Steve Beresford

Steve Beresford (born 6 March 1950) is a British musician who graduated from the University of York He has played a variety of instruments, including piano, electronics, trumpet, euphonium, bass guitar and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation, but has also written music for film and television and has been involved with a number of pop music groups.

Career

Beresford played in Derek Bailey's Company events and in the groups Alterations with David Toop, Terry Day and Peter Cusack, and the ''Three Pullovers'' with Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith. He was also a member with Gavin Bryars and Brian Eno of the Portsmouth Sinfonia.

Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of prominent musicians, including Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, and Han Bennink. He has collaborated extensively with Swiss-American artist/musician Christian Marclay and is member of the London Improvisers Orchestra.

From 2010 he performed various pieces by John Cage, including Indeterminacy with Tania Chen and comedian Stewart Lee, and a performance with Ilan Volkov at The BBC Proms 2012 at The Royal Albert Hall in London.

He has also worked with a number of popular musicians, including Ray Davis, The Slits, Frank Chickens, Ted Milton and The Flying Lizards. In 2015 he performed a duoproject with the upcoming Norwegian singer Natalie Sandtorv at the Blow Out! festival in Oslo, Norway.

He was awarded a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2012. He is a senior lecturer on the Commercial Music course at University of Westminster.

Beresford's music and his teachings have inspired the musical community in the UK for over a decade. British songwriter and performer Katy Carr cites Steve Beresford's lectures on musical themes associated with Free improvisation, Experimental music, John Cage, musique concrète, Diamanda Galás and The Slits as a source of initial inspiration with regards to the creation of her debut album, ''Screwing Lies'' released in 2001.

The authors of the ''Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' called Beresford "one of the unsung geniuses of modern European music, a constant presence whose contribution is usually unremarked."

Discography

* 1975 ''Teatime'' with Nigel Coombes, John Russell, Dave Solomon, Garry Todd (Incus)
* 1980 ''Whirled Music'' with Paul Burwell, Max Eastley, David Toop (Quartz Publications)
* 1980 ''White String's Attached'' with Nigel Coombes (Bead)
* 1980 ''The Bath of Surprise'' (Piano)
* 1980 ''Imitation of Life'' with Tristan Honsinger, Toshinori Kondo, David Toop (Y)
* 1981 ''Double Indemnity'' with Tristan Honsinger (Y)
* 1986 ''Deadly Weapons'' with Tonie Marshall, David Toop, John Zorn (Nato)
* 1986 ''Dancing the Line'' with Anne Marie Beretta (Nato)
* 1987 ''Avril Brise'' (Cinenato)
* 1987 ''Directly to Pyjamas'' with Han Bennink (Nato)
* 1988 ''L'Extraordinaire Jardin De Charles Trenet'' (Chabada)
* 1989 ''Pentimento'' (Cinenato)
* 1995 ''Signals for Tea'' (Avant)
* 1996 ''Short in the U.K.'' with Palmer, Stagner, Turner (Incus)
* 1996 ''Cue Sheets'' (Tzadik)
* 1996 ''Fish of the Week'' (Scatter)
* 1997 ''Two to Tangle'' with Nigel Coombes (Emanem)
* 1999 ''Foxes Fox'' with Evan Parker, John Edwards, Louis Moholo (Emanem)
* 2001 ''3 Pianos'' with Pat Thomas, Veryan Weston (Emanem)
* 2002 ''Cue Sheets II'' (Tzadik)
* 2002 ''Steve Beresford'' (Kabukikore)
* 2002 ''B + B'' with Han Bennink (Instant Composers Pool)
* 2003 ''Live at the Friends Meeting House'' (Planet Mu)
* 2003 ''Trap Street'' with Alan Tomlinson, Roger Turner (Emanem)
* 2003 ''Guarda Avanti'' with Mike Cooper, Max Eastley, Viv Dogan Corringham, Lol Coxhill (Hipshot)
* 2004 ''I Shall Become a Bat'' (Qbico)
* 2004 ''Ointment'' with Tania Chen (Rossbin)
* 2009 ''Check for Monsters'' with Okkyung Lee, Peter Evans (Emanem)
* 2011 ''Wels, Mulhouse, Paris & Lyon'' with Noel Akchote, Andrew Sharpley
* 2011 ''Ink Room'' with Stephen Flinn, Dave Tucker (Creative Sources)
* 2011 ''Snodland'' with Matt Wilson (Nato)
* 2012 ''Indeterminacy'' with Tania Chen, Stewart Lee (Knitted)
* 2012 ''Berlin Toy Bazaar'' with Anna Homler, Richard Sanderson (Linear Obsessional Recordings)
* 2013 ''Overground to the Vortex'' with Francois Carrier, Michel Lambert, John Edwards (Not Two)
* 2013 ''Three Babies'' with Martin Kuechen, Stale Liavik Solberg (Peira)
* 2014 ''Passages'' with Shezad Dawoo (Op.50)
* 2015 ''Will It Float?'' with Russell, Edwards, Liavik Solberg (Va Fongool)
* 2015 ''Outgoing'' with Francois Carrier, John Edwards, Michel Lambert (FMR)
* 2015 ''Live at White Cube''
* 2015 ''Blow Out!'' with Paal Nilssen-Love, Stale Liavik Solberg (Konsertforeninga)
* 2017 ''Kontakte Trio'' with Trevor Taylor, Ian Brighton (FMR)
* 2017 ''Hesitantly Pleasant'' Mike Caratti, Rachel Musson (Iluso)
* 2017 ''Live in Prague'' with Houtcamp, Blume
* 2018 ''Pleasures of the Horror'' with Eugene Chadbourne, Alex Ward (Bisou)
* 2019 ''All Will Be Said, All to Do Again'' with Sarah Gail Brand, John Edwards, Mark Sanders (Regardless)

References

Notes

*Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Canada

*Christoph Wagner: Steve Beresford in "Neue Zeitschrift für Musik",Schott Music,Mainz,Germany, 2007

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beresford, Steve
1950 births
Living people
Free jazz pianists
Free improvisation
English experimental musicians
Alumni of the University of York
People from Wellington, Shropshire
Tzadik Records artists
Avant-garde jazz pianists
21st-century pianists
Incus Records artists