Jair-Rohm Parker Wells

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells (October 13, 1958) is an American free jazzbassist(bass guitar and electric upright bass), composer and conceptualist. Heis oneof the founding members of the improvising band Machine Gun whichfeatured Thomas Chapin. Resident in Stockholm, Sweden since 1985,he hasbeen active internationally as a promoter of improvised and experimentalmusic performing and recording extensively. He has collaborated withKarlBerger, Daniel Carter and Tony Scott among others.

Raised in southernGermany, Jair-Rohm moved to New York in 1978. After touring theUnitedStates for a year with a top forty band he attended Tulane University inNewOrleans. While at Tulane, he regularly performed with local jazz andrhythmand blues artists. He also performed as a member of Tulane University'sTulanians, met and studied with Richard Payne (the first person torecord withthe electric bass) and discovered the music of Harry Partch. He returnedtothe New York area in the fall of 1980 where he met and started workstudyunder saxophonist/composer Ken Simon. During this period Jair- Rohmalsomet Anthony Braxton and became involved in the study of his music. In1982Jair-Rohm founded his own experimental music/theater group GLASSTHOUGHT THEATER ENSEMBLE. Between 1982 and 1983 he wascomposer inresidence at the New York Theater Ensemble (New York, N.Y.) wherehe wroteand produced a trilogy of progressive”operas”. He received a MEET THECOMPOSER grant in 1983. From 1984 - 1985 he was resident in NewJerseywhere he continued composing and playing the bass. He was a foundingmember of the New Brunswick Jazz Musician's Collective (NewBrunswick,N.J.) for which he composed and performed many significant works forvarious ensembles.

On 13th August 2008 Jair-Rohm performed alongsideElliott Levin (sax, flute, poetry) & Robbie Knight (longcat - rhodes electricpiano) on yr3wk9 of the longcat weekly improvisation in London. On 15thNovember 2008 Jair-Rohm returned to the longcat weekly improvisationforyr3wk22 with Robbie Knight (longcat).

Gear

Fichter Electric Upright Bass, NSD Electric Upright Bass.

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