Jazz Articles about Barry Guy

Barry Guy: Striving For Absolute Spontaneity

by Maxim Micheliov
May 31, 2011

Barry Guy seems to be one of the most convincing figures in a long line of contemporary innovators whose discoveries possess everlasting value. Being a diverse improviser, a bassist of exceptional technique, an accomplished composer and a big band leader, this artist amazes by the scope of his interests and his variety of his accomplishments. Guy held a concert with Mats Gustafsson in Lithuania on January 11th, 2009. The short-but-eventful visit was crowned by the glorious performance at ...

Agusti Fernandez / Barry Guy: Some Other Place

by Mark Corroto
March 20, 2010

Pianist Agusti Fernandez and bassist Barry Guy are two great solo improvising musicians that have a rare talent to cooperate in music making, combining their talents for an ever greater sound. So the question is, why haven't they recorded a duet until now?

Spaniard Fernandez is an original voice, perhaps best described as the love child of the disparate styles of Cecil Taylor and Keith Jarrett. That said, he can shred (if that is possible) the piano and alternately produce ...

Barry Guy / London Jazz Composers Orchestra / Irene Schweizer: Radio Rondo

by Nic Jones
January 21, 2010

Radio Rondo was recorded at a Swiss jazz festival in May of 2008. The program is split into two halves, the first of which is a Irene Schweizer solo; the second, featuring the pianist in the company of bassist Barry Guy and his longstanding orchestra.

What makes the music notable is the degree to which it's reflective of fearsome intelligence at work. As a pianist, Schweizer has taken the time-honored route in her working through influences and emerging with her ...

Barry Guy London Jazz Composers Orchestra / Irene Schweizer: Radio Rondo / Schaffhausen Concert

by AAJ Italy Staff
January 7, 2010

Perseguendo dopo oltre un lustro la grande idea di Michael Mantler che, nel 1964 diede il la all'avventura della celebrata Jazz Composer's Orchestra, Barry Guy, contrabbassista e compositore londinese, fonda nel 1974 una formazione che resterà per almeno 30 anni ineguagliata fucina di creatività e di alta esemplificazione di arte musicale. La London Jazz Composers Orchestra è ancora oggi citata quale ecumenico esempio di comunione fra patrimonio classico per eccellenza e architettura jazz. La line-up chiama a raccolta una ventina ...

Ken Vandermark / Barry Guy / Mark Sanders: Fox Fire

by Mark Corroto
September 24, 2009

The audience has been removed from these live concerts, recorded in 2008 in Birmingham and Leeds, featuring American reedman Ken Vandermark alongside British drummer Mark Sanders and bassist Barry Guy. Despite the constraints of a short, five-day UK tour of only six concerts, there's much to savor in the resulting two discs, for connoisseurs of creative music.

Granted, there is no such thing as a “perfect" freely improvised recording. Listening to a recording is different from attending the ...

Barry Guy: Ode to a Bassist

by Andrey Henkin
May 24, 2009

In 2007, just in time for bassist Barry Guy's 60th birthday, Intakt Records released Portrait, equal parts compilation, introduction, overview and mere glimpse into the musical world of this instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. There are tracks from several editions of Guy's colossal London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO), pieces done with longstanding collaborators like Evan Parker and more recent groups such as his New Orchestra or trio with pianist Agusti Fernandez and percussionist Ramon Lopez. In between are solo works demonstrating ...

Barry Guy / Marilyn Crispell / Paul Lytton: Phases Of The Night

by Nic Jones
July 6, 2008

Any subversion of the piano trio tradition as manifested in the clinical virtuosity of a technocratic elite is always welcome, and it's present here in abundance. This is not however to suggest that this trio lacks technique, it's just that the music they produce is so free of the constraints of any overt tradition that the results are compelling.

Listeners need hear no further than the opening title track for evidence. Pianist Marilyn Crispell, bassist Barry Guy, and drummer Paul ...