Barre Phillips

Barre Phillips (1934-2024) was an American double bassist and composer, born in San Francisco, who spent most of his career in European improvised music after moving to Europe in 1967. His 1968 solo recording, issued as Journal Violone in the US and Unaccompanied Barre in the UK, is generally credited as the first album of solo bass. He lived for decades in the south of France and died in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Phillips worked in 1960s New York with Paul Bley, George Russell, Archie Shepp and Jimmy Giuffre, and played with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

What Comes After (LP)
Original German edition of the superlative 1974 solo album on ECM by the innovative Norwegian guitarist featuring Barre Phillips and Jon Christensen.
Wing Vane
Urs Leimgruber, Jacques Demierre and Barre Phillips recorded at Radio DRS in Zurich in January 2001: saxophones, piano and double bass in quiet, closely controlled improvisations where dynamics become the material.
Le Temps Fou (LP)
2019 grey area repro of the 1969 album originally on Polydor with the soundtack to the Marcel Camus film, featuring Gunter Hampel and Barre Phillips.
Ossiach Live 1971 (2CD)
Rare 1994 2CD re-issue on Four Aces Records of the 1971 3LP set documenting a wild festival of jazz/rock/fusion/free/electronic/ethnic music with exclusive live tracks by Tangerine Dream and Anima as well as Weather Report, O.M. Zykan Ensemble, The Dave Pike Set, Franz Hummel, Friedrich Gulda & Filharmonïja Zagreb, Parikh/Bellare, Madrigalchor Bukarest, Le Groupe Liturgique De Tunis, Surman/Phillips/El Mahdi/Ponty/Martin/Slama/Gruntz/Osman/Jouini/Fuchs and The Trio.
Live in Europe 1968 & 1972
On Live in Europe 1968 & 1972, Marion Brown leads a borderless quartet through two rare European concerts, pairing his singing alto with Gunter Hampel's vibes, Barre Phillips' bass and Steve McCall's drums in a sound that hovers between lyrical free jazz and chamber‑like intimacy.
Nachricht Vom Lande
Friedrich Gulda (16 May 1930 – 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist, composer and musical crossover artist. Coming from a classical background, he began playing the piano at the age of seven. At the age of 12, he began his musical education with Bruno Seidlhofer (piano) and Joseph Marx (music theory and composition) at the Vienna Academy of Music, now the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. At the age of 16, he won the Geneva International Music Competition and quickly rose to…
Etchings In The Air
1996 release (RARE) ** "This encounter between Japanese mystic guitar/hurdy gurdy/percussion and voice demon Keiji Haino (leader of the power rock trio Fushitsusha) is a free for all of textured noise and plucked and bowed notes -- screaming, yelling, hollering, and percussion-like sounds that have nothing whatsoever to do with rhythm. In fact, to be perfectly honest, it is quite difficult to find a language in which to review a music that has no linguistic precepts at all. When Haino is screami…
End To End
Barre Phillips was the first musician to record an album of solo double bass, back in 1968, and he has always been an absolute master of the solo idiom.  In March 2017, Barre recorded what he says will be his last solo album, the final chapter of his “Journal Violone”: it is a beautiful and moving musical statement.  All the qualities we associate with Barre’s playing are here in abundance – questing adventurousness, melodic invention, textural richness, developmental logic, and deep soulfulness…
Conflagration
Reissue, originally released in 1971. The core membership of free jazz act The Trio ensured its output was captivating, comprised as it was of double-bassist Barre Phillips, who had played with Archie Shepp, Chris McGregor, and Gong; saxophonist John Surman, who had played with John McLaughlin, Lester Bowie, and Alexis Korner; and drummer Stu Martin, who had played with Count Basie, Donald Byrd, and Herbie Hancock. On the gripping sophomore set Conflagration, guest players include Chick Corea an…
Danze Degli Scorpioni
Dark moon music. If you are interested in the moon. Music concentrated in the process of discovering music, taking any risk. Extreme.How extreme is the exploration of one’s instruments, body, memories and stories. Vibrant, fast but at the same time calm music; slow.In search of the sound. Of movement that becomes sound. Of sound that becomes voice. That becomes movement.We dedicate this music to Coleman Hawkins, master improviser.
Unaccompanied Barre
Recorded in St. James Norlands church in London in November 1968 and first released in the following year, this work stands as the first solo bass album in the history of Jazz and improvised music. Born in 1934 in San Francisco, Barre Phillips is one the most influential bassists of his generation. In his long career Phillips has played and recorded with almost everyone in the world of Jazz and beyond, a long list of forward thinking music icons including Don Ellis, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Hollan…
Oh My, Those Boys!
Brilliant work from these two very inventive bassists – the legendary Barre Phillips, working on acoustic bass – and Motoharu Yoshizawa, playing an unusual homemade electric vertical 5-string bass! The combination of instruments is beautiful – and with one electric, and one acoustic, you can really separate the voice of each player – even though both Phillips and Yoshizawa resonate strongly together, and really have a complimentary sense of improvisation – a beautiful combination of both their t…
Birds Abide
Barre Phillips on double bass, Catherine Jauniaux on voice and Malcolm Goldstein on violin, live at Victoriaville on 22 May 2010: three veteran improvisers in a delicate, conversational trio.
After You Gone
Four double bassists, Barre Phillips, Joëlle Léandre, William Parker and Tetsu Saitoh, live at Victoriaville on 23 May 2003 in memory of Peter Kowald: bowed and plucked basses and voices in a shared farewell.
It's Up To You
** Limited to 300 double vinyl copies, two inlays with photos and liner notes. Originally released in 1974 on Preiser Records** »It’s Up to You« is a free sound art and performance project by sound artist and singer Limpe Fuchs, sculptor and sound artist Paul Fuchs, and pianist and recorder player Friedrich Gulda, who formed the trio Anima at the time of the recordings in 1974. As musical guests they were able to enlist the trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, the bassist Barre Phillips, the oud play…
Basse Barre
Bass solo by Barre Phillips recorded out of a 3 hour session in St James Norlands church, London 30 nov 1968.
Alors !!!
*2022 stock* Tip! Michel Portal, a brilliant clarinetist, saxophonist and performer from the world of contemporary classical music, became one of the most important actors of the new European improvised music in the early 1960s.While pursuing a parallel career in classical music, he multiplied his encounters with the most active creators of the new European jazz, as well as with various foreign musicians visiting France. This album, recorded on the Futura label in 1970, was made possible thanks …
Thirty Years In Between
The title to be taken literally, these two solo concerts recorded in Canada by French-based US bassist Barre Phillips, the first recorded at Vancouver Western Front in 1989, the 2nd from the 35th International Festival Music Festival of Victoriaville in 2019, both exemplary concerts showing his masterful skills and ability to captivate then and now.
New Jazz Festival Balver Höhle (New Jazz 1974 & 1975)
Recorded live at the cave at Balve, West Germany, July 27/28, 1974 and May 31/June 1, 1975. Box Set with 11 CDs featuring the best of the New Jazz Scene from Europe and the USA in 1974/75. 32-page booklet with concert pictures, posters, flyers and newspaper clippings (in German and English). Includes complete performances and improvisations by  Peter Brötzmann, Jasper van’t Hof, John Surman (with the legendary Trio Surman-Osborne-Skidmore) Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink and many more! RECORDED li…
Sonic brotherhood - DTFP Israel 2009
Improvised music with exception of Irinia-Kalina' solo. Mark Dresser (bass), Irina-Kalina Goudeva (bass), JC Jones (bass), Barre Phillips (bass) and Bert Turetzky (bass). Recorded by Ori Winokur, edited, mixed and mastered by JC at the Kadima Studio, Jerusalem, October to December 2010.