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Robert George Downes (born 22 July 1937 in Plymouth [1] ) is an English avant-garde jazz flautist and saxophonist. He is known for his work with Mike Westbrook and for leading the Open Music Trio since 1968. Downes is also a composer, arranger, and singer of rock and blues.
His first album was released by Philips Records in 1969. He was voted best jazz flautist and formed various ensembles. He started his own record label, Openinan. He played with the John Barry 7, pop singer Chris Andrews, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and the Jimmie Nicol Band.
In 1968 he formed the Open Music Trio. The trio has included at bass Paul Bridge, Andrew Cleyndert, Jeff Clyne, Barry Guy, Mark Megiddo, Harry Miller, Glen Moore, Barre Phillips, and Daryl Runswick.
Downes played and recorded with Ray Russell's Rock Workshop and singers Elke Brooks, Alex Harvey, and Julie Driscoll. In the 1970s he was a member of Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra. He also played with the Mike Westbrook Band and the Keith Tippett Band.
Downes composed for modern dance with The Royal Ballet, The London Contemporary Dance Theatre (with whom he composed and played live with between 1972 and 1982), Ballet Rambert, Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Royal Canadian Ballet, Australian Dance Company, Miami World Ballet, Komische Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Stuttgart, and Hong Kong Ballet. He composed for and performed with the Swiss mime group Mummenschanz. Downes performed at a poetry festivals in Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome with William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
On Diversions Downes played concert, alto, and 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. 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). 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). [2]
Harold McNair was a Jamaican-born saxophonist and flautist.
Tony Oxley is an English free improvising drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B♭ (while the alto is pitched in the key of E♭), and written as a transposing instrument in the treble clef, sounding an octave and a major second lower than the written pitch. Modern tenor saxophones which have a high F♯ key have a range from A♭2 to E5 (concert) and are therefore pitched one octave below the soprano saxophone. People who play the tenor saxophone are known as "tenor saxophonists", "tenor sax players", or "saxophonists".
Ronnie Scott OBE was a British jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner. He co-founded Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London's Soho district, one of the world's most popular jazz clubs, in 1959.
Landscape were an English synth-pop band, best known for the 1981 hits "Einstein a Go-Go" and "Norman Bates". Formed in London in 1975, the band toured constantly during the mid-to-late-1970s, playing rock, punk and jazz venues and releasing two instrumental EPs on its own Event Horizon label. The group began experimenting with computer-programmed music and electronic drums in the late 1970s and early 1980s, making records in the emerging genre of synth-pop.
Nucleus was a British jazz-fusion band, which continued in different forms from 1969 to 1989. In 1970, the band won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival, released the album Elastic Rock, and performed both at the Newport Jazz Festival and the Village Gate jazz club.
Walter Sinclair Hartley was an American composer of contemporary (classical) music.
Barry John Guy is an English 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. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.
Jeffrey Ovid Clyne was a British jazz bassist.
John L. Walters is an English editor, musician, critic and composer.
Otto James "Toby" Hardwicke was an American saxophone player associated with Duke Ellington.
Chris Biscoe is an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, a player of the alto, soprano, tenor and baritone saxophone, the alto clarinet, piccolo and flute. Biscoe is most notable for his work with Mike Westbrook and the NYJO.
The Bracknell Jazz Festival was a major showcase for British modern jazz in the 1980s. The festival was known for attracting a largish audience for free improvisation, modern jazz composition and all kinds of British modern jazz in general.
Thomas Henry Lowther is an English jazz trumpeter who also plays violin.
Brian Smith is a New Zealand jazz saxophonist and flautist.
Stan Robinson was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and flautist.
Jarmo Savolainen was a Finnish jazz pianist and composer. He was born in Iisalmi, Eastern Finland, and first studied classical piano. He later turned his attention to jazz and studied at Berklee College of Music.
Gary Winston Boyle is a British jazz fusion guitarist.
Joe Daley was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and music teacher. Daley was part of the Chicago jazz scene for 40 years. Musicians who studied with Daley include Grammy winners David Sanborn and Paul Winter, Emmy winner James DiPasquale, Richard Corpolongo, Chuck Domanico, and John Klemmer.
Worlds is a live 1989 album by American jazz musician Joe Lovano. The album was recorded at the Amiens International Jazz Festival in France. The record was initially released in 1989 via Label Bleu in France and then re-released via Evidence Music in 1995 in the United States.
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