John Greaves (musician)

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John Greaves (2007 at a RIO festival in the south of France)

John Greaves (born January 23, 1950 in Prestatyn , Wales ) is a British musician ( bass guitar , piano , vocals), who was best known for his time with the art rock band Henry Cow and his collaboration with Peter Blegvad . He was also a member of National Health . He has released several solo albums, notably Accident (1982), Parrot Fashions (1984), The Caretaker (2001) and Greaves Verlaine (2008).

Live and act

Greaves grew up in Wrexham in north-west Wales. At the age of 12 he was given a bass guitar by his father, who ran a Welsh dance band. As a teenager he played in his father's orchestra. From 1968 he attended Pembroke College ; In 1971 he completed his studies in English literature with a master's degree from Cambridge University . During his studies he became a member of Henry Cow in 1969 , where he stayed until 1976. He then founded Kew in New York with Peter Blegvad and the singer Lisa Herman . Rhone. Then he returned to England, where he worked in the theater as a musician and actor. In 1978 he became a member of National Health and stayed with that band until it was dissolved. From 1977 to 1988 he also played with Elton Dean , Pip Pyle and Mark Hewins in the formation Soft Heap. During this time he began his solo projects, but also performed with the Penguin Cafe Orchestra and the Michael Nyman Band . In other projects of his own he worked with Sophia Domancich , François Ovide and Paul Rogers . On his album songs also were Robert Wyatt , Susan Belling, Kristoffer Blegvad and Caroline Loeb involved. In addition to his electric trio Roxongs, he founded an acoustic trio of jazz songs with Sophia Domancich and Vincent Courtois , which released the album The Trouble with Happiness in 2003 . The album Chansons (2004) followed with Élise Caron . He has also set poems by Paul Verlaine to music ( Greaves Verlaine , 2008). With Hélène Labarrière he founded the project Dedicated to You or Dondestan , which interprets songs by Robert Wyatt with Karen Mantler , Dominique Pifarély , Sylvain Kassap , Jacques Mahieux and other musicians. Together with Annie Barbazza , he was central to the reinterpretation of Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom by the North Sea Radio Orchestra , which was presented at the Rock in Opposition Festival in Lyon and at Cafe Oto in London in 2019 .

Discographic notes

  • 1976 - Kew. Rhone. ( Virgin )
  • 1982 - Accident (Europe)
  • 1984 - Parrot Fashions (Europe)
  • 1991 - La petite bouteille de linge (La Lichère)
  • 1995 - Songs (Resurgence)
  • 2000 - On the Street Where You Live (Blueprint, with Marcel Ballot and Patrice Meyer )
  • 2001 - The Caretaker (Blueprint)
  • 2003 - The Trouble with Happiness ( Harmonia Mundi )
  • 2004 - Chansons (Harmonia Mundi)
  • 2005 - Tambien 1–7 (Resurgence)
  • 2008 - Greaves Verlaine (ZigZag Territoires / Harmonia Mundi)
  • 2018 - Life Size (Manticore Records)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Review: North Sea Radio Orchestra with John Greaves & Annie Barbazza. Retrieved September 27, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Greaves, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Prestatyn , Wales