List of free improvising musicians and groups
Encyclopedia
This is a list of musicians and groups who compose and play free music, or free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
. In alphabetical order:
Groups
- 4+14+14+1 is a view model designed by Philippe Kruchten for "describing the architecture of software-intensive systems, based on the use of multiple, concurrent views". The views are used to describe the system from the viewpoint of different stakeholders, such as end-users, developers and project...
- The A BandA BandThe A Band are a British musical collective formed in Nottingham in the late 1980s. In 2005, The Wire compared the band's importance to that of AMM and SME, and noted their lack of musical training....
- AMMAMM (group)AMM are an important British free improvisation group, founded in London, England in 1965.AMM have never been well known to the general public, but have been incredibly influential on the field of improvised music...
- Bassentric (multi-bass group)
- Birdyak (a duo consisting of Bob CobbingBob CobbingBob Cobbing was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival.-Early life:...
and Hugh MetcalfeHugh MetcalfeHugh Metcalfe is a musician and filmmaker from London and Suffolk, England. He is best known as the promoter of The Klinker in London, which he has run in various venues since 1982. He plays guitar, violin, hi-hat and gas mask. He performs in several bands including Bicycle Clip Sex, The Small...
) - BorbetomagusBorbetomagusBorbetomagus are a free improvisation/noise music group. They are cited by critics as pioneers of aggressive improvised noise music.- Biography :...
- The Brotherhood of BreathBrotherhood of BreathThe Brotherhood of Breath was a big-band created in the late 1960s by South African pianist/composer Chris McGregor , essentially an extension of McGregor's previous band The Blue Notes....
- EOTOEOTO-Description:The band's music is created live and without prerecorded loops.The band formed in 2006 as a side project of The String Cheese Incident incorporating looper pedals, like Echoplex and the DJ program Ableton. According to one reviewer, the duo sets their live instruments free and take on...
- Grutronic
- Hemmelig TempoHemmelig tempoHemmelig Tempo is a Norwegian experimental musical improvisation trio formed in Bergen in 2007. Preferring the label "research group", the trio mixes quasi-scientific sound experiments with performance art, installation art, free improvisation, instrument-making and satire.- Members :Professor...
- Henry CowHenry CowHenry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
- Iskra 1903 (a trio led by Paul RutherfordPaul RutherfordPaul Rutherford is the former backing vocalist, dancer and occasional keyboardist with 1980s pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood , one of the group's two openly gay singers....
, with Barry GuyBarry GuyBarry John Guy is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe...
and either Derek Bailey or Philipp Wachsmann) - Last ExitLast Exit (Free jazz band)Last Exit was a free jazz supergroup composed of electric guitarist Sonny Sharrock, drummer/occasional vocalist Ronald Shannon Jackson, saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, and bass guitarist Bill Laswell. They were active from 1986 to the early 1990s, releasing primarily live albums recorded in Europe...
(1980s group) - MATHMATH (band)MATH is an American Improv/experimental band formed in Woodstock, New York in the mid 90s. The band's shifting personnel has included members of various other bands, most notably Billy Riker and Joey Eppard of 3 and Dave Bodie of Time of Orchids and Kayo Dot....
- Musica Elettronica VivaMusica Elettronica VivaMusica Elettronica Viva is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. Over the years, its members have included Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allan Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, Steve Lacy, and Jon Phetteplace.They were early...
- M.I.M.E.O.M.I.M.E.O.M.I.M.E.O. is an experimental electroacoustic free improvisation group formed in 1997 on the initiative of several independent concert promoters in Europe. The abbreviation stands for "Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra"...
- Massacre
- Maybe MondayMaybe MondayMaybe Monday is a United States experimental electroacoustic improvisation music ensemble comprising guitarist Fred Frith, koto player Miya Masaoka and saxophonist Larry Ochs. The trio was formed in San Francisco in March 1997 when they performed in a concert at the Great American Music Hall...
- Milo Fine Free Jazz Ensemble, featuring Steve Gnitka
- MujicianMujicianMujician is an improvisational jazz quartet founded in 1988.The group's pianist, Keith Tippett, played briefly with King Crimson and also works with his group Centipede; the group's drummer is named Tony Levin, though he is not the same Tony Levin who played in King Crimson...
- Music Improvisation Company with Derek Bailey, Evan ParkerEvan ParkerEvan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
and Hugh DaviesHugh DaviesHugh Seymour Davies was a musicologist, composer, and inventor of experimental musical instruments.Davies was born in Exmouth, Devon, England. After attending Westminster School, he studied music at Worcester College, Oxford from 1961 to 1964. Shortly after he traveled to Cologne, Germany to work... - Musica Elettronica VivaMusica Elettronica VivaMusica Elettronica Viva is a live acoustic/electronic improvisational group formed in Rome, Italy, in 1966. Over the years, its members have included Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum, Frederic Rzewski, Allan Bryant, Carol Plantamura, Ivan Vandor, Steve Lacy, and Jon Phetteplace.They were early...
- nmperignNmperign- Early history :The idea for the group came when soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey decided to embark upon an ambitious cross-country tour, choosing trumpeter Greg Kelley and percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani as his travelmates...
(a duo consisting of soprano saxophonistSoprano saxophoneThe soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
Bhob Rainey and trumpeter Greg Kelley)
- Ovary Lodge, centered around Keith TippettKeith TippettKeith Tippett is a British jazz pianist and composer.Tippett, the son of a local police officer, went to Greenway Boys Secondary Modern school in Southmead, Bristol. He formed his first jazz band called The KT7 whilst still at school and they performed numbers popular at the time by The Temperance...
, Julie Tippetts and Frank PerryFrank PerryFrank J. Perry, Jr. was an American stage and film director, producer and screenwriter. His directorial debut, the 1962 film David and Lisa, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director.... - PhishPhishPhish is an American rock band noted for its musical improvisation, extended jams, and exploration of music across genres. Formed at the University of Vermont in 1983 , the band's four members – Trey Anastasio , Mike Gordon , Jon Fishman , and Page McConnell Phish is an American rock band...
- poire zPoire zpoire_z was an electronic free improvisation music group formed in 1998. The group's members all have long careers in improvised music; critic Fred Grand of Avant calls poire_z a "post-AMM supergroup."-Band history:...
- electronics - Red SquareRed Square (band)Red Square is a pioneering free improvising band originally from Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England that formed in 1974 and broke up in 1978, before reforming again in 2008 as a result of renewed interest in their music...
- Reform Art Unit, featuring Fritz Novotny, Sepp Mitterbauer, Walter Malli, Paul Fields, et al.
- San Agustin
- Shaking Ray LevisShaking Ray LevisThe Shaking Ray Levis is an ongoing collaboration of musicians with a common interest in free improvisation. The project was conceived and led by the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based team of Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner. They use storytelling, synthesizers, samplers and percussion to achieve their...
- Skeleton Crew
- The Sperm - Finnish improv group of early 70s featuring Pekka AiraksinenPekka AiraksinenPekka Airaksinen is a Finnish composer of electronic music.Airaksinen formed his first band, The Sperm, in the 1960s. The Sperm mixed elements of avant-garde music with free jazz and psychedelic pop...
- Spontaneous Music EnsembleSpontaneous Music EnsembleThe Spontaneous Music Ensemble was a loose collection of free improvising musicians convened beginning in the mid-1960s by the late South London-based jazz drummer/trumpeter John Stevens and alto and soprano saxophonist Trevor Watts...
- SupersilentSupersilentSupersilent is a Norwegian avant-garde/improvisational music group formed in Bergen in 1997 and signed on Rune Grammofon. They are known for making only improvised music and for the distinctive uniformity of their album covers....
- Los Terremotos - free ensemble - uk/Spain/usa
- Un Drame Musical InstantanéUn Drame Musical InstantanéUn Drame Musical Instantané, since its creation in 1976, featuring Jean-Jacques Birgé, Bernard Vitet and Francis Gorgé, has decided to promote collective musical creation, co-signing their albums, which they consider as artworks in themselves, or their live shows which they try to renew every time...
and precursor Birgé Gorgé Shiroc - Wired, featuring Conny PlankConny PlankKonrad "Conny" Plank was a German record producer and musician. He was born in Hütschenhausen. His creativity as a sound engineer and producer helped to shape some of the most important and innovative recordings of postwar European popular music, covering a wide range of genres including...
- Vitamin SVitamin SVitamin S can mean:* Vitamin S, a free improvisation collective based in Auckland, New Zealand* salicylic acid, although not a vitamin, is sometimes called "vitamin S"* a slang term referring to steroids...
- A free improvisation collective - Wolf EyesWolf EyesWolf Eyes is a post-industrial/noise band from Detroit, Michigan, United States.-History:Wolf Eyes began as a solo project of former Nautical Almanac member Nate Young, with Aaron Dilloway joining in 1998, and John Olson in 2000...
- Zoochosis
- Zoviet FranceZoviet FranceZoviet France is a prolific music group from Newcastle upon Tyne in north east England. While often dissonant and made of industrial textures, their music also falls into the ambient music category...
- ZenBeatz (Avant-Garde Duo)
Individual musicians
- Susan AlcornSusan AlcornSusan Alcorn is an American composer, improvisor, and pedal steel guitarist active in contemporary music and free improvisation.-Life:...
- pedal steelPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
guitarist - Thomas AnkersmitThomas AnkersmitThomas Ankersmit is a musician and installation artist based in Berlin and Amsterdam. Initially an improvising saxophonist, his activities expanded to include live electronic music and installation pieces based on architectural acoustics and infrasound...
- saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
and synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones... - Jorge Lima Barreto - prepared piano, electronics
- Richard BarrettRichard BarrettRichard Barrett was an American lawyer, white nationalist, and self-proclaimed leader in the nationalist Skinheadz movement. Barrett was a speaker and editor of the All The Way monthly newsletter...
- electronics, sampler - Derek Bailey - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
- Conny BauerConny BauerKonrad "Conny" Bauer is a free jazz trombonist. He is the brother of the trombonist Hannes Bauer....
- tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate... - Burkhard BeinsBurkhard BeinsBurkhard Beins is a German composer/performer who works with percussion, selected objects and electronics.Living in Berlin since 1995, Beins is active in experimental music and electroacoustic improvisation....
- percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration... - Samm BennettSamm BennettSamm Bennett , is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.Samm Bennett is a singer and songwriter, a drummer and percussionist, and a player of string instruments such as the stick dulcimer and the diddley bow...
- percussion and electronics - Han BenninkHan BenninkHan Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....
- percussion - Steve BeresfordSteve BeresfordSteve Beresford is a British musician who graduated from the University of York. He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, trumpet, euphonium, double-bass and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music...
- pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, various other instruments - Jean-Jacques BirgéJean-Jacques BirgéJean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer , film director , multimedia author , sound designer Jean-Jacques Birgé is an independent French musician and filmmaker, at once music composer (co-founder of Un Drame Musical Instantané which with he records...
- synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, various other instruments - Anthony BraxtonAnthony BraxtonAnthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
- saxophones - Peter BrötzmannPeter BrötzmannPeter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
- saxophone, taragato - Tony BuckTony BuckTony Buck is a drummer and percussionist. He graduated from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music , becoming involved in the Australian jazz scene....
- percussion - John ButcherJohn Butcher (musician)John Butcher is an English tenor and soprano saxophone player who has lived in London since the late 1970s. He began playing at the University of Surrey where he was studying physics...
- saxophone - Captain BeefheartCaptain BeefheartDon Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
- saxophone, clarinet, voice - Kent CarterKent CarterKent Carter is an American jazz bassist. He is the grandson of American artist, Rockwell Kent. He worked in Steve Lacy's group, played on the two Jazz Composer's Orchestra albums and also released albums for Emanem Records.-As leader:* Beauvais Cathedral * The Juillaguet Collection with Albrecht...
- double bass - George ChristianGeorge ChristianGeorge Eastland Christian was a U.S. journalist and White House press secretary from 1966 to 1969.-Career:Christian was born in Austin, Texas...
- GuitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Graham ClarkGraham Clark (violinist)Graham Leslie Lionel Clark is an English jazz violinist based in Buxton, Derbyshire. He also plays guitar, and double bass; a freelance violinist in most styles of jazz, rock, blues and pop, he specialises in improvisation...
- Tom CoraTom CoraThomas Henry Corra , better known as Tom Cora, was a United States cellist and composer, best known for his improvisational performances in the field of experimental jazz and rock...
- cello, electric bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Lol CoxhillLol CoxhillLowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...
- saxophone - Marilyn CrispellMarilyn CrispellMarilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has been a resident of Woodstock, NY since 1977 when she came to study and teach at Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio...
- piano - Chris CutlerChris CutlerChris Cutler is an English percussionist, composer, lyricist and music theorist. Best known for his work with English avant-rock group Henry Cow, Cutler was also a member and drummer of a number of other bands, including Art Bears, News from Babel, Pere Ubu and Gong/Mothergong...
- percussion - Tobias DeliusTobias DeliusTobias Delius is a musician who plays the tenor saxophone & clarinet.-Music career:Delius began playing saxophone in 1980 in Germany...
- saxophone - Michel Doneda - saxophone
- Axel Dörner - trumpet
- Mark DresserMark DresserMark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.-Biography:He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne,...
- double bass - Kevin DrummKevin Drumm-Biography:Emerging from the city's improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one of the world's pre-eminent prepared guitar players. Since then his work has expanded to include electroacoustic compositions and live electronic music made with laptop computers and analog modular synthesizers...
- guitar and synthesizer - Paul DunmallPaul DunmallPaul Dunmall is a British jazz saxophonist who plays tenor and soprano saxophone as well as the baritone and the more exotic Saxello and the Northumbrian pipes.He has a long discography on the Duns Limited Edition label....
- saxophone - Ellery EskelinEllery EskelinEllery Eskelin American tenor saxophonist. Born in Wichita, Kansas, raised in Baltimore, Maryland from the age of two. His parents, Rodd Keith and Bobbie Lee, were also musicians. Rodd Keith died in 1974 in Los Angeles, California and became a cult figure after his death in the little known...
- tenor saxophone - Karlheinz EsslKarlheinz EsslKarlheinz Essl is an Austrian composer, performer, sound artist, improviser and composition teacher.- Biography :Essl was born in Vienna. His studies at the University of Music in Vienna included: composition , electro-acoustic music and double bass...
- electronics - Julia FeldmanJulia FeldmanJulia Feldman is an Israeli jazz vocalist, composer and educator. Her singing combines elements of multiple jazz genres, free improvisation and modern classical music.- Early life and education :...
- voice - Simon FellSimon FellSimon H. Fell is a bassist and composer; he is primarily known for his work as a free improviser and the composer of ambitiously complex post-serialist works.Fell began playing double bass in 1973...
- double bass - Milo Fine - percussion, piano, clarinets
- Michael Fischer - saxophone
- Fred FrithFred FrithFred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
- guitar, violin - Cor FuhlerCor FuhlerCor Fuhler is an Amsterdam-based musician who plays in the style of electroacoustic improvisation. His primary instrument is the piano . He explores the possibilities of the piano, manipulating it’s sound with use of various string stimulators like ebows, rotating threads and spinning disks...
- piano, keyolin, synthesizer - Bernhard GalBernhard GálBernhard Gál is an Austrian artist, composer and musicologist.-Biography:Bernhard Gál works between the categories, creating music for instruments and electro-acoustic compositions, as well as art installations. Many of his intermedia art projects and sound installations present combinations of...
- electronics - Joel GartenJoel GartenJoel Garten is a pianist and improviser known for his innovative improvistations. His music is influenced by classical music and jazz, but mostly by modern composers such as Morton Feldman, jazz improvisor Keith Jarrett and modern artists such as Jackson Pollock and Clyfford Still...
- piano - Charles GayleCharles GayleCharles Gayle is a free jazz saxophonist, pianist, bass clarinetist, and percussionist.-Biography:Charles Gayle was born in Buffalo, New York. Some of Gayle's history is unclear. He was apparently homeless for approximately twenty years, playing saxophone on street corners and subway platforms...
- saxophone, piano, bass clarinetBass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet... - Stephen Grew- piano, electronics
- Mats GustafssonMats GustafssonMats Olof Gustafsson is a Swedish saxophone player and a stalwart on the Scandinavian free jazz scene. He is known for his tonal belligerence and intensity when improvising....
- saxophone, fluteophone - Barry GuyBarry GuyBarry John Guy is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe...
- double bass - Keiji HainoKeiji HainoKeiji Haino born May 3, 1952 in Chiba, Japan, and currently residing in Tokyo, is a Japanese musician whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise, singer-songwriter, solo percussion, psychedelic, minimalism and drone styles...
- guitar, voice - Robin Hayward - tuba
- Gerry HemingwayGerry HemingwayGerry Hemingway is an American jazz composer and percussionist.He has performed with Ernst Reijseger, Anthony Davis, Earl Howard, Leo Smith, George Lewis, Anthony Braxton, Ray Anderson, Mark Helias, Reggie Workman, Michael Moore, Oliver Lake, Marilyn Crispell, Christy Doran, John Wolf Brennan, Don...
- drums - Katt HernandezKatt HernandezKatt Hernandez is a violinist living in Stockholm, Sweden with strong connection to Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland. Katt's violin playing employs many virtuostic extended techniques, as well as microtones. Her influences range a vast gamut of music, and...
- violin - Zach HillZach HillZach Hill is a musician residing in Sacramento, California. Primarily known for his drumming, he performs/has performed in numerous Pacific Coast based groups, including his primary group, Hella, as well as Holy Smokes, Nervous Cop, and a diverse range of others including El Grupo Nuevo de Omar...
- drums - Killick Erik HindsKillick Erik HindsKillick Erik Hinds of Athens, Georgia is active as a composer, performer, and promoter of a wide range of music. He plays quartertone electric guitar, as well as Big Red harp guitar and the H'arpeggione, an 18-stringed upright acoustic instrument with sympathetic strings, both built by Fred Carlson...
- h'arpeggione - Tim HodgkinsonTim HodgkinsonTim Hodgkinson is an English experimental music composer and performer, principally on reeds and keyboards. He is best known as one of the core members of the British avant-rock group Henry Cow, which he formed with Fred Frith in 1968...
- saxophone - Tristan HonsingerTristan HonsingerTristan Honsinger is a cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. He is perhaps best known for his long-running collaboration with free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor and guitarist Derek Bailey....
- cello - Fred Van HoveFred Van HoveFred Van Hove is a Belgian jazz musician and a pioneer of European free jazz. He is a pianist, accordionist, church organist, and carillonist, an improviser and a composer...
- piano - Matt IngallsMatt IngallsMatt Ingalls is an American composer, clarinetist, concert producer, and computer music programmer. He is mostly associated with the San Francisco Bay Area Improv Scene, sfSound, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival, and the computer music program Csound.-Performance:Ingalls is most active as a...
- clarinet, electronics - Keith JarrettKeith JarrettKeith 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...
- piano - Theo JörgensmannTheo JörgensmannTheodor Franz Jörgensmann is a jazz and free-improvising Basset clarinet player and composer. He has been a professional musician since 1975.-Activities:...
- basset clarinetBasset clarinetThe basset clarinet is a clarinet, similar to the usual soprano clarinet but longer and with additional keys to enable playing several additional lower notes... - Leonel KaplanLeonel KaplanLeonel Kaplan is an Argentine trumpet player active in free improvisation. He has been part of the international improvised music scene since the early 2000s performing and recording throughout Europe and U.S....
- trumpet - Basil KirchinBasil KirchinBasil Kirchin was a British drummer and composer. His career stretched from playing drums in his father's big band at the age of 13, through scoring films, to experimenting with the manipulation of recorded sounds which has seen him cited as "the father of ambient music."-Emergence:Basil...
- drums - Peter KowaldPeter KowaldPeter Kowald was a German free jazz musician.A member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a touring double-bass player, Kowald collaborated with a large number of European free jazz and American free-jazz players during his career, including Peter Brötzmann, Irène Schweizer, Karl Berger, Fred...
- double bass - Savina YannatouSavina YannatouSavina Yannatou is a renowned Greek singer.After taking classical guitar lessons and participating in the children's choir of Yannis Nousias for some years, she studied singing with Gogo Georgilopoulou and Spiros Sakkas in Athens, and later attended postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of...
- voice - Caroline KraabelCaroline KraabelCaroline Kraabel is a London-based American composer, improviser and saxophonist. She is known for her research into the implications of electricity related to recording, synthesis and amplification....
- saxophone - Steve LacySteve LacySteve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
- saxophone - Kathryn LadanoKathryn LadanoKathryn Ladano is a bass clarinet player from Kitchener, Ontario Canada. Kathryn has recorded on four albums, and has performed across Canada and internationally. Her first solo album, Open, was released in August 2010 both physically and on iTunes....
- bass clarinet - Yuri LandmanYuri LandmanYuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn...
- experimental self built string instruments - Lê Quan NinhLê Quan NinhLê Quan Ninh is a French percussionist active in contemporary music and free improvisation.He began studying piano at the age of 5, but turned towards percussion as a teenager. When he was 16, he entered the National Conservatory in Versailles. During this time he discovered free jazz...
- percussion - Joëlle LéandreJoëlle LéandreJoëlle Léandre is a double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation....
- double bass, voice - Jeanne LeeJeanne LeeJeanne Lee was an American jazz singer, poet and composer. Best known for a wide range of vocal styles she mastered, Lee collaborated with numerous distinguished composers and performers which included Gunter Hampel, Ran Blake, Carla Bley, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, and many...
- voice - Thomas LehnThomas LehnThomas Lehn is a German-born piano and synthesizer player active in free improvisation and contemporary music.Lehn has recorded with Marcus Schmickler, Keith Rowe, John Butcher, Phil Minton, Phil Durrant, Radu Malfatti, Axel Dörner, Cor Fuhler, Gerry Hemingway and is a member of the electronic...
- synthesizer - Lenny Lendon - synthesizer, electronics
- George LewisGeorge Lewis (trombonist)George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971, and is a pioneer of computer music.- Biography :Lewis graduated from Yale University with a...
- trombone, electronics
- Fred Lonberg-HolmFred Lonberg-HolmFred Lonberg-Holm is an American cellist based in Chicago. He relocated from New York City to Chicago in 1995.Lonberg-Holm is most identified with playing free improvisation and free jazz. He is also a composer of concert works...
- cello - Paul LovensPaul LovensPaul Lovens is a musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw and various selected and unselected cymbals. He has also performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra....
- drums - Paul LyttonPaul LyttonPaul Lytton is an English free jazz percussionist.Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began experimenting with free improvisational music, working in a duo with saxophonist Evan Parker. After...
- drums - Frederik MagleFrederik MagleFrederik Magle is a Danish composer, concert organist, and pianist. He studied composition and music theory with Leif Thybo and attended the Royal Danish Academy of Music where he studied composition and organ...
- organ - Radu MalfattiRadu MalfattiRadu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone player and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. He has been described as "among the leaders in redefining the avant-garde as truly on-the-edge art." His work "since the early nineties.....
- trombone - Joe ManeriJoe ManeriJoseph Gabriel Esther "Joe" Maneri , was an American jazz composer, saxophone and clarinet player. Violinist Mat Maneri is his son....
- saxophone and clarinet - Guerino MazzolaGuerino MazzolaGuerino Mazzola is a Swiss mathematician, musicologist, jazz pianist as well as book writer.He graduated at the University of Zürich in Mathematics, Theoretical Physics and Crystallography and completed his PhD in Mathematics in 1971. In 1980, he habilitated in Algebraic Geometry and...
- piano - Misha MengelbergMisha MengelbergMisha Mengelberg is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.-Biography:...
- piano, toys - Hugh MetcalfeHugh MetcalfeHugh Metcalfe is a musician and filmmaker from London and Suffolk, England. He is best known as the promoter of The Klinker in London, which he has run in various venues since 1982. He plays guitar, violin, hi-hat and gas mask. He performs in several bands including Bicycle Clip Sex, The Small...
- violin, guitar, drums - Phil MintonPhil MintonPhil Minton is a jazz/free-improvising vocalist and trumpeter.Minton is a highly dramatic baritone who tends to specialize in literary texts: he has sung lyrics by William Blake with Mike Westbrook's group, Daniil Kharms and Joseph Brodsky with Simon Nabatov, and extracts from James Joyce's...
- voice - Louis MoholoLouis MoholoLouis Tebugo Moholo , is a South African jazz drummer.He formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana, and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made...
- drums - Michael MooreMichael Moore (saxophonist and clarinetist)Michael Moore is an American-born jazz musician and composer who has resided in the Netherlands since 1982.- Background and career:...
- saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet - Thurston MooreThurston MooreThurston Joseph Moore is an American musician best known as a singer, songwriter and guitarist of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside of Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label...
- guitar - Butch MorrisButch MorrisLawrence D. "Butch" Morris is an American jazz cornetist, composer and conductor.-Biography:Before his musical career, Morris served in Vietnam during the Vietnam War....
- cornetCornetThe cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
player and conductor - Jamie MuirJamie MuirJamie Muir is a UK painter and former percussionist, best known for his work in King Crimson.-Biography:Muir attended Edinburgh College of Art during the 1960s and began playing jazz on trombone before settling on percussion....
- percussion - Stephen NachmanovitchStephen NachmanovitchStephen Nachmanovitch is a musician, author, computer artist, and educator. He is an improvisational violinist, and writes and teaches about improvisation, creativity, and systems approaches in many fields of activity.-Biography:...
- violin, viola, electric violin - Toshimaru NakamuraToshimaru NakamuraToshimaru Nakamura is a Japanese musician, active in free improvisation and Japanese onkyo.He began his career playing rock and roll guitar, but gradually explored other types of music, even abandoning guitar and started working on circuit bending...
- Maggie NicolsMaggie NicolsMaggie Nicols , is a Scottish free-jazz and improvising vocalist, dancer, and performer.-Early life and career:...
- voice - Mary OliverMary Oliver (violinist)Mary Oliver is an American performer on violin, viola, and Hardanger fiddle, in the areas of New Music, free improvisation, and avant-garde jazz....
- violin, viola - Tony OxleyTony OxleyTony 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...
- percussion - Evan ParkerEvan ParkerEvan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
- saxophones - William ParkerWilliam Parker (musician)William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...
- double bass - Mike PattonMike PattonMichael Allan "Mike" Patton is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and actor, best known as the lead singer of the metal/experimental rock band Faith No More. He has also sung for Mr...
- voice, piano, synthesizer, toys - Barre PhillipsBarre PhillipsBarre Phillips is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he migrated to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972 he has been based in southern France....
- double bass - Albey Balgochian - double bass
- Andreas Paolo PergerAndreas Paolo PergerAndreas Paolo Perger is a contemporary Austrian/ German/ Italian guitarist, improviser, and composer. His work, autobiographical in nature, is drawing from a variety of traditional and contemporary musical influences like contemporary Jazz, New Music, Improvised Music, and Electronic...
- guitar - Lee RanaldoLee RanaldoLee M. Ranaldo is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the alternative rock band Sonic Youth...
- guitar - Peer Saer - guitar
- Hans ReichelHans ReichelHans Reichel was a German improvisational guitarist, experimental luthier, inventor, and type designer.-Career:...
- guitar, daxophoneDaxophoneThe daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is an experimental musical instrument of the friction idiophones category. It consists of a thin wooden blade fixed in a wooden block , which holds one or more contact microphones... - Ernst ReijsegerErnst ReijsegerERNST REIJSEGER Cellist and composer Ernst Reijseger plays the cello from the age of seven and began as a performing cellist and improviser in 1969. From that time on he developed his own musical vocabulary...
- cello - Ernesto Rodrigues - violin, viola
- Guilherme RodriguesGuilherme RodriguesGuilherme Rodrigues is a Portuguese jazz musician.Rodrigues was born in Lisbon, the son of improvising violinist Ernesto Rodrigues, with whom he records and performs. He plays cello and pocket trumpet, and has been following a professional career in music since 1997...
- cello, trumpet - Omar Rodríguez-LópezOmar Rodriguez-LopezOmar Alfredo Rodríguez-López is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, writer, actor and film director who was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico...
- guitar - Keith RoweKeith RoweKeith Rowe is an English free improvisation tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both the hugely influential AMM in the mid-1960s and M.I.M.E.O. Having trained as a visual artist, Rowe's paintings have been featured on most of his own albums...
- guitar - John RussellJohn Russell (musician)John Russell is an acoustic guitarist who has worked exclusively in the field of free improvisation since the 1970s. He has been active consistently during that time as a promoter of concerts of freely improvised music in London, providing hundreds of playing opportunities for both local and...
- acoustic guitar - Paul RutherfordPaul RutherfordPaul Rutherford is the former backing vocalist, dancer and occasional keyboardist with 1980s pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood , one of the group's two openly gay singers....
- trombone - Frederic RzewskiFrederic RzewskiFrederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
- Carlos SandovalCarlos SandovalCarlos Sandoval Mendoza Is a Mexican/German freelance composer and multimedia artist, mostly recognized for his work joining technology, nature and art.-Biography and Work:...
- Gloves with sensors - Alexander von SchlippenbachAlexander von SchlippenbachAlexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
- piano - Irène SchweizerIrène SchweizerIrène Schweizer is a notable Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, in 1941.She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvising Group, whose members include Lindsay Cooper, Maggie Nichols, Georgie...
- piano - Matthew ShippMatthew ShippMatthew Shipp is an American pianist, composer and bandleader.Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford Brown....
- piano - Rogerio Silva - trumpet, computer
- Gary SmithGary Smith (Guitarist)Gary Smith is a avant-garde guitarist, improviser and composer from the United Kingdom. He is known for developing dense extended techniques on electric guitar...
- guitar - Grant SmithGrant SmithGrant Gordon Smith is a Scottish footballer midfielder. He is the son of former Rangers and Brighton & Hove Albion striker and former Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith.-Career:...
- drums, percussion - John StevensJohn Stevens (drummer)John William Stevens was an English drummer. He was one of the most significant figures in early free improvisation, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble .-Biography:Stevens was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer...
- percussion and trumpet - Taku SugimotoTaku SugimotoTaku Sugimoto is a Japanese guitarist.He initially gained attention in the late 1990s for his restrained, melodic playing, unusual in the world of free improvisation. Critic Bruce Russell describes this era of Sugimoto's music by writing: "Sugimoto is perhaps the pre-eminent stylist on the guitar .....
- guitar and cello - Cecil TaylorCecil TaylorCecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
- piano - Keith TippettKeith TippettKeith Tippett is a British jazz pianist and composer.Tippett, the son of a local police officer, went to Greenway Boys Secondary Modern school in Southmead, Bristol. He formed his first jazz band called The KT7 whilst still at school and they performed numbers popular at the time by The Temperance...
- piano - Julie TippettsJulie DriscollJulie Tippetts is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger & The Trinity...
- voice - Bernard VitetBernard VitetBernard Vitet, born on May 26, 1934 in Paris, is a French trumpetist and composer, co-founder of the first free jazz band in France together with François Tusques, Michel Portal Unit and Un Drame Musical Instantané with Jean-Jacques Birgé and Francis Gorgé in 1976.He belongs to the first meeting...
- trumpet, various other instruments - Voice CrackVoice CrackVoice Crack was a Swiss electronic free improvisation group. Formed in late 1972 by Andy Guhl and Norbert Möslang, Voice Crack were initially a free jazz duo...
- electronics - Philipp Wachsmann - violin
- Jane WangJane WangJane Wang is a composer, music improvisor, and plays the double bass, toy piano, piano, cello, and various other musical instruments. She is also an installation artist, performance artist, pedestrian movement artist and a member of the Mobius Artists Group. Born in Oxford, England she now...
- double bass - Trevor WattsTrevor WattsTrevor Charles Watts is an English jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist. He is largely self-taught, having taken up the cornet at age 12 then switched to saxophone at 18. While stationed in Germany with the RAF , he encountered the drummer John Stevens and trombonist Paul...
- saxophone - Bentley Westfield - piano, keyboards
- Kenny WheelerKenny WheelerKenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
- trumpet - Alan Wilkinson - trombone
- Wolter WierbosWolter WierbosWolter Wierbos is a Dutch jazz trombonist.Wierbos has played throughout Europe, Canada, USA and Asia...
- trombone - Jack Wright - saxophone
- Otomo Yoshihide - guitar and turntableTurntablismTurntablism is the art of manipulating sounds and creating music using phonograph turntables and a DJ mixer.The word 'turntablist' was coined in 1995 by DJ Babu to describe the difference between a DJ who just plays records, and one who performs by touching and moving the records, stylus and mixer...
- Reynaldo YoungReynaldo YoungReynaldo Young [b. 1966] is a London-based Uruguayan composer, arranger, guitarist, teacher and workshop leader. He has written concert pieces as well as music for dance, theatre, and video – many of them performed worldwide; he is also an active player at the free improvisation scene around...
- guitar, electronics - Carlos ZingaroCarlos ZingaroCarlos Zíngaro is a Portuguese violinist and electronic musician active in free improvisation....
- violin and electronics - John ZornJohn ZornJohn Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
- saxophone