Barre Phillips, The Bassist Who Revolutionized Improvisation, Dies at 90
Jazz and avant-garde bassist Barre Phillips has died at his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was 90 years old.
Phillips was born in San Francisco, California and studied with S. Charles Siani, the Assistant Principal Bassist with the San Francisco Symphony, in 1959. He began his professional career 1960 and moved to New York City in 1962. During this time he recorded with Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Giuffre, Archie Shepp, Peter Nero, and more.
He is widely regarded for his free improvisation. His 1968 album Journal Violone is credited as the first solo bass record, while a 1971 album with Dave Holland called Music From Two Basses is considered the first record of improvised bass duets.
His first recording was with Atilla Zoller in 1965, and his most recent was his solo album Face à Face for ECM Records in 2022. Phillips was constantly producing records and exploring the bass.
“One way or another, [my albums are] milestones. I’m still working today on the bass to develop technical things I can’t play,” he told us in a 2019 interview. “There are personal things that interest me. I’ve been working for years on spiccato bowing to develop something that is not just a reference to the classical use of spiccato. I want to find what we can play of personal music with the bow that is really your own stuff. I had done a lot of work with that in the area of playing harmonics with the bow. It’s an endless study and mastering of the harmonics on the bass.”
Watch the studio performance of “Chosen Spindel” from Face à Face with György Kurtág Jr. on live electronics.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Barre Phillips.
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
