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Barry Guy

Barry Guy is an innovative double bass player and composer whose creative diversity in the fields of Jazz improvisation, solo recitals, chamber and orchestral performance is the outcome both of an unusually varied training and a zest for experimentation, underpinned by a dedication to the double bass and the ideal of musical communication.

Between the early Seventies and mid Nineties Barry Guy held principal bass position in various orchestras including The Orchestra of St.John’s Smith Square, City of London Sinfonia, Monteverdi Orchestra, The Academy of Ancient Music, Kent Opera and The London Classical Players. During these years he was also active in the European Improvised Scene.

He is founder and Artistic Director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra for which he has written several extended works with recordings of the following: Ode (Incus 1972 and re-released on Intakt 1996), Stringer (FMP 1980), Polyhymnia on ZURICH CONCERTS (Intakt 1988), Harmos (Intakt 1989), Double Trouble (Intakt 1990), Theoria (Intakt 1992) with the Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer as soloist, Portraits (Intakt 1994) and Three Pieces for Orchestra (Intakt 1997).

His concert works have been widely performed and his skilful and inventive writing has resulted in an exceptional series of compositions: Flagwalk (1983), The Eye of Silence (1988), Look Up! (1990), After the Rain (1992), Bird Gong Game (1992), Fallingwater (1996), Redshift (1998), Remembered Earth (1999), Nasca Lines (2001), Inachis (2002), Folio (2002) and Anaklasis (2003).

Look Up! was honoured with the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Chamber-Scale Composition 1991-1992. Guy's compositions usually reflect a personal liaison with musicians and ensembles he writes for. As such, the commissions arrive from chamber orchestras, chamber groups and soloists interested in contemporary musical performance with a special commitment to communicate with the audience. Guy's works therefore have a sense of freshness without recourse to ideological excesses or scores that baffle players to the extent that performing becomes a trial.

The scores however are virtuosic and often present innovative sonorities and extended instrumental techniques and as a performer himself he is ideally placed to assess these possibilities.

Barry Guy continues to give solo recitals throughout Europe as well as continuing associations with colleagues involved in improvised, baroque and contemporary music. His current regular ensembles are the Homburger/Guy duo, the Parker/Guy duo, piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Paul Lytton, Jaques Demierre and Lucas Niggli and a recently formed trio with Agusti Fernandez and Ramon Lopez. He continues the longstanding trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lytton as well as projects with Mats Gustafsson.

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7
Album Review

Evan Parker - Barry Guy: So It Goes

Read "So It Goes" reviewed by John Sharpe


Two masters who have invented a (the?) lexicon for their instruments meet on So It Goes. British saxophonist Evan Parker and his compatriot bassist Barry Guy should need no introduction to anyone interested in European free improvisation. Both active since the 1970s, they remain vital forces even with as they both move into their eighth decade. Their association was formalized in 1980 with the inception of the long running trio completed by drummer Paul Lytton. But they have also appeared ...

7
Album Review

Barry Guy Blue Shroud Band: all this this here

Read "all this this here" reviewed by John Sharpe


Bassist and composer Barry Guy combines a number of his passions on All This This Here in a stunning act of synthesis. For the third major work for his Blue Shroud Band, following its eponymous debut (Intakt, 2016) and Odes And Meditations For Cecil Taylor (Not Two, 2018), Guy sets to music Nobel winning playwright Samuel Beckett's last poem What Is The Word (in two versions, both the original French and the English translation, which bookend the program).

Live Review

Genius Loci 2023

Read "Genius Loci 2023" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Genius Loci 2023 Firenze Complesso Monumentale di Santa Croce 28-30.9.2023 Come ormai accade da sei anni, gli splendidi e suggestivi spazi che circondano la Chiesa fiorentina di Santa Croce --nella quale, come noto, si trovano le spoglie di numerosi artisti e personaggi storici--si sono aperti per ospitare Genius Loci, due giorni di incontri, attività e spettacoli aperti al pubblico, con il contributo, oltre che dell'Opera di Santa Croce, del Comune di Firenze, di associazioni ...

5
Album Review

Barry Guy: Irvin's Comet

Read "Irvin's Comet" reviewed by John Sharpe


Unaccompanied might just be the best format in which to appreciate British bassist Barry Guy's playing. This way there are no distractions, no other virtuosi vying for attention. That is often an issue. Although his discography contains occasional solo dates, they are far outnumbered by the entries for the trio with saxophonist Evan Parker and drummer Paul Lytton, other groups and ad hoc meetings. Irvin's Comet, available as an LP or download, helps reduce the deficit by presenting six solo ...

6
Album Review

Nate Wooley / Liudas Mockunas / Barry Guy / Arkadijus Gotesmanas: Nox

Read "Nox" reviewed by John Sharpe


Nox presents a four-piece uniting two of Lithuania's finest improvisers, reedman Liudas Mockunas and drummer Arkadijus Gotesmanas, with two world class instrumentalists, trumpeter Nate Wooley and bassist Barry Guy. Recorded at the 2019 Improdimensions Festival in Vilnius, the limited edition LP (also available as a download) contains three collectively sculpted tracks, demonstrating a unity of purpose which belies their off-the-wall genesis. Gotesmanas' spare non-metric clatter and acute punctuation plays a defining role, enabling a transparent sound which ...

3
Album Review

Oliver Schwerdt with Barry Guy and Günter ‘Baby’ Sommer: One for My Baby and One More for the Bass

Read "One for My Baby and One More for the Bass" reviewed by Troy Dostert


There aren't many musicians who've loomed larger in European free improvisation since the 1970s than bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Günter 'Baby' Sommer. In addition to their own work as leaders (the former having much more of a presence in this regard than the latter, admittedly), each has collaborated with the heavyweights of the free music scene, from Peter Brötzmann to Evan Parker to Cecil Taylor. Yet the two had never performed together, until up-and-coming pianist Oliver Schwerdt invited them ...

5
Album Review

London Jazz Composers Orchestra: That Time

Read "That Time" reviewed by John Sharpe


Issued to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, That Time uncovers a fascinating window on the early years of the pioneering company which are only sparsely documented elsewhere. The first two tracks from Berlin and Donaueschingen date from 1972, some six months after the LJCO's debut album Ode (Intakt, 1996), while the last two were captured in 1980, the same year as Stringer (Intakt, 2006). Engineer Ferran Conangla has done a marvelous job ...

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Event

The world premiere of Barry Guy's new composition "The Blue Shroud"

The world premiere of Barry Guy's new composition "The Blue Shroud"

Source: Maxim Micheliov

The world première of Barry Guy’s new composition “The Blue Shroud” will take place in jny: Krakow, Poland on November 21st. During the three preceding rehearsal days , there will be concerts every evening in the famous Alchemia Club. This will involve his new ensemble the “BLUE SHROUD BAND” Barry Guy – bass and director (GB) Savina Yannatou – voice (GR) Agusti Fernandez – piano (ESP) Ben Dwyer – guitar (IR) Peter Evans – trumpet (USA) Maya Homburger – violin ...

140

Recording

Agusti Fernandez, Barry Guy and Ramon Lopez - Morning Glory (Maya, 2010) ****1/2

Agusti Fernandez, Barry Guy and Ramon Lopez - Morning Glory (Maya, 2010) ****1/2

Source: Free Jazz by Stef Gijssels

By Stanley Zappa At its high points, Morning Glory is no less a musical achievement than the greatest of the great piano trios in our beloved music. Two that come to mind are the The Lowell Davidison Trio and Bill Evan's Sunday at the Village Vanguard. At their best Agusti Fernández, Barry Guy and Ramón López continue the larger, transcendent conversation begun by the players on those canonical recordings and could, for approximation reasons, be likened to a combination of ...

Brad Barrett
bass, acoustic

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Fucking Ballads

Euphorium Records
2024

buy

all this this here

Fundacja Sluchaj
2023

buy

Nox

NoBusiness Records
2021

buy

Irvin's Comet

NoBusiness Records
2021

buy

Concert In Vilnius

NoBusiness Records
2020

buy

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