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Alex Ward

Alex Ward is a composer, improviser, and performing musician. His primary instruments are clarinet and guitar, and he has also performed in public and on recordings on alto sax, piano/keyboards, bass guitar, and as a vocalist. His involvement in freely improvised music dates back to 1986, when he met the guitarist Derek Bailey. As an improviser, he was initially principally a clarinettist (sometimes also playing alto sax), but since 2000 he has also been active as an improvising guitarist. On both instruments, his longest-standing collaborations in this field have been with the drummer Steve Noble.

Alex Ward is a composer, improviser, and performing musician. His primary instruments are clarinet and guitar, and he has also performed in public and on recordings on alto sax, piano/keyboards, bass guitar, and as a vocalist. His involvement in freely improvised music dates back to 1986, when he met the guitarist Derek Bailey. As an improviser, he was initially principally a clarinettist (sometimes also playing alto sax), but since 2000 he has also been active as an improvising guitarist. On both instruments, his longest-standing collaborations in this field have been with the drummer Steve Noble.

Cremated Thoughts
2023 stock. Very much in the tradition of Anthony Braxton's seminal For Alto, or Evan Parker's Monocerous, this wonderful new album by clarinettist Alex Ward is improvised free jazz at its most unencumbered and radical, charting a solitary musician's excursion into pure expression. Divided into four segments, this set was committed to tape at Abbey Road Studios at the beginning of the year, taking in all manner of logic defying techniques and virtuosic sequences, as well as stretching the parame…
Right Here, Right Now
"The album offers a varied collection of adventurous improvisations in different constellations. Underlining that Keeffe is a multi-sided, very inventive and inspired musician." - Dolf Mulder Vital Weekly
Gated
There are enough ideas in the first couple of numbers to fill a whole album, with wailing sax and clarinet and lightning propelled guitar in the brief opener ‘Heat Patch’- think Zappa- then Fripp in ‘The Celebration Restriction’. It’s a whirlwind, visceral listen with the free spirit of experimental jazz and the nous of heavy rock." Phil Jackson. Conceived and realised over an 8-month period of intense solitary work, "Gated" is Alex Ward's most ambitious musical statement to date. The ten pieces…
Proprioception
"'Proprioception' initially focuses on his acoustic improvisations, studio recordings with a startlingly vivid and intimate sound, so near that one feels like an occupant of the clarinet itself. When he adds amplification to the clarinet he presses it into the sonic territory of an electric guitar." — The New York City Jazz Record "Not only London's, but probably the UK's finest exponent of free, extended technique improv on clarinet is also a gripping solo performer, as he proves here." — Jazzw…
Mopomoso Tour 2013 - Making Rooms
4-disc boxset with 20-page booklet documenting Mopomoso's triumphant UK tour in 2013. disc 1 – Evan Parker / John Russell / John Edwards – Chasing The Peripanjandra disc 2 – Pat Thomas – Naqsh disc 3 – Alison Blunt / Benedict Taylor / David Leahy – Knottings disc 4 – Kay Grant / Alex Ward – Seven Cities "On this evidence, 'Making Rooms' already seems certain to feature prominently in many an end-of-year list of best releases. Yes, a future classic." — All About Jazz "'Making Rooms' has a connect…
Pleasures of the Horror
Bisou Records asked Eugene Chadbourne to do an album for children and he proposed an album about horror movies and monsters. Some references are obvious, like “The Thing”, “Blacky Lagoony”, etc., and some are about strange characters, like “Vampire Tiger Girl”, and some are covers (Sam And The Shams, Shockabilly). It’s probably the best recorded album of Eugene Chadbourne. Eugene met Steve Beresford and Alex Ward in London at Eastcote Studios (where Adele, Duran Duran, Aswad, Tindersticks…
Clarinet Record
A five part suite evoking the memory of Jimmy Guiffre and Giancinto Scelsi. Alex's brilliant clarinet playing perfecty complements Coxon's musical experiments in which the listener's spatial perspectives are constantly being challenged-extremely vivid recordings of guitars, kalimbas, 78rpm recordings,pebbles, metal objects and handbells form surreal landscapes as he takes the listener on an extended musical journey.
Live In Antwerp
Recorded live in 2007 at the WIM free music festival,here we have Spring Heel Jack's penultimate live concert. This beautifully recorded set featuring the great Pat Thomas, Alex Ward and Paul Lytton captures the vivid and multilayered musical imaginations of this quintet brilliantly.An essential record.
Treader Duos
Recorded February 2008, this album captures a specially organised Treader concert at St Giles-in-the-Fields church in London's West End. A series of duos played at the event, each improvising over the course of a twenty-five minute set. First up, the excellent John Butcher (on tenor and soprano saxophones) pairs with drummer Mark Sanders for 'Tooth Pivot', an incredible opener that stumbles into life through the reverberant performance space, with Butcher at first sounding measured and contempla…
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