Gavin Bryars | Artist

Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist born 1943 in Goole, UK. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music. Bryars studied philosophy at Sheffield University but became a jazz bassist during his three years as a philosophy student. In 1970 Bryars was a founding member of the Portsmouth Sinfonia, an orchestra of amateur and beginner musicians who played popular classical works. Its members included Brian Eno, whose Obscure Records label would subsequently release works by Bryars. He then became bassist in the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, alongside guitarist Derek Bailey and drummer Tony Oxley. That group released two albums of improvisational jazz. All the while Bryars was composing modern classical works for small and large orchestral, as well as choral works. His early compositions owe much to the New York School of John Cage (with whom he briefly studied), Morton Feldman, Earle Brown and minimalism. A well-known early work is Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971), is based on a recorded loop of a vagrant singing an improvised musical fragment. Over that loop, rich harmonies played by a live ensemble, steadily increasing in density, before the whole thing gradually fades out. A new recording of this work was made in the 1990s with Tom Waits singing along with the original recording of the vagrant during the final section. Other standout albums include The Sinking of the Titanic, I Send You This Cadmium Red and The Fifth Century. Another highly recommended release is the Lockerbie Memorial Concert, Westminster Cathedral, December 21, 1998, conducted by Bryars.

Artist Website: gavinbryars.com

Featured Albums: Gavin Bryars

Related Artists: Portsmouth Sinfonia, Joseph Holbrooke Trio, Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Brian Eno