"Paul Rogers - Double Bass

Born : April 27th, 1956 - Chester (Wales)Past Bands : Keith Tippett Sextet (1978, 1983-84), Elton Dean Quintet (1979, 1995), John Stevens Away (1980), Skidmore/Rogers/Levin (1984-87), Dunmall/Rogers/Levin (1984-87), Mujician (1988-), Pip Pyle's Equip'Out (1990-95), Sophia Domancich Trio (1990-99)Current Projects : Mujician + various jazz groups

A Short Bio:

For Paul Rogers, music began in earnest at age 12, when he first picked up an acoustic guitar. In a way this was the shape of things to come, since that particular guitar only had four strings left. Two years later, he took up bass guitar, and then, with the money earned from various jobs, finally acquired his own double bass in 1973.

Moving to London in 1974, Rogers started gigging in pubs, until he met saxophone player Mike Osborne, and through him was introduced to the free jazz scene, soon sharing the stage with such luminaries as Elton Dean, Keith Tippett, John Stevens, Howard Riley, Stan Tracey, Ken Hyder, Alan Skidmore, Evan Parker, Tony Marsh, Kenny Wheeler and John Etheridge. During this period, he was rarely in the same group for too long, preferring to accumulate experience through associations with as many musicians as possible.

After 1984, however, he started working on a regular basis with drummer Tony Levin, in trios with either Alan Skidmore or Paul Dunmall. In 1988, the Dunmall/Rogers/Levin trio with absorbed into the acclaimed improvising quartet Mujician, which associated them with pianist Keith Tippett. The group has existed ever since, playing totally spontaneous music, and released several albums for the US label Cuneiform.

In 1987, Rogers moved to the USA, living in New York City (and more precisely Bronx) for a year and a half, and playing with the likes of Gerry Hemingway, Don Byron, Myra Melford, Mark Dresser, Tom Cora and Tim Berne. Soon after returning to Europe, he was recruited by Pip Pyle for the new line-up of his jazz quartet Equip'Out. Elton Dean and Sophia Domancich completed the group, which only lasted for a handful of gigs and an album recording, "Up!". Although Equip'Out didn't record after Domancich left in 1991, the band continued until 1995, with Francis Lockwood taking over on piano, followed by Patrice Meyer who introduced guitar into a previously piano-based line-up.

Having established both a musical and personal relationship with Sophia Domancich during their Equip'Out days, Rogers joined her trio, with Bruno Tocanne on drums, soon replaced by Tony Levin, a line-up which remained in place until 1999 and recorded several acclaimed albums. Now settled in France, Rogers has also worked with such improvisers as Michel Doneda and Daunik Lazro, but remains active on an international basis, having worked in recent years with Andrew Cyrille, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill, Barry Guy, Joachim Kuhn, Alex von Schlippenbach.

Rogers is also a composer, and has been involved with different bands playing his tunes, among which the most notable was 7 R.P.M. and the Paul Rogers Sextet (which did a 10-date UK tour in November 1990 performing his 'Anglo-American Sketches' suite). He received three commisions from the Arts Council of Great Britain to compose music for his own band. Under his own name, he released a quartet album with frequent associates Paul Dunmall, Sophia Domancich and Tony Levin, as well as an entirely solo set.

Among Rogers' tours, four of the most outstanding were the Harry Beckett Trio middle east tour in 1984, Evan Parker Trio tour of Rumania, Yugaslavia and Greece in 1985, First House tour of South America in 1986, and the Dennis Gonzales Band tour of the USA, featuring Carlos Ward and Tim Green in 1990."