Adrian Francis Utley (born 27 April 1957) is an English musician, record producer, and a member of the band
Portishead.
[Jurek, Thom]
Adrian Utley Biography
, Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
. Retrieved 31 December 2016
Career
Born in
Northampton
Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...
,
[Mejia, Paula (2015)]
In Search Of Intensity, Musicians Turn To Adrian Utley
, NPR, 6 May 2015. Retrieved 31 December 2016 Utley moved to Bristol in the mid 1980s, and heavily into jazz, played guitar with
Big John Patton's touring band and
Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.
He built up a collection of vintage instruments and studio equipment, and moved into production and film work.
Portishead formed in 1990 with the first album ''
Dummy'' released in 1994 followed by ''
Portishead'' in 1997.
''Third'' was released in April 2008. During Portishead's hiatus between the second and third albums, Utley's production work included
Beth Gibbons and Rustin' Man's ''Out of Season'' and he worked with fellow Portishead member
Geoff Barrow as the Jimi Entley Sound and Fuzzface.
During his career, Utley has recorded with artists as diverse as
Marilyn Manson,
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English musician. He rose to prominence as the guitarist of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, ...
,
Torres,
Perfume Genius,
Alain Bashung and
Marianne Faithfull,
and his film work includes ''Sound'' by
Nic Roeg and ''Spiders from Mars'' with
David Attenborough.
In 2009, he was part of the jazz collective
Stonephace, releasing a self-titled album.
In 2010, he composed a new soundtrack for silent film ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' with Will Gregory (of
Goldfrapp), performed by a 23 piece orchestra conducted by
Charles Hazlewood. In 2012, he was commissioned by the
National Trust to produce "Sonic Journey," a piece of music inspired by walking among the trees at
Croft Castle. In 2013, he performed
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist music, minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notab ...
's "In C" with an ensemble including a bass clarinet, four organs (played by Hazlewood), and 19 guitars (including
John Parish), the performance released on CD later that year.
, ''The Wire
''The Wire'' is an American Crime fiction, crime Drama (film and television), drama television series created and primarily written by the American author and former police reporter David Simon for the cable network HBO. The series premiered o ...
'', 6 August 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2016
In April 2018 he featured in an episode of series 45 of the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
programme '' Great Lives'', speaking in praise of Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
.
Credits
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Utley, Adrian
1957 births
English jazz guitarists
English male guitarists
Living people
Musicians from Northampton
Portishead (band) members
British male jazz musicians
Musicians from Bristol