Theo Travis

Last updated

Theo Travis
The Tangent headline Winter's End 2023 at the Drill Hall, Chepstow, UK - 52895672280.jpg
Travis performing with The Tangent in 2023
Background information
Born (1964-07-07) 7 July 1964 (age 59)
Birmingham, England [1]
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
Instrument(s)
  • Saxophone
  • flute
  • keyboards
Years active1993–present
Labels33 Jazz
Member of
Formerly of
Website theotravis.com

Theo Travis (born 7 July 1964) is a British saxophonist, flautist [2] and composer. He is a member of Soft Machine which he joined in 2006 while the group was still using the "Legacy" suffix and was a member of Gong from 1999 to 2010.

Contents

Biography

Travis received his degree in music from the University of Manchester [3] specialising in the works of Shostakovich. [4] He has released eleven solo albums, largely as a band leader in the jazz genre, creating and arranging the majority of the material. However, 2003's Slow Life, on which he is the sole performer, is an ambient album employing loops which prefigures his later work with Travis & Fripp. He has made about the same number of albums again credited to himself and one (or occasionally more) other collaborator(s), including John Foxx and, as half of Travis & Fripp with Robert Fripp.

On his albums as band leader, Travis has played with numerous other jazz musicians. These have included, on his 2007 album Double Talk, guitarist Mike Outram [5] and organist Pete Whittaker. [6] There was no bassist as such on that album: like many Hammond organists, Whittaker plays the bass parts with his left hand and his left foot on the pedals. Robert Fripp also guested on two tracks on this album, one of which he co-wrote with Travis. Owing to other collaborative commitments, Travis did not record another jazz album for eight years. When he did so in 2015, he named his new band Theo Travis' Double Talk after the 2007 album. This new band again included both Outram and Whittaker, with the addition of Nic France [7] on drums. [8]

In 1993, Travis worked alongside bassist Dave Sturt on the Jade Warrior album Distant Echoes - as they would again on that band's 2008 album NOW . The pair worked together in the four-piece jazz fusion band The Other Side, releasing the album Dangerous Days in 1994, [9] and, since 1999, with varying guest musicians in their band Cipher which collaborated with Bill Nelson in both the latter's improvisational three-piece live band Orchestra Futura and his more conventional, seven-piece rock band Bill Nelson and the Gentlemen Rocketeers. Sturt was also an engineer on Travis & Fripp's 2014 album Discretion.

In 2006, Travis joined Soft Machine Legacy, a project based on personnel and works of the band Soft Machine, replacing saxophonist Elton Dean after his death. Since 2008 he has worked with guitarist Robert Fripp in the duo Travis and Fripp, releasing four CDs to date, as well as three live concerts as downloads through DGMLive (two of them also on vinyl through Tonefloat). Travis has also worked extensively with Steven Wilson, performing on fifteen of his records and with Wilson mixing six of Travis' releases. Travis appears extensively as featured soloist on Wilson's Grammy nominated album Grace for Drowning and is part of his touring live band. In 2014, using kickstarter funding, he self-published the book Twice Around The World: Steven Wilson Tour Blogs 2012-2013 which included edited entries previously published on Travis' Facebook page, and was illustrated with photographs from the tour.

Travis has also worked with Harold Budd, Bass Communion, Fear Falls Burning/Dirk Serries, Burnt Friedman, Gong, No-Man, Porcupine Tree, The Tangent, Dave and Richard Sinclair, David Sylvian and David Gilmour.

Awards

Travis' album View From the Edge was voted Best British Jazz CD of 1994 by a Jazz on CD Critics/Readers poll. [10]

Discography

Solo albums

Solo collaboration albums

Solo compilation albums

with Soft Machine

Studio
Live

Collaboration albums

Collaboration singles and EPs

Collaboration DVDs

Tracks on solo albums

Tracks on collaboration albums

Tracks on compilation albums

Tracks on compilation 12"

Bibliography

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Wilson</span> English musician (born 1967)

Steven John Wilson is an English musician. He is the founder, guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands, including Blackfield, Storm Corrosion and No-Man. He is also a solo artist, having released seven solo albums since his solo debut Insurgentes in 2008. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Wilson has made music prolifically and earned critical acclaim. His honours include six nominations for Grammy Awards: twice with Porcupine Tree, once with his collaborative band Storm Corrosion and three times as a solo artist. In 2017, The Daily Telegraph described him as "a resolutely independent artist" and "probably the most successful British artist you've never heard of".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Barbieri</span> English musician

Richard Barbieri is an English musician, composer and sound designer. Originally a member of new wave band Japan, more recently he is known as the keyboard player in the progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, which he joined in 1993. Aside from the founder Steven Wilson, he is the longest tenured member of Porcupine Tree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bass Communion</span> British band

Bass Communion is a solo project of English musician Steven Wilson, best known for his lead role in the rock band Porcupine Tree. Records released under the name "Bass Communion" are in an ambient or electronic vein - lengthy drone-heavy compositions. They come about as experiments in texture made from processing the sound of real instruments and field recordings.

<i>Lightbulb Sun</i> 2000 studio album by Porcupine Tree

Lightbulb Sun is the sixth studio album by British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, first released in May 2000, and later reissued in 2008 on CD, DVD-A surround sound, and vinyl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">No-Man</span> English art pop duo

No-Man are an English art pop duo, formed in 1987 as No Man Is an Island (Except the Isle of Man) by singer Tim Bowness and multi-instrumentalist Steven Wilson. The band has so far produced seven studio albums and a number of singles/outtakes collections (most notably, 2006's career retrospective, All the Blue Changes). The band was once lauded as "conceivably the most important English group since The Smiths" by Melody Maker music newspaper, and a 2017 article of Drowned in Sound described them as "probably the most underrated band of the last 25 years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Bowness</span> Musical artist

Tim Bowness is an English singer and songwriter primarily known for his work as part of the band No-Man, a long-term project formed in 1987 with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson.

Burning Shed is an independent record label established in April 2001 by musicians Tim Bowness, Pete Morgan and Peter Chilvers.

The ProjeKcts are a succession of spin-off projects associated with the band King Crimson.

<i>Together Were Stranger</i> 2003 studio album by No-Man

Together We're Stranger is No-Man's fifth studio album released by the Snapper Music label in 2003.

<i>Returning Jesus</i> 2001 studio album by No-Man

Returning Jesus is the fourth studio album by British art rock band No-Man, released on the 3rd Stone records in 27 March 2001.

Continuum is a collaborative ambient and drone music project between Bass Communion and Dirk Serries. The project looks to expand on the artists' "collective ambition and vision, motivated by their immense passion for a wide-range of musical styles, ranging from spacious ambience to pounding doom metal."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Sturt</span> Musical artist

Dave Sturt is an English bassist and record producer.

<i>Schoolyard Ghosts</i> 2008 studio album by No-Man

Schoolyard Ghosts is the sixth studio album by British art rock band No-Man.

<i>Bass Communion II</i> 1999 studio album by Bass Communion

Bass Communion II is the second studio album released in 1999 by British musician, songwriter, and producer Steven Wilson under the pseudonym Bass Communion. The first edition was a double album with a second disc containing a track of sampled material provided by Robert Fripp and a remix by The Square Root of Sub. The 2002 reissue of the album excludes the remix by The Square Root of Sub and moves the Fripp-based track to the first disc, taking the album to a single CD. The album was later released on vinyl in December 2007 by Tonefloat Records and includes exclusive bonus material on Side D. In November 2008, the album was re-issued together with III in a 2CD edition limited to 1,200 copies.

Peter Chilvers is a Cambridgeshire-based British musician and software designer.

Michael Bearpark is an English scientist and musician.

<i>Insurgentes</i> (album) 2008 studio album by Steven Wilson

Insurgentes is the debut full-length solo album released by British musician and record producer Steven Wilson, known for being the founder and frontman of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. The album was recorded all over the world in studios from Mexico City to Japan and Israel, between January and August 2008, and released in November 2008 as a special deluxe multi disc mail order version, with retail release to follow in February 2009. According to Wilson himself, the album contained "the most experimental song-based music [he had] made." The album is named after the Avenida de los Insurgentes, the longest avenue in Mexico City near which part of it was recorded.

Kscope is an independent record label that is part of Snapper Music, and a sister-label of Peaceville. It is dedicated to artists in the progressive rock genre. The label has released albums by Steven Wilson and his projects Porcupine Tree, No-Man and Blackfield. In 2008 it branched out and has since signed the post-progressive artists Anathema, Lunatic Soul and Ulver, and progressive rock stalwart Ian Anderson to their roster. In 2013, the Steven Wilson release The Raven That Refused to Sing received the Album of the Year award at the Progressive Music Awards.

<i>Grace for Drowning</i> 2011 studio album by Steven Wilson

Grace for Drowning is the second solo studio album by Steven Wilson, producer, songwriter, and frontman of Porcupine Tree. It was released by Kscope on 26 September 2011 as a double album. The album received a nomination at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards for Best Surround Sound Album.

<i>Cenotaph</i> (Bass Communion album) 2011 studio album by Bass Communion

Cenotaph is the ninth studio album released by British musician, songwriter and producer Steven Wilson under the pseudonym Bass Communion.

References

  1. ↑ "Theo Travis Biography". OLDIES.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  2. ↑ Lindsay, Bruce: Theo Travis: From Prog to Jazz and Back Again at All About Jazz
  3. ↑ "UK Jazz". Ukjazz.net. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  4. ↑ "Vermont Review: 21st Century Gong: An Interview with Theo Travis of Gong". Vermontreview.tripod.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  5. ↑ "Mike Outram - Guitarist, Composer, Teacher". Mike Outram. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  6. ↑ "- Home". Pete-whittaker.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  7. ↑ "Nic France". Sites.google.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
  8. ↑ Trenwith, Roger (2015). "Theo Travis' Double Talk, The Vortex Jazz Club, Dalston, London. 2nd July 2015". Theprogressiveaspect.net. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Podcast: Live From Progzilla Towers – Edition 129 – Dave Sturt's Top Ten (listen = from 09.57 to 12.47)". Progzilla.com. 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  10. ↑ "UK Jazz". Ukjazz.net. Archived from the original on 8 February 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.