Roger Turner (musician)

Roger Turner at Cafe Oto (London), July 2011. Photo: Andy Newcombe

Roger Turner (* 1946 in Whitstable near Canterbury ) is a British drummer of modern jazz and new improvisation music .

Live and act

Turner, who studied at Sussex University , made his first appearance as a professional jazz musician in 1966 with Chris Biscoe in Brighton. In 1968 he went to London, where he became a member of the Ghanaian percussion group Mask . He also toured with the experimental Ritual Theater , with which he made his first recordings for the BBC in 1972.

In the early 1970s he appeared as a soloist at the Bracknell Jazz Festival and the Bruxelles Festival of Percussion . In 1979 he played the album Sunday Best with saxophonist Gary Todd . In the same year he took on the album Artless Sky with John Russell and Toshinori Kondo . In 1981 Turner released his first solo album The Blur Between .

In 1980 and 1983 he received grants from the Arts Council to deepen his knowledge of percussion and electroacoustic music . From 1984 to 1985 he attended courses at Alan Silva's school in Paris. At the same time he worked with experimental rock groups and with singers such as Annette Peacock , Phil Minton and Vanessa Mackness . He was also the musical partner of Toshinori Kondō , Derek Bailey , Dorothea Schürch , Evan Parker , Cecil Taylor and Otomo Yoshihide and performed with groups such as the Phil Minton Quartet (with Veryan Weston and John Butcher ), the Recedents (with Lol Coxhill and Mike Cooper ) and In the Tradition (with Alan Silva and Johannes Bauer ), in duos with John Russell and Phil Minton and various groups from Martin Klappers . Together with Tim Hodgkinson and Thomas Lehn , he has formed the improvisation trio Konk Pack since 1997 , with whom he has released three albums and toured North America in 2001.

Discographic notes

• Artless Sky with John Russell and Toshinori Kondo, 1979
• The Blur Between , solo album, 1981
• Jon Rose Forward of Short Leg , 1981-1984
• Lol Coxhill Couscous , 1983
• Ammo with Phil Minton, 1984
• The Recendents: Frog Dance , 1985
• The Recedents: Barbecue Strut , 1986
• Take Some Risks with Alan Silva, Misha Lobko , Didier Petit , Bruno Girard. 1986
• The Ferrals with Phil Minton, Hugh Davies and Alan Tomlinson : Ruff , 1986
• The Recedents: Zombie Bloodbath on the Isle of Dogs , 1988
• In the Tradition with Alan Silva and Johannes Bauer, 1993
• Dada there with Phil Minton, 1993
• Short in the UK with Steve Beresford , Dennis Palmer and Bob Stagner , 1994
• The Comfort of Madness with Helge Hinteregger , 1995
• Recent Croaks with Martin Klapper, 1997
• Konk Pack Big Deep , 1998
• Umlaut with Birgit Ulher and Ulrich Phillipp , 2000
• Duos, London 2001 with Derek Bailey
• Lol Coxhill: Spectral Soprano , 2002
• The Tradition Trio: Tone , 2002
• Drainage with Phil Minton, 2003
• Trap Street with Steve Beresford and Alan Tomlinson, 2003
• Number Nine with Michael Keith and John Oswald , 2005
• Phil Minton Quartet: Slur with John Russell and Veryan Weston , 2006
• Konk Pack: The Black Hills , 2007/2008
• Daunik Lazro / Jean-François Pauvros / Roger Turner: Curare , 2012

Web links

Commons : Roger Turner  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Comprehensive discography
• Roger Turner at Allmusic (English)