gramophone magazine gavin bryars carla bley

Bryars himself admits that the addition of the chorus was a nod to another odd piano concerto - the one by Feruccio Busoni. The sound reminds me of the melancholy shipmen singing from the decks of Wagner's Flying Dutchman. Carla Bley and Steve Swallow spend all their time together, whether working on their music piano for her, bass for him or just relaxing at home. MaCarla Bley (for The Gramophone) Whenever I am asked in the course of an interview who my favourite composer might be I usually reply Carla Bley. Along for the ride, a male chorus intones two evocative sonnets by one of Bryars' favorite poets, the Scotsman Edwin Morgan.

The Sinking of the Titanic, an early work from 1969, remains his best known piece, but there have been plenty. During the 1980s, while I was teaching at Leicester Polytechnic, Dave Smith and I ran a group, with a mixture of staff and students, called The Leicester Bley. Instead, Bryars' piano is like some indifferent ship captain guiding the music through a calm canal. A watery theme flows through quite a number of works by British composer Gavin Bryars. Don't expect flashy cadenzas or roller coasters of double octaves. With guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley, he formed the Joseph Holbrooke Trio in 1964, a. He then discovered jazz and began learning the double bass while studying philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Gavin Bryars took piano lessons until the age of 18. The Sinking of the Titanic, an early work from 1969, remains his best known piece, but there have been plenty of other aquatic adventures, including The Black River, Four Songs From Northern Seas and The North Shore.īryars' newly released piano concerto is subtitled 'The Solway Canal.' It begins with undulating tones deep in the basses, from which low piano notes slowly emerge like the prow of a boat materializing out of early morning mist.īeing a Bryars composition, this is not a conventional piano concerto. British composer and double bassist born 16 January 1943 in Goole, Yorkshire. A watery theme flows through quite a number of works by British composer Gavin Bryars. Gavin Bryars marks his 80th birthday at Snape Maltings, Suffolk, on August 13 and at the Barbican, London, on December 19 Find out about our latest stories first follow ftweekend on Twitter. OctoCarla Bley’s Band, 1976-1984 In the mid 1950s, while still in her teens, Carla Bley hitchhiked from Oakland, California to New York.

Gramophone magazine gavin bryars carla bley