Chris Laurence

The title of this article is ambiguous. For more people with a similar name, see Chris Lawrence .

Chris Laurence, 2017

Chris Laurence (born January 6, 1949 in London ) is a British double bass player who has become known in the field of modern jazz as well as classical music.

Life

Laurence comes from a musical family (his father was the pianist Tony Laurence, his grandmother the harpist Marie Goosens). At the age of seven he learned piano; he was instructed at the Royal Junior College of Music . As a teenager he switched to the double bass and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with James Merret. He also played in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra .

In the late 1960s he played with many jazz musicians on the London scene such as Frank Ricotti and Mike Westbrook . In the early 1970s he worked with Alan Skidmore's quintet , the sextets of John Taylor , Mick Pyne and Stan Sulzmann , but also in the group of Kenny Wheeler . Then he was part of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In the 1980s he starred with Tony Oxley , Tony Coe , Ian Carr , Michael Garrick and John Surman . In 1984 Laurence became the first bassist to join the London Bach Orchestra . He also worked with the Chamber Orchestra of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields until 1995 . He also performed with Norma Winstone , with JJ Johnson , with Gordon Beck , with John Williams , with the Michael Nyman Band , with Andy Sheppard , with John Law Cornucopia Ensemble, Brigitte Beraha and with Elton John , with Elvis Costello , with Sting and with David Gilmour up. It was not until 2007 that a publication appeared under his own name.

Discography (selection)

• Elton Dean , Alan Skidmore, Chris Laurence, John Marshall El Skid (Vinyl Records 1977)
• Coe - Hymas - Laurence Les Sources Bleues (Nato 1991)
• New View (Basho Records 2007, with Frank Ricotti, John Parricelli , Martin France and Norma Winstone)

With Alan Skidmore

• TCB ( Philips Records 1970)

With John Surman

• Morning Glory ( Island Records 1973)
• The Brass Project ( ECM Records 1993)
• Stranger than Fiction (ECM Records 1993)

With John Taylor

• Pause, and Think Again (Turtle Records 1971)
• Decipher ( MPS Records 1973)

With Kenny Wheeler

• Kayak (Ah Um Records 1992)
• Dream Sequence (PSI Records 2003)
• The Long Waiting (CAM Jazz 2012)
• Songs for Quintet (ECM Records 2015)

With Elton Dean

• They All Be on This Old Road ( Ogun Records 1977)

Lexigraphic entries

• Ian Carr , Digby Fairweather , Brian Priestley : Rough Guide Jazz. The ultimate guide to jazz music. 1700 artists and bands from the beginning until today. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1999, ISBN 3-476-01584-X .
• John Chilton : Who's Who of British Jazz. Continuum, London 2004, ISBN 0-8264-7234-6 .

Web links

• Web presence
• Chris Laurence at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Review of The View