Bob Downes


Robert George Downes is an English avant-garde jazz flautist and saxophonist. He is known for his work with Mike Westbrook and for leading the Open Music Trio since 1968. Downes is also a composer, arranger, and singer of rock and blues.

Career

His first album was released by Philips Records in 1969. He was voted best jazz flautist and formed various ensembles. He started his own record label, Openinan. He played with the John Barry 7, pop singer Chris Andrews, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, and the Jimmie Nicol Band.
In 1968 he formed the Open Music Trio. The trio has included at bass Paul Bridge, Andrew Cleyndert, Jeff Clyne, Barry Guy, Mark Megiddo, Harry Miller, Glen Moore, Barre Phillips, and Daryl Runswick.
Downes played and recorded with Ray Russell's Rock Workshop and singers Elke Brooks, Alex Harvey, and Julie Driscoll. In the 1970s he was a member of Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra. He also played with the Mike Westbrook Band and the Keith Tippett Band.
Downes composed for modern dance with The Royal Ballet, The London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Ballet Rambert, Dance Theatre of Harlem, The Royal Canadian Ballet, Australian Dance Company, Miami World Ballet, Komische Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Stuttgart, and Hong Kong Ballet. He composed for and performed with the Swiss mime group Mummenschanz. Downes performed at a poetry festivals in Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome with William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Albums

On Diversions Downes played concert, alto, and Chinese bamboo flutes and tenor sax. Five of the eight pieces are trios with double bass and drums. The other three pieces are solos: on "Samurai" Downes played concert and alto flutes into a piano with the sustain pedal pressed down to give a tuned resonance. In 2007 Diversions was re-released by Vocalion.
Hells Angels has a long big-band piece covering side one of the original LP, with a set of trio pieces on side 2. Downes plays mainly sax on this record. After moving to Germany in the late 1970s, Downes released several further records, including Solos, an LP of solo flute improvisations.

Discography

Open Music, 1970
Deep Down Heavy, 1970
Electric City, 1970
Diversions, 1972
Episodes at 4 a.m., 1974
Hells Angels - A Visit to the Devil, 1975
Solos, c. 1984
Songs For Mother Earth, 1997
Downes and Baumeister, 1998
The Inner Universe I, II & III, 1998
You're Funkin' Good, 2001
Bob Downes & the Alphorn Brothers, 2004
Flashback, 2009
Crossing Borders, 2009
5 Trios, 2010
New York Suite, 2011
Mixed Bags, 2012
Requiem for Faruq Z. Bey, 2012
Blowin' with Piano, 2015
Blowin’ with Bass
It's A Mystery, 2017
3 Trios, 2017
Let Your Mind... Space Out - 80th Birthday Celebration, 2017
Jazz Party, 2018
A Blast … from the Past, 2018
With Barry Guy/The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra