Roger T. Dean

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Roger T. Dean (born September 6, 1948 in Manchester ) is a British biologist and musician ( pianist , bassist, vibraphonist and synthesizer player ) of jazz and improvised music .

Live and act

Roger Dean learned the double bass as a teenager and played in the National Youth Orchestra . He studied biology at the University of Cambridge (BA, MA, Ph.D.) and had his first appearances as a musician there in the late 1960s. At the same time, he successfully pursued a career as a scientist and as a musician. He has lived and worked in Australia since 1988 .

Career as a musician

From 1973 he played with Graham Collier's band; In 1975 he founded his own improvisation ensemble "Lysis" in London, with which he recorded three albums (with Kenny Wheeler among others ). He has also worked with Harry Beckett , Tony Coe , Tony Oxley , Derek Bailey , the London Jazz Composers Orchestra , Barry Guy , Terje Rypdal and many others on the English avant-garde jazz scene. With solo programs he made numerous tours through Scandinavia, Australia, Israel and Great Britain. He was also active as an author, critic and composer. He is influenced by Cecil Taylor as well as by Bill Evans and in his bass playing by Barre Phillips ; in his works he also uses elements from Webern , Cage , Coltrane and Miles Davis .

After moving to Australia he continued to work as an improvisation musician with his own band called “AustraLYSIS”. He has also published extensively on improvisation music, most recently in particular on human-machine interactions in improvisation, but also on sound research.

Career as a scientist

Dean initially worked as a biochemist in structural research before turning to molecular cell biology . From 1979 he was a "reader" at Brunel University , where he received his doctorate again in 1984 and was a full professor of cell biology. In 1988 he accepted the post as founding director of the Heart Research Center in Sydney , Australia. He remained there until 2002 and worked among other things, on the cholesterol - metabolism . From 2002 to 2007 he served as Vice Chancellor and President of the University of Canberra . Since then, Dean has been a research professor at the MARCS Auditory Laboratories at the University of Western Sydney . There he works primarily in the field of cognitive science , combining his knowledge of making music with physiological processes such as the perception of rhythm or affect .

Dean published three scientific monographs as author and six volumes as editor as well as 280 articles in international journals and series.

Literature (selection)

  • RT Dean Creative Improvisation: Jazz, Contemporary Music and Beyond , Open University Press, UK / USA, 1989 (136 pages)
  • RT Dean New Structures in Jazz and Improvised Music since 1960 , Open University Press, UK / USA, 1991 (230 pages)
  • HA Smith and RT Dean Improvisation, Hypermedia and the Arts since 1945 , Harwood Academic, 1997 (334 pages)
  • RT Dean Hyperimprovisation: Computer Interactive Sound Improvisation , AR Editions, Madison, WI (USA), 2003 (203 pages)
  • RT Dean Sounds from the Corner: Australian Contemporary Jazz on CD since 1973 , Australian Music Center, Sydney, 2005 (193 pages)

Discographic notes

  • AustralYSIS: The Next Room (Tall Poppies, 1992)

Secondary literature

Web links