Bob Downes
Robert George 'Bob' Downes (born 22 July 1937 in Plymouth) is an English avant-garde jazz flautist and saxophonist. He is probably best known for his work with musicians such as Mike Westbrook, and for leading his own group since 1968, the Open Music Trio who released a series of LPs on Downes' own Openian record label.
About Bob Downes -
Composer, Musician, Arranger, Songwriter, Jazz -Rock & Blues Singer (but also composes and performs meditative music)
Bob Downes plays circa 25 Instruments (his main instruments are Saxes and Flutes).
His first LP was released with Philips Records, 1969.
He was voted N°1 Jazz flautist, formed various music ensembles and also was the first to create his own independent Record Label “Openian”.
He played with “The John Barry 7” band (James Bond Film composer), Pop Singer Chris Andrews, "Manfred Mann’s Earth Band" and with the Jimmy Nicol Band (Stand-in Drummer of the Beatles).
In 1968 Bob formed his OPEN MUSIC TRIO. Bass players that played in it were Barry Guy, Barre Philips, Jeff Clyne, Daryl Runswick, Paul Bridge, Harry Miller, Marc Meggido. Recently: Andrew Cleyndert and Glen Moore. Bob played and recorded with Ray Russell's Rock Workshop (whose artist's name by the way, was created for him by Bob),and singers such as Elke Brooks, Alex Harvey and Julie Driscoll.
In the 70..s Bob was a member of Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra.
He also played with the Mike Westbrook Band and the Keith Tippett Band.
Bob Downes had and still has world-wide success in composing for modern dance, for example: The Royal Ballet, The London Contemporary Dance Theatre (with whom he composed and played live with between 1972 / 82) Ballet Rambert, Dance Theatre of Harlem (N.Y.), The Royal Canadian Ballet, Australian Dance Company, Miami World Ballet, Komische Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Hongkong Ballet.
He composed for the Cambridge Theatre Company.
He also composed for and performed with the Swiss mime group “Mummenschanz” for T.V. Productions.
Bob Downes has performed as a highlight on Poetry festivals in Amsterdam, Paris and Rome with artists like William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
On Diversions Downes played concert, alto & Chinese bamboo flutes, and tenor sax. Five of the eight pieces are trios with double bass (Barry Guy and Jeff Clyne) and drums (Denis Smith). The other three pieces are solos: on "Samurai" Downes played concert and alto flutes into a piano with the sustain pedal pressed down to give a tuned resonance, and on "The Dream" a slow disjunct melody reminiscent of the interwar Viennese school on concert flute over an eerie white noise rich VCS3 synthesiser soundscape played by Laurie Baker. The trios have the texture of (then) modern jazz, but the improvisation is melodic rather than harmonic and both the flute and (particularly Barry Guy's) double bass veer off into European Classical avant garde territory. In 2007 Diversions was re-released by Vocalion.
Hells Angels has a long big-band piece covering side one of the original LP (subtitled 'A Visit to the Devil'), with a set of trio pieces on side 2. Downes plays mainly sax on this record (tenor and alto). The most striking piece on the second side of the record is the last track, "Blue Sheets": he plays alto over a four-note double bass loop and cymbal pulse in a spacious field of reverb and, building patterns from only a handful of notes, produces a beautiful and hauntingly atmospheric motific miniature.
After moving to Germany in the late 1970s, Downes released several further records, including Solos (c. 1984), an LP of solo flute improvisations (concert, alto and bass) set in a spacious natural reverb - picking up on the basic idea of "Blue Sheets" and "The Dream". The second side of the LP had a series of metrical riff pieces for bass flute where Downes used overblowing and articulation to change the harmonic content and timbre of the loops - an approach similar in effect to the use of dynamic filter changes in more recent sequenced electronic music.
Bob Downes and The Alphorn Brothers (issued 2015) Now who on earth would think of the Alphorn, an instrument with a limited range of natural tones used in ancient times “for communication in most mountainous regions of Europe, from the French Alps to the Carpathians” (Wikipedia) in a jazz context? After all the answer is not that astonishing – Bob Downes, the “jazz phenomenon” as Roger Farbey recently called him. And with this project it is the composer Downes we have to admire before anything else. To write for three somewhat clumsy, over-sized open wood pipes with no lateral openings to finger out more tones set against a set of sophisticated saxophones, flutes and the human voice asks for a thorough analysis of what the material at hand can actually be utilized for. Here are 13 tracks full of intricate interaction, deeply embedded in the blues, and overwhelmingly entertaining. Most tracks develop from a solid base line laid down by the three alphorn players Hagen Nowottny, Eckhard Nowottny and Björn Peterich, with Bob Downes adding all the fantastic energy he can produce with his tenor, alto and soprano saxophones, the flutes as well as his voice. But in 'Pink Elephants' the alphorns even venture into free jazz and dirty blowing.
Blowin' with Bass (issued 2016) Here Bob Downes plays flute, alto flute, bass flute, flute heads, tenor, alto & soprano saxes, Cello, scat vocal, shaker, pitch pipe in duos with differing bassists: - with MARC MEGGIDO (tracks 1 to 4), rec. in London 1978 (duration 10:18) - with BARRY GUY (tracks 5 & 6), rec. live at the Wigmore Hall, London 1975 (duration 22:00) - with PAUL BRIDGE (tracks 7 & 8), rec. in London 1981 (duration 15:32) - with ANDREW CLEYNDERT (tracks 9 to 12), rec. live at Private Party in Mutlangen, Germany 2005 (duration 24:20) Total duration: 73 mins. Yet another breath-taking selection made available from Bob Downes’ seemingly unlimited vaults, 12 duo offerings recorded throughout three decades between 1975 and 2005. Initially not meant for publication these tracks are very welcome, if only to prove how valuable an outcome the somewhat 'narrow' set-up of two people can achieve. There are the lyrical, slow moments such as 'Dawn Dreams' as opposed to the free blowing of the Wigmore Hall tracks, there is a raver like 'Cocowanna' with unusual scat vocalizing and the 'typical Downes' of 'Joy Ride' – inventive, grainy & lyrical all in one. En route each one of the bassists proves with ease just how important their instrument is - in any styles of jazz, from the straight jazz-rock lines of 'Just A Minute' to the soundscapes of 'Dark Corners'. And the unexpected 'extras' like the cello and bass effects of 'Stardust Galaxy' plus the ephemeral alto sax on 'Bluesing' round up a very convincing offer.
Downes spaces out with all the vigour and inventiveness a true jazzman-cum-composer masters and it is deeply thrilling how the interaction between him and the differing bassists produce widely differing moods. As Bob Downes relates in the liner notes during the Wigmore Hall concert, Barry Guy – most probably his closest associate for years – was confronted with pre-recorded cello parts of which he had no idea just what they were. The outcome is stunning. As for Andrew Cleyndert, Downes states, that they had never played together before that private party in Germany (and only had the opportunity of a 30 minute rehearsal for a 45 minute performance – with Bob still suffering from a bad flue). The interplay on the Downes - Meggido tracks, with all their rhythmic changes, easily reflect Meggido’s efforts on Ken Hyder’s Talisker “Dreaming of Glenisla” (LP: Caroline C 1513, 1975 – CD: Reel Recordings RR 004, 2007, with bonus tracks), where in fact there were two bass players, Marc and Lindsay Cooper, plus Hyder’s drums and two reed players! So, alongside the larger personnels Downes likes to compose for and play with, these duo offerings also contain everything a jazz fan craves for – intimate interplay, ample changes of moods, surprising ideas and compositions inspiring improvisation…
Discography
With Barry Guy/The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra
- Ode (Incus, 1972)
References
- ↑ Carr, Ian; Digby Fairweather; Brian Priestley (1995). Jazz: The Rough Guide. The Rough Guides. p. 179. ISBN 1-85828-137-7.