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Barney Wilen

Born in Nice in 1937 to a French mother and an American father, he left France with his family in 1940 and spent the next six years in America, where an uncle gave him a saxophone. He also possessed an inquiring and unorthodox mind, and was keen to venture beyond the confines of an idiom he had so quickly masteredHis style was never one that cried out for attention, but it evolved into an approach that could hold its own among the hard-bop giants of the day, such as Roy Haynes, Milt Jackson and Donald Byrd, with whom he also recorded during the 1950s.
Born in Nice in 1937 to a French mother and an American father, he left France with his family in 1940 and spent the next six years in America, where an uncle gave him a saxophone. He also possessed an inquiring and unorthodox mind, and was keen to venture beyond the confines of an idiom he had so quickly masteredHis style was never one that cried out for attention, but it evolved into an approach that could hold its own among the hard-bop giants of the day, such as Roy Haynes, Milt Jackson and Donald Byrd, with whom he also recorded during the 1950s.
Jazz Sur Seine
A fantastic early recording from the great French tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen – best known as an artist who recorded famously in the soundtrack world of the French new wave, and with Art Blakey – but who's even more striking here on a rare small c…
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
*In process of stocking.* In 1957, Miles Davis is in Paris for an engagement at the ‘Club Saint-Germain’ and a wonderful concert at the Olympia Theatre. Once in Paris, Miles came into contact with many members of the modern existentialist cultural en…
Un Témoin Dans la Ville
Barney Wilen's career took off in 1957. That year he won the Django Reinhardt Award and recorded the soundtrack to the film 'Ascenseur pour l'échafaud' with Miles Davis. In '59 he recorded the music for the film 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' with Thelon…
French Story
* 180 gram yellow audiophile vinyl* This is a much better album than the title might suggest. Wilen still has the blend of tasteful restraint and inventiveness which marked his memorable duet with Miles Davis for the soundtrack of L’Ascenseur Pour L’…
Zodiac
We Are Busy Bodies announces the officially licensed reissue of the 1966 cosmic, free jazz album Zodiac by French saxophonist and composer Barney Wilen. The album’s astrological theme and Robert Crumb-esque comic-book style cover art, illustrated by …
Moshi
**Edition of 250 copies: comes in additional Silkscreened Outer Sleeve and includes 2 clear vinyl LPs, a clear vinyl 7'', a DVD and a 20 page Booklet.** Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and …
La Chasse Au Snark
**Double LP, limited edition** In 1967, 1968 and 1969 most of my works were happenings loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting Of The Snark, a not-so-cryptic poem that, to my mind, gave clues to free the theatre in the same way the “new music” h…
Moshi Too
2012 Release. 80 Minutes of previously unreleased recordings from 1969-70, not to be found on the tenor player's regular "Moshi" album. Dark and trance-like amalgam of Afro-blues, acid-rock jams, polyphonic rhythms and spiritual jazz influences from …
Le Nouveau Jazz
With track titles translating to Song For The Devil and The Witches, Francois Tusques’ rarest commercially released LP casts an early stylistic premonition of the vampire themed improvised soundtracks recorded for director Jean Rollin merely months a…
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