Jazz Articles about Barry Guy

Barry Guy -- London Jazz Composers Orchestra: Study II, Stringer

by Glenn Astarita
March 11, 2006

This newly-released outing looms as a modern/free jazz fest, highlighting studio sessions performed in 1983 ("Stringer, London) and 1991 ("Study II," Switzerland) and led by bassist Barry Guy's multinational orchestra, featuring a who's who of the Euro jazz and improvisation scene. The bassist steers the ensemble through a potpourri of mood-evoking frameworks. In addition to spiraling soprano sax solos by Evan Parker and yearning lines by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, Guy's compositions boast ominous strings and horns passages instilled with climactic ...

Barry Guy: Oort-Entropy / Dakryon

by Andrey Henkin
January 22, 2006

Few could imagine in 1972, when bassist Barry Guy first convened the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, its future impact as a large ensemble. When he chose to work with a “new orchestra in 2000, the scope was condensed, 10 players doing the work of what had been 20, but surprisingly was no less expansive.

Barry Guy New Orchestra Oort-Entropy Intakt 2005

With his New Orchestra, Guy has brought together a international tentet - Evan Parker, Mats ...

Barry Guy New Orchestra: Oort-Entropy

by Glenn Astarita
November 23, 2005

Seminal free jazz bassist Barry Guy is responsible for manning some of the finest albums in this rather opaque genre. Aside from his longtime affiliations with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lytton--both of whom are featured here--the bassist is no stranger to leading exploratory ensembles.

Guy's small orchestra equates to a multinational tentet. Sure, he's a killer bassist, but more importantly, this release signifies an autonomous union of like-minded spirits where shape and form play a significant ...

Barry Guy New Orchestra: Oort-Entropy

by Derek Taylor
October 7, 2005

As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the band, the larger the role of logistics and finances in dictating its survival. In response to just such variables, the London Jazz Composer's Orchestra, one of the most venerable and prolific among large-scale European improvising outfits, underwent a necessary and indefinite hiatus back in 1998. Two years later a pruned down and reconfigured version resurfaced under the mantle of the Barry Guy New Orchestra. Ten pieces might seem a bit slim ...

Barry Guy/Marilyn Crispell/Paul Lytton: Ithaca

by Ollie Bivens
April 20, 2005

Barry Guy is a British bassist and founder of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra. On his latest album on the Intakt label he, fellow British drummer Paul Lytton and American pianist Marilyn Crispell explore the outer reaches of a style of music - free jazz - that deserves a wider hearing among the American public. Ithaca is a good place to start for the listener who has open ears for a more cutting-edge branch from the many styles of the ...

Barry Guy/Marilyn Crispell/Paul Lytton: Ithaca

by Glenn Astarita
April 10, 2005

Inspired by two architects and underscored by Irish artist George Vaughn's piece Ithaca, bassist Barry Guy and his bandmates enact various planes and emotive elements on this superb effort. With this outing--and a second trio date for Intakt Records--the trio morphs tumultuous crosscurrents with driving and oddly balanced rhythms.

Guy, pianist Marilyn Crispell, and percussionist Paul Lytton are among the more notable improvisers on the globe. To that end, this band's mark of distinction and clarity of execution ...

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 ...