Barry Guy
Barry Guy is an innovative bass player and composer whose creative diversity in the fields of jazz improvisation, chamber and orchestral performance and solo recitals is the outcome both of an unusually varied training and a zest for experimentation, underpinned by a dedication to the double bass and the ideal of musical communication. He is founder and Artistic Director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the BGNO (Barry Guy New Orchestra) for which he has written several extended works. His concert works for chamber orchestras, chamber groups and soloists have been widely performed and his skillful and inventive writing has resulted in an exceptional series of compositions.
Barry Guy is an innovative bass player and composer whose creative diversity in the fields of jazz improvisation, chamber and orchestral performance and solo recitals is the outcome both of an unusually varied training and a zest for experimentation, underpinned by a dedication to the double bass and the ideal of musical communication. He is founder and Artistic Director of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra and the BGNO (Barry Guy New Orchestra) for which he has written several extended works. His concert works for chamber orchestras, chamber groups and soloists have been widely performed and his skillful and inventive writing has resulted in an exceptional series of compositions.
Member of: Iskra 1903
At Sotto Il Mare, First Visit
"No music making can be entirely non-idiomatic. Removing the metaphor, the claim is that it is characterless, without personality. But despite his best intentions, perhaps, one can hear a range of influences in Bailey’s own work – even if jazz isn't one of them. And the present album shows that "non-idiomatic" is the wrong description for much free improvisation. The common description "abstract" is also misleading. All music is abstract in form, humane in utterance." – Andy Hamilton
In The Light Of The Current Myth
"The time in Porto when Barry Guy and The Blue Shroud Band recorded an album all this here would also be a time when a group of outstanding artists and warm friends also had the opportunity to spend time making music together outside the big band formula. It's not easy to bring together some of Europe's most original artists, and it's not easy to assemble such a stellar quintet with Savina Yannatou, Julius Gabriel, Agusti Fernendez, Barry Guy and Ramon Lopez. It's a great thing to be able to doc…
Live In Munich
This concert recording from Munich’s Schwere Reiter performance space features improvisation with an expanded palette of possibilities. “To work with these colours is a great challenge and joy!” says bassist Barry Guy of the glowing and ever-changing tints, timbres and tones radiating from Jordina Millà’s freely associative piano. Like Guy, Millà is both a player of prodigious technical capacity and a fearless improvisational explorer, and her highly creative use of the piano interior opens up …
Six Hands Open As One
In 2019, a year before the onset of the pandemic and three years before the full-scale war in Ukraine broke out, we released Illuminated Silence. This was the first album of a new trio consisting of the young Japanese-born, Irish-based pianist and composer Izumi Kimura and the greats of the improvised music world Barry Guy and Gerry Hemingway. The album was very much liked by listeners and I heard from many of them the question whether there is a chance that this formation will survive, because …
Harmony In Diversity
Harmony in Diversity, the 2023 album by two of Europe's leading bass improvisors, Barry Guy and Rafał Mazur.
Concert in Vilnius
*2023 stock* This concert was recorded during the Vilnius Jazz Festival, 15th October, 2017 at Russian Drama Theater, Vilnius, Lithuania. Line-up consists of Evan Parker - soprano and tenor saxophones, Barry Guy - bass, Paul Lytton - drums and percussion. Sound Engineer: Valdas Karpuška, mixed by Evan Parker. Mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Original cover painting by Paul Lytton, design by Oskaras Anosovas.
All This This Here
The title of this new work for the Blue Shroud Band comes from Samuel Beckett’s “what is the word“, his last poem and an elegiac meditation on language. Additionally to “what is the word”, I have also used one of Beckett’s late poems “Brief Dream” which refers to the theme of transiting life and the acceptance of ending - “go end there / one fine day” and Barra Ó Seaghdha’s (Irish writer and poet) evocative poem “Waiting”. Two 18th century Edo Haiku complete the texts featured in this piece that…
Flight
Temporary nice price Eargong Records present the first vinyl reissue of Howard Riley's Flight, originally released in 1971. This landmark recording sees pianist Howard Riley with two of the greatest European improvisers Barry Guy on bass and Tony Oxley on drums literally reinventing the piano trio format. This is deeply explorative music beyond time and space. Comes in gorgeous original gatefold cover. Licensed from Turtle Records/Cherry Red.
Mouth Eating Trees And Related Activities
*2023 stock* "Swedish multi-reed artist Mats Gustafsson was just beginning to come into his own at the time of this recording. The oddly titled Mouth Eating Trees and Related Activities catches him at the cusp when his prodigious technical abilities were starting to be subsumed into an impressive musical presence. It doesn't hurt that his companions for this freely improvised session are stalwarts like Barry Guy and Paul Lovens, who provide accompaniment that's creatively telepathic. While Gusta…
Kind Of Shadow
Four magnificent improvisers from different countries. Among them, legendary and iconic double bass master Barry Guy, one of the greatest jazz / improvised music drummers Ramon Lopez, Japanese living in Ireland classically trained piano master Izumi Kimura and polish trumpet and cornet wizard from Poland Artur Majewski. All of them, after Ad Libitum Festival 2021, after the initiative of FSRecords’ executive producer, Maciej Karlowski, went to the studio and recorded some improvised music that n…
Kind Of Light
Four magnificent improvisers from different countries. Among them, legendary and iconic double bass master Barry Guy, one of the greatest jazz / improvised music drummers Ramon Lopez, Japanese living in Ireland classically trained piano master Izumi Kimura and polish trumpet and cornet wizard from Poland Artur Majewski. All of them, after Ad Libitum Festival 2021, after the initiative of FSRecords' executive producer, Maciej Karlowski, went to the studio and recorded some improvised music that n…
Kraków 2018
Not Two Records proudly present a 5 CD boxset by different constellations led by Barry Guy; recorded in Krakow in 2018 .
String Fables
"A true music lover typically has dreams that their favorite musicians, who do not normally work one with another, will meet and perform together. I had a dream many years ago that the two Giants of contemporary improvised music, Joëlle Léandre and Barry Guy play a double bass duo together. And my dream became true at the 2017 Ad Libitum in Warsaw in Festival, and was released by Fundacja Słuchaj! on a phenomenal 3 CDs box “Blue Horizon ● Barry Guy@70”. Here is another dream realized by Fundacja…
Free Radicals At Dom
Recorded by Maxim Khaikin at Dom Cultural Center, Moscow, on November 6th 2017
Bush Fire
Ogun presents Bush Fire by Louis Moholo, Evan Parker, Pule Pheto, Gibo Pheto, Barry Guy Quintet. Recorded at Gateway Studio, London in July, 1995 and released in 1997. "Musicians who refuse to follow passing fashions represent a vital rejuvenating force on any music scene, and perhaps especially today in a jazz world dominated by nostalgia and revisits to the past. The influence of South African musicians on the British jazz scene has been a crucial inspiration to that kind of independence. Loui…
Mutations
We don't need to explain anything. Pianist Agusti Fernandez and bass player Barry Guy, probably two most important and creative masters of their instrument and incredibly creative musician work together with great success from many years. Recently they invited to company a young Catalan saxophonist Don Malfon, one of the most promising voice on the scene. Result? Fully improvised cycle of seven miniatures recorded live on Kultur-Schranne in Dachau (Germany) that portray these marvelous artists i…
Bosque de Niebla
Fundacja Słuchaj! presents Bosque de Niebla (2CD) by Lucia Martínez, Agustí Fernández and Barry Guy. Recorded: July 9th, 2019 at Rosazul Estudi, Barcelona, Spain. Recording, mixing, and mastering: Ferran Conangla. Photo: Mario Burbano. Liner Note: Lucía Martínez. Liner Note translation: Sarah Claman. Graphic design: Semafor. Executive Producer: Maciej Karłowski. Produced by Lucía Martínez for Fundacja Słuchaj. Barry Guy plays exclusively on Thomastik Springs + logo. Music by Lucía Martínez, Agus…
NOX
NoBusiness presents NOX, a new set of recordings by Nate Wooley / Liudas Mockūnas / Barry Guy / Arkadijus Gotesmanas recorded 29th October, 2019 during Improdimensija (Improdimension) concert series dedicated to improvised music, located at MAMAstudios, Vilnius, Lithuania. Sound Engineer - Arūnas Zujus. Mixed and mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Design by Oskaras Anosovas.
Nate Wooley - trumpetLiudas Mockūnas - contrabass clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophonesBarry Guy - bassArkadijus Go…
Irvin's Comet
300 copies. NoBusiness presents Irvin's Comet, a new set of solo bass recordings by Barry Guy, recorded 29th October, 2019 during Improdimensija (Improdimension) concert series dedicated to improvised music, located at MAMAstudios, Vilnius, Lithuania. Sound Engineer - Arūnas Zujus. Mixed and mastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudios. Original artwork - Albert Irvin, Comet, 1988 / Screenprint with woodblock, edition of 75, Advanced Graphics, London. Design by Oskaras Anosovas.
The Swiftest Traveler
An exciting new international trio initiated by Scandinavian saxophonist Torben Snekkestad, accompanied by two esteemed international players in the field of improvised music – the Spanish pianist Agusti Fernández and the British double bass player Barry Guy. The music they create together is situated somewhere between free improvisation, free jazz, and contemporary classical music and executed with lightning fast interaction and explorative, innovative sounds and textures. Recorded by Stefan De…