John Surman

Genres:	Foreign Films • Jazz
Descriptive "tags":	jazz • ecm • contemporary jazz • experimental • sax • saxophone
Decades Active:	1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s
Links online:	BBC Music • IMDb • Official Homepage • Wikipedia

Biography

John Douglas Surman, 30 August 1944, Tavistock, Devon, England. Surman is a remarkable player on soprano and baritone saxophones, bass clarinet, bamboo flutes and sometimes tenor saxophone and synthesizers. He was a member of the Jazz Workshop at Plymouth Arts Centre with Mike Westbrook while still at school, and relocated to London with Westbrook’s band in 1962. He studied at London College of Music (1962-65) and London University Institute of Education (1966). By the time he ceased to be a regular member of Westbrook’s band in 1968 he was also working in Ronnie Scott’s nine-piece outfit (the Band), with Humphrey Lyttelton and had twice been voted the world’s best baritone saxophone player by Melody Maker readers as well as top instrumentalist at the 1968 Montreux International Jazz Festival. Since then various of his albums have collected awards from all over the world.

From 1968-69 Surman led a group, varying from a...

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