5–6 October 2015
Please note that due to ill health, Barre Phillips has unfortunately had to pull out of these shows. We wish him a speedy recovery and hope to have him back at OTO soon. To mark his 80th birthday, we will be screening some rarely-seen footage of Barre both nights.
Spontaneous, direct, together. Without any preparation, conferring, or planning. Faced with the same challenge as on the very first day they met - sculpting sounds in an empty room. AlI these three musicians can contribute is their decades of experience in free improvisation and their own personal styles of musical expression - no more and no less.
For the past fifteen years the American double bass player Barre Phillips and the two Swiss musicians Urs Leimgruber and Jacques Demierre have been coming together to play on an irregular basis and have already chalked up something in the region of two hundred concerts.
All three have unlocked a whole new dimension of their instruments and it is this that gives them their unmistakable sound. Every time they get together, their music is simultaneously reinvented and carried forward. At that point their musical styles either become more densely interwoven or evaporate until verging on silence.
Monday 5 October
Duo Eddie Prévost / John Tilbury
Barre Phillips film screening
Trio Leimgruber / Demierre / Turner
Tuesday 6 October
Barre Phillips film screening
Angharad Davies / Rhodri Davies / Jacques Demierre / Urs Leimgruber / Hannah Marshall
As much a composer as a performer, Barre works in the areas of film, ballet and theater. He has written music for numerous feature films – Robert Kramer, Jacques Rivette, William Friedkin, Marcel Camus… scores for ballet for Carolyn Carlson and the Paris Opera… At the same time he has continue his experiences in the jazz and contemporary improvised music scene. Barre has recorded over 175 records, 30 under his own name. His experience spans a wide range of musical styles, from Coleman Hawkins to Derek Bailey. His work in the 70‘s with John Surman and Stu Martin, „The Trio“, became a model in itself, and influenced many younger musicians.
He is constant demand throughout Europe, North America and Japan as a soloist and teacher. Besides many other musicians he has collaborated togehter with: Archie Shepp, Chick Corea, George Russel, Lee Konitz, Ralph Towner, Charlie Mariano, Michel Portal, Albert Mangelsdorf, Anthony Braxton, Jimmy Guiffre, Paul Bley, Evan Parker, Ornette Coleman, Leonard Bernstein Terje Rypdal, Benny Golson, Pierre Favre, Cecil Taylor, Barry Guy.
Urs Leimgruber has been working since many years in the fields of Contemporary Improvisation, Jazz and New Music. He has enriched and expanded for decades the saxophone sound with new playing techniques in solo concerts and many different acclaimed groups he was touring in Europe, Canada, U.S.A. and Cuba. Among his many concerts and recordings are those with Joëlle Léandre, Marilyn Crispell, Fritz Hauser, Evan Parker, Fred Frith, Steve Lacy, Dorothea Schürch, Roger Turner, Thomas Lehn, Günter Müller… Together with Jacques Demierre he is leading the group 6ix. In the seventies, he was cofounder of the Electricjazz-Freemusic group OM. His music is to be found on CD on HatArt, Unit, FOR 4 EARS Victo and LEO.
Jacques Demierre is pianist, performer and composer, his musical and sound work develops itself in various directions : improvised music, contemporary music, sound poetry, sound installation. His compositions and sound realisations are concerned with the activity of listening and with sound space. On the piano, Jacques Demierre has developed a unique operating style, never ceasing to redraw new sound topographies, making us forget the physical weight of the instrument.
He collaborates with many improvising musicians – Okkyung Lee, Thomas Lehn, Martial Solal, Radu Malfatti, Joëlle Léandre, Axel Dörner, Fritz Hauser, Sainkho Namtchylak, Urs Blöchlinger, Irene Schweizer, Hans Koch, Isabelle Duthoit, Brandon Labelle, Jason Kahn, Butch Morris, Carlos Zingaro, Gunter Müller, Jaap Blonk, Barry Guy, Lucas Niggli, Sylvie Courvoisier, Hann Bennink, Rhodri Davis, Martin Schütz, Paul Lovens, Dorothea Schürch, Phil Minton, …-, regularly plays solo piano concerts, and works with Vincent Barras in the field of performance and language art.
