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 combo date from the 50s! The session's a monster – cut with rhythmic backing by Milt Jackson on piano (!?), Percy Heath on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums – and two cuts feature additional percussion by Gana M'Bow, which gives the set a wonderful kick…
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 Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey, and then composed the music for the film 'Un témoin dans la ville' directed by Edouard Molinaro. For this nocturnal tour through Paris, Barney Wilen is surrounded by the musicians who have been accompanying him for several w…
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 the renowned cartoonist Siné, marks it as a European parallel to the burgeoning counter-cultural happenings of the same period in the USA.
The reissue also offers tantalising glimpses of a projected animated tie-in film that never was. Wilen's friend…
Moshi
Much needed repress. Originally issued by the seminal imprint Saravah in 1972, and among the most uncategorizable and sought after artefacts of the French avant-garde, Barney Wilen’s Moshi is nothing short of a masterpiece - long holding a coveted spot in the hearts of adventurous listeners and record collectors alike. A wild unkept cultural collage. A series of sonic experiments. A spiritual, psychedelic pilgrimage into the unknown - darting from one continent to the next, each of its tangents …
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” had freed jazz. It never made it to record and I gave up on the idea when I met Sunny Murray and Alan Silva when they arrived in Paris in the summer of ‘69. Few concert venues would have anything to do with us but we didn’t want that kind of connectio…