of the titular work along with other pieces for solo bass, Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett is a 14 minute limited edition EP which does what it says on the tin. Virtuoso British bassist Barry Guy has long drawn inspiration from other art forms, especially writings and visual works. Beckett wrote eight texts between 1960 and 1976, seven written in French (under the title Foirades which ...
Continue ReadingBarry Guy Blue Shroud Band in Krakow, Poland
by John Sharpe
Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band Alchemia Krakow, Poland November 18-22, 2014 Chapter Index The Blue Shroud Krakow Jazz Autumn Small Group Formations Day One Day Two Day Three Polish Musicians Post Script The Blue Shroud From the first notes the audience was spell bound. You could hear the proverbial pin ...
Continue ReadingBarry Guy New Orchestra: Amphi - Radio Rondo
by John Sharpe
One of the most noteworthy releases of 2013 was the Barry Guy New Orchestra's Mad Dogs (Not Two), a five disc compendium which collected largely freeform meetings between various subsets of the 11-piece company during their 2010 residency in Krakow. However even that copious set offered only a partial view of the Orchestra's range, a deficiency filled by the issue of Amphi + Radio Rondo which should perhaps be seen as a companion piece. Recorded in St Johann in Tirol, ...
Continue ReadingBarry Guy New Orchestra: Amphi - Radio Rondo
by Glenn Astarita
Venerable British bassist and improviser, Barry Guy is the director of the New Orchestra but also serves as an enabler for the musicians' creative sparks to flourish. Other than frequent collaborator American trumpeter Herb Robertson, this aggregation consists of largely, European avant-jazz luminaries, prefacing the agenda on a hybrid chamber-orchestral slant, suitably noted by Guy in the press release. One of two extended works, “Amphi" commences with a gathering of the troops slant, where the respective artists enter ...
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