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A virtuoso jazz and avant-garde bassist,
Barre Phillips is a highly regarded improviser and composer who gained wide acclaim with his landmark 1968 album Journal Violone, the first complete album of solo bass improvisation. His 1971 record with
Dave Holland, Music from Two Basses, is also regarded as one of the first records of improvised double-bass duets. The California native, who has lived in France since the '70s, has issued a prolific number of albums, including many on
ECM like 1981's
Music By... and 2004's
Angles of Repose, and worked with such forward-thinking jazz icons as
Barry Guy,
John Surman,
Paul Bley, and others.
Born in 1934 in San Francisco, California,
Phillips started playing bass in his youth and studied privately for a period with S. Charles Siani, Assistant Principal Bassist with the
San Francisco Symphony. Interested in both avant-garde classical music and jazz, he moved to New York City in 1960. A formative period for the bassist, he gained valuable experience playing with a handful of maverick artists including trumpeter
Don Ellis and conductor
Leonard Bernstein. 1965 was a banner year for
Phillips, as he made his recorded debut playing with
Archie Shepp's ensemble on the live set New Thing at Newport, and with keyboardist
Bob James on 1965's
Explosions. He also performed and recorded with vibraphonist
Bobby Hutcherson, German guitarist
Attila Zoller, and free jazz acolyte
Marion Brown.
In 1967,
Phillips traveled to London where he formed the influential outfit the Trio with saxophonist
John Surman and drummer
Stu Martin. The group performed numerous concerts, fitting nicely into the burgeoning British improvisational scene alongside contemporaries like
Derek Bailey,
Evan Parker, and
Trevor Watts, among others. Around the same time, he was invited to record some music with composer Max Schubel, who had started working in London at
Columbia's electro-acoustic studios making taped music. This led to the release of
Phillips' influential 1968 solo bass album Journal Violone. Recorded in a church, the album is largely regarded as one of the first major solo bass albums of improvised music.
More solo bass opportunities followed for
Phillips, and over the next few years he continued to build upon this idea, even pairing with bassist
Dave Holland for the equally groundbreaking 1971 duet album Music from Two Basses on
ECM. Also in the early '70s, he relocated to a rural section of southern France, setting up permanent residence in an old chateau. More albums followed for
ECM, including 1971's
For All It Is, featuring
Palle Danielsson,
Jean-François Jenny-Clark,
Stu Martin, and
Barry Guy. The similarly expansive
Mountainscapes arrived in 1976, and featured contributions by saxophonist
Surman and drummer
Martin, as well as synth player
Dieter Feichtner and guitarist
John Abercrombie. In 1979, he returned to his solo bass format (a recurring source of interest throughout his career) with Journal Violone II.
During the '80s, he stayed active, issuing more albums on
ECM including 1981's quintet date
Music By... and 1984's solo bass album
Call Me When You Get There. He also joined German instrumentalist
Alfred Harth,
Paul Bley,
Trilok Gurtu, and
Maggie Nicols on 1983's This Earth! He then rounded out the decade with another solo bass album, 1989's
Camouflage, recorded live at Vancouver's Western Front. Along with his own albums like 1990's Naxos and 1996's Etchings in the Air,
Phillips continued his relationship with
Barry Guy, recording with
the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra. He also joined
Ornette Coleman on the soundtrack to director David Cronenberg's 1991 adaptation of
William S. Burroughs'
Naked Lunch. He then paired with bassist Yoshizawa Motoharu for 1997's Uzu, and collaborated with fellow bass virtuoso
Bertram Turetzky and multi-instrumentalist
Vinny Golia on 1999's Trignition.
In 2001, he again paired with
Paul Bley and
Evan Parker for Sankt Gerold on
ECM. A further album of improvised solo performances,
Journal Violone 9, arrived in 2001.
Phillips then joined bassists
Tetsu Saitoh,
Joëlle Léandre, and
William Parker for a live set at the Victoriaville FIMAV 2003 festival, issued in 2004 as After You've Gone. That same year, he appeared on the
ECM trio session
Angles of Repose with father-and-son duo reedman
Joe Maneri and viola player
Mat Maneri. There were further sets, including 2006's The Iron Stone with Scottish multi-instrumentalist
Robin Williamson, 2009's
While You Were Out with
Catherine Jauniaux and
Ned Rothenberg, and 2011's quartet date Everybody Else But Me with Tony Bevan,
Matthew Bourne, and
Tony Buck. In 2018,
Phillips issued
End to End on
ECM, an album he purportedly intended as his final solo bass album and the last in his Journal Violone series. The following year, he teamed up with Swiss saxophonist
Urs Leimgruber and pianist
Jacques Demierre for the trio album Willisau. ~ Matt Collar