Two adventurous pioneers of American music passed away just before the arrival of the new year.
Born in San Francisco, Barre Phillips was a virtuoso jazz and avant-garde bassist. His 1968 album, Journal Violone, featuring a series of solo improvisations, is credited as the first solo double bass record. Active in the free jazz movement, Phillips collaborated with artists including Ornette Coleman and Archie Shepp. In the 1970s, Phillips was a member of “The Trio,” along with saxophonist John Surman and drummer Stu Martin. Later, he performed regularly with the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra. Martin Schray notes that classical influences often entered Barre Phillips’ music: “I was as enthusiastic about Bartók, Schönberg and Stravinsky as I was about Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker and Ornette Coleman.”
After living in the south of France for more that 50 years, Phillips returned to the United States in 2022. He passed away on December 28, 2024 at his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the age of 90.
Composer Tom Johnson was influential in the minimalist movement. After receiving two degrees at Yale, Johnson moved to New York where he studied privately with Morton Feldman. As music critic of The Village Voice from 1971 to 1983, Johnson wrote extensively about new music. He was the first to use the descriptive term, minimalism, in a 1972 article, The Slow-Motion Minimal Approach.
Many of Johnson’s works include theatrical performance elements. In Nine Bells (1979), the player moves around a series of bells, suspended in a square, and hits the bells systematically along the way. Later compositions explored musical form based on mathematics. Galileo (1999-2005) is derived from laws of the pendulum, as formulated by Galileo Galilei in the 17th century.
Tom Johnson passed away on December 31, 2024, at the age of 85.
Phillips: Brewstertown 2
Brewstertown 2 is the final track from Phillips’ 1984 solo album, Call Me When You Get There:
Johnson: An Hour for Piano
Composed in 1971, An Hour for Piano grew out of a series of short, improvisatory sketches Johnson made while accompanying a modern dance class at New York University. It unfolds gradually and organically, drawing the listener into a meditative and time-altering experience. Following the composer’s strict marking of “quarter-note equals 59 beats per minute,” only one recording (by R. Andrew Lee) has achieved the exact hour timing. The piano’s pedal is held down constantly, so the piece must be recorded in one enormous take.
Constructed with enticingly simple building blocks, An Hour for Piano feels as if it is flowing freely without ever having been “composed.”
Recordings
- Phillips: Call Me When You Get There, Barre Phillips Amazon
- Johnson: An Hour for Piano, Keiko Shichiyo Amazon
Featured Image: bassist Barre Phillips