Musician. He started playing guitar at age 10 and was working as a professional musician, playing jazz in London pubs and restaurants by 1950. Despite his roots in jazz, he formed a cohesive philosophy for free style guitar improvisation. He referred to his work as "nonidiomatic improvising," a style of playing guitar with reaction against all systems in music. He created a virtuosic of clicks, chimes and harmonics with aggressive bursts of volume, arrhythmic and nonlinear but still coherent in form. By the 1960's, he was composing and performing in an improvising group, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble for U.S. and European jazz conventions. He performed and recorded continuously and in 1970, helped form Incus Records. His company was Great Britain's first independent record label making more than 100 albums. In 1980 he wrote an influential book, "Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music," exploring improvisation in Indian music, flamenco, jazz, rock and Baroque music. The book was adapted as a television series for England's Channel Four in 1992. Through the 1990's, he played seemingly with every major and minor figure in the world of experimental improvised music. His final album, "Carpal Tunnel" was released in early 2005. Cause of death, motor neuron disease.
Musician. He started playing guitar at age 10 and was working as a professional musician, playing jazz in London pubs and restaurants by 1950. Despite his roots in jazz, he formed a cohesive philosophy for free style guitar improvisation. He referred to his work as "nonidiomatic improvising," a style of playing guitar with reaction against all systems in music. He created a virtuosic of clicks, chimes and harmonics with aggressive bursts of volume, arrhythmic and nonlinear but still coherent in form. By the 1960's, he was composing and performing in an improvising group, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble for U.S. and European jazz conventions. He performed and recorded continuously and in 1970, helped form Incus Records. His company was Great Britain's first independent record label making more than 100 albums. In 1980 he wrote an influential book, "Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music," exploring improvisation in Indian music, flamenco, jazz, rock and Baroque music. The book was adapted as a television series for England's Channel Four in 1992. Through the 1990's, he played seemingly with every major and minor figure in the world of experimental improvised music. His final album, "Carpal Tunnel" was released in early 2005. Cause of death, motor neuron disease.
Bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith
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