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Bern Nix

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Bern Nix
Bern Nix, Les Gallery Clemente Soto Velez, February 2005
Bern Nix, Les Gallery Clemente Soto Velez, February 2005
Background information
BornSeptember 21, 1947
Toledo, Ohio, U.S.
DiedMay 31, 2017(2017-05-31) (aged 69)
New York City, U.S.
GenresAvant-garde jazz
OccupationMusician
InstrumentGuitar
Years active1975–2017
LabelsTompkins Square

Bern Nix (September 21, 1947 – May 31, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist. He recorded and performed with Ornette Coleman from 1975 to 1987 in Coleman's Prime Time band.[1]

Career

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A native of Toledo, Ohio, Nix was introduced to music in childhood and began playing the guitar at eleven years old. He listened intently to jazz guitarists, including Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Raney, Barney Kessel, and Charlie Christian. In 1975 he graduated from the Berklee College of Music.[2] For the next twelve years, he played guitar in Prime Time, Ornette Coleman's electric band.[2]

Nix led a trio with bassist William Parker and drummer David Cappello from 1985. In 1993, the trio of Newman Baker and Fred Hopkins released the album Alarms and Excursions. Nix then led a trio of Bassist Bill Zola and drummer Adrian Valosin from October 1994 - November 2005.[3] Nix released the solo album Low Barometer on Tompkins Square Records in September 2006. His composition "Les is More" appears on Art and Money, an album released by 1687, Inc. in 2006. In 2013, the Bern Nix Quartet, featuring Francois Grillot, Reggie Sylvester, and Matt Lavelle, released Negative Capability.[4]

He also worked with Jayne Cortez, Marc Ribot, Elliott Sharp, Jemeel Moondoc, Ronald Shannon Jackson, and John Zorn.[2]

Discography

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As leader

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  • Alarms and Excursions (New World/Counter Currents, 1993)
  • Low Barometer (Tompkins Square, 2006)
  • Negative Capability (56 Kitchen, 2013)
  • Tangerine (Milan, 2015)

As sideman

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With Ornette Coleman

With Jayne Cortez

  • Unsubmissive Blues (Bola Press, 1980)
  • There It Is (Bola Press, 1982)
  • Maintain Control (Bola Press, 1986)
  • Everywhere Drums (Bola Press, 1990)
  • Poetry & Music (Tradition & Moderne, 1994)
  • Cheerful & Optimistic (Bola Press, 1994)
  • Taking the Blues Back Home (Harmolodic/Verve, 1996)[5]
  • Borders of Disorderly Time (Bola Press, 2003)

With Jemeel Moondoc

With others

References

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  1. ^ Chinen, Nate (June 1, 2017). "Bern Nix, Guitarist Steeped in Ornette Coleman's Harmolodic Language, Dies at 69". WBGO. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Yanow, Scott (2013). The Great Jazz Guitarists. Milwaukee, WI: Backbeat. p. 145. ISBN 978-1-61713-023-6.
  3. ^ Alarms & Excursions - Bern Nix Trio | Album | AllMusic, retrieved July 23, 2024
  4. ^ "Bern Nix Quartet: Negative Capability". All About Jazz. July 14, 2013. Retrieved June 5, 2017.
  5. ^ "Taking the Blues Back Home". AllMusic. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
[edit]
  • Media related to Bern Nix at Wikimedia Commons
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