''Theoria'' is an album by

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London) 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 ...

and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, with pianist

Irène Schweizer Irène Schweizer (born 2 June 1941) is a Swiss jazz and free improvising pianist. She was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. She has performed and recorded numerous solo piano performances as well as performing as part of the Feminist Improvis ...

as soloist. Documenting a large-scale, 58-minute composition by Guy, it was recorded in February 1991 in Zürich, Switzerland, and was released in 1992 by

Intakt Records Intakt Records is an independent record label, based in Zürich. History The label was founded in 1986 by Patrik Landolt.Margasak, Peter (September 2013) "Intakt's Landolt Takes Long-Term Approach to Avant-Garde". ''Down Beat''. p. 16. In the ea ...

. The work is basically a concerto for Schweizer, and was presented in honor of her 50th birthday. ''Theoria'', which was commissioned by Fabrikjazz, based in

Rote Fabrik Rote Fabrik (''Red Factory'') is a former factory in the Wollishofen neighbourhood of Zürich, Switzerland. It is now used as a music venue and cultural centre. It is so named because the buildings are made of red brick, but also because left- ...

, Zürich, was premiered on February 17, 1991, at a concert organized by Rote Fabrik in collaboration with à-suivre-Basel (Kulturwerkstatt Kaserne) and Mühle Hunziken in

Rubigen Rubigen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History Rubigen is first mentioned in 1267 as ''Rubingen''. The oldest traces of a settlement in the area include scattered neolithi ...

, in the canton of

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

. As with many of Guy's compositions, the work attempts to find solutions to the challenges surrounding the coexistence of improvisation and composition. In the score, the starting and ending points for soloists are precisely demarcated, allowing the musicians a considerable amount of freedom within a fixed structure. Schweizer recalled: "I had to read at times, but actually my part was free, I had a lot of room for improvisation. Mainly I had to know where to come in."

Reception

In a review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Thom Jurek wrote: "This may be Guy's masterpiece in that here he has reached, finally, the perfect balance of incorporating all of his obsessions into one work: classical music, particularly the Romantic period, free jazz, new music, big band swing, blues, and soundtrack scores... Guy's entire sonic world opens up in color, tone, shade, and nuanced beauty. It is beyond language to interpret its effect, but its organization is so complex, so righteously taut with ideas and combinations of harmonic and contrapuntal interconnectedness it just boggles the mind even when looking at the score." The authors of ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'' wrote: "Guy attempts not to juxtapose blandly different styles of playing, but to overlap them creatively, creating diffraction patterns and points of maximum energy. In an orchestra of soloists, Schweizer stands out clearly but does not dominate; what happens is that her improvisations become the constituent elements of other musicians' activity."

Track listing

# "Theoria" (Barry Guy) – 57:50

Personnel

– bass, conductor *

– piano * Henry Lowther – trumpet * Jon Corbett – trumpet *

Marc Charig Mark Charig (born 22 February 1944 in London) is a British trumpeter and cornetist. He was particularly active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he played in settings as diverse as Long John Baldry's group, Bluesology, Soft Machine, and K ...

– cornet * Conrad Bauer – trombone *

Radu Malfatti Radu Malfatti is an Austrian trombone and harmonica player, and composer. He was born in Innsbruck, in the province of Tyrol, on December 16, 1943. Malfatti is associated with the style of music known as reductionism and has been described as "a ...

– trombone * Alan Tomlinson – trombone * Steve Wick – tuba *

Trevor Watts Trevor Charles Watts (born 26 February 1939) is an English jazz and free-improvising alto and soprano saxophonist. Biography Watts was born in York, England. He is largely self-taught, having taken up the cornet at age 12 then switched to s ...

– reeds *

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

– reeds * Simon Picard – reeds * Peter McPhail – reeds *

Paul Dunmall Paul Dunmall (born 6 May 1953) is a British jazz musician who plays tenor and soprano saxophone, as well as the baritone and the more exotic saxello and the Northumbrian smallpipes. He has played with Keith Tippett and Barry Guy. In the early ...

– reeds *

Philipp Wachsmann Philipp John Paul Wachsmann (born 5 August 1944) is an African avant-garde jazz/jazz fusion violinist born in Kampala, Uganda, probably better known for having founded his own group Chamberpot. He has worked with many musicians in the free jazz id ...

– violin *

Barre Phillips Barre Phillips (born October 27, 1934, in San Francisco, California, United States) is an American jazz bassist. A professional musician since 1960, he moved to New York City in 1962, then to Europe in 1967. Since 1972, he has been based in south ...

– bass *

Paul Lytton Paul Lytton (born 8 March 1947, London) is an English free jazz and free improvising percussionist. Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began ...

– drums

References

{{Reflist 1992 albums Barry Guy albums Irène Schweizer albums Intakt Records albums