Chris Laurence
Encyclopedia
Chris Laurence is an English
jazz
double bassist born in London
, perhaps most noteworthy for his 1980s work in various trios with Tony Oxley
.
In 1984 Laurence became a member of the "London Bach Orchestra". Chris has also done collaborative work with other jazz artists, such as John Surman
, Kenny Wheeler
, John Taylor
, Frank Ricotti
and Alan Skidmore
. Inspirations include Keith Jarrett
, Miroslav Vitous
, Chick Corea
and Tony Coe
. He recently formed the Chris Laurence Quartet and released his debut album 'New View'.
With Michael Nyman
With Alan Skidmore
With John Surman
With John Taylor
With Kenny Wheeler
With Frank Ricotti
Quartet
With Gordon Beck
With John Williams
With Elton Dean
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
double bassist born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, perhaps most noteworthy for his 1980s work in various trios with Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley is an English free-jazz drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.-Biography:Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by age eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music...
.
In 1984 Laurence became a member of the "London Bach Orchestra". Chris has also done collaborative work with other jazz artists, such as John Surman
John Surman
John Douglas Surman is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music as a basis...
, Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
, John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...
, Frank Ricotti
Frank Ricotti
Frank Ricotti is an English jazz vibraphonist and percussionist.Ricotti played in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra while a teenager, then attended Trinity College of Music...
and Alan Skidmore
Alan Skidmore
Alan Skidmore is a tenor saxophonist of jazz and blues music, son of the saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.-As a sideman:...
. Inspirations include Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...
, Miroslav Vitous
Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...
, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
and Tony Coe
Tony Coe
Anthony George Coe is a composer and jazz musician who plays clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone.Coe began his performing career playing with Humphrey Lyttelton's band from 1957 to 1962...
. He recently formed the Chris Laurence Quartet and released his debut album 'New View'.
Select discography
With David GilmourDavid Gilmour
David Jon Gilmour, CBE, D.M. is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of...
- On an IslandOn an IslandOn an Island is the third solo album by David Gilmour, best known as vocalist and lead guitarist for Pink Floyd. It was released in the UK on 6 March 2006, Gilmour's 60th birthday, and in the United States the following day. It was Gilmour's first new solo album in 22 years...
(Columbia RecordsColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
)
With Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
- The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her LoverThe Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (soundtrack)The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover is the twelfth album release by Michael Nyman and the ninth to feature the Michael Nyman Band. It is the soundtrack to the eponymous film by Peter Greenaway...
(Virgin VentureVirgin RecordsVirgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
) - À la folieÀ la folieThe music by Michael Nyman has been praised as one of his better works, and considered unusually buried in the sound mix of the film. The album is Nyman's 23rd release, and the fourteenth with the Michael Nyman Band...
(Virgin Venture) - The End of the AffairThe End of the Affair (1999 film)Michael Nyman would later use "Diary of Love" to open and close his solo album, The Piano Sings . As with many of Nyman's 1990s scores, he incorporates material from his String Quartet No.3, which was in turn based on a choral piece titled Out of the Ruins.-Track listing:#Diary of Hate 2:38#Henry...
(Sony Classical) - Six Celan Songs/The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi (MN Records)
- Love CountsLove CountsLove Counts is a 2005 opera in two acts by Michael Nyman on a libretto by Michael Hastings.-Performance history:The opera premiered March 12, 2005 at the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, directed by Robert Tannenbaum...
(MN Records)
With Alan Skidmore
Alan Skidmore
Alan Skidmore is a tenor saxophonist of jazz and blues music, son of the saxophonist Jimmy Skidmore.-As a sideman:...
- T.C.B. (Philips RecordsPhilips RecordsPhilips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
) - El Skid w/ Elton DeanElton DeanElton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboard....
(Vinyl Records)
With John Surman
John Surman
John Douglas Surman is an English jazz saxophone, bass clarinet and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music as a basis...
- Morning Glory
- The Brass ProjectThe Brass ProjectThe Brass Project is an album by English saxophonist John Surman with a brass section conducted by John Warren recorded in 1992 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1992) - Stranger than FictionStranger than Fiction (John Surman album)Stranger than Fiction is an album by English saxophonist John Surman featuring John Taylor, Chris Laurence and John Marshall recorded in 1993 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1995) - CoruscatingCoruscatingCoruscating is an album by English saxophonist John Surman recorded in 1999 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4½ stars stating "Coruscating is one of the finer moments in an already stellar career...
(ECM, 1999) - The Spaces in BetweenThe Spaces in BetweenThe Spaces in Between is an album by English saxophonist John Surman recorded in 2006 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "Surman may not record quite so regularly as he once did, but given how rich, varied, and thoroughly...
(ECM, 2006)
With John Taylor
John Taylor (jazz)
John Taylor is a British jazz pianist; he has occasionally performed on the organ and the synthesiser. He is one of Europe's most celebrated jazz pianists and composers.-Performing career:...
- Pause, And Think Again (Turtle Records)
- Decipher (MPS Records)
With Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
- Kayak (Ah Um, Ah Um Records)
- Dream Sequence (PSI RecordsPSI RecordsPSI Records is an independent record label based in Nottingham, United Kingdom and Los Angeles, United States formed in 2002 by Pitchshifter frontman JS Clayden and his brother Mark Clayden.-History:...
)
With Frank Ricotti
Frank Ricotti
Frank Ricotti is an English jazz vibraphonist and percussionist.Ricotti played in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra while a teenager, then attended Trinity College of Music...
Quartet
- Our Point of View (CBS RecordsColumbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
)
With Gordon Beck
Gordon Beck
Gordon James Beck was an English jazz pianist.Beck was born in Brixton, London, and attended Pinner County Grammar School . He studied piano in his youth, but decided to go into a career as an engineering technical draughtsman...
- Once Is Never Enough (FMR RecordsFMR RecordsFMR Records is an English music company record label comprising the major record label, FMR Music. Founded by current CEO Trevor Taylor in 1972. It is a specialist record label providing Jazz and improvisational percussion music .-History:...
)
With John Williams
John Williams (guitarist)
John Christopher Williams is an Australian classical guitarist, and a long-term resident of the United Kingdom. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award win in the 'Best Chamber Music Performance' category with Julian Bream for Julian and John .-Biography:John Williams was born on 24 April 1941 in...
- The Magic Box (Sony Classical)
With Elton Dean
Elton Dean
Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboard....
- They All Be On This Old Road (Ogun RecordsOgun RecordsOgun Records is a record label created by the husband and wife team of Hazel Miller and Harry Miller, to document the music being created by a group of open-minded musicians in London in the early 1970s....
)