| Jair-Rohm Parker Wells | |
|---|---|
Jair-Rohm Parker Wells at the 2008 Zappanale Festival in Bad Doberan Germany |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Tacoma, Washington |
| Genres | free Jazz, Jazz |
| Occupations | bassist |
| Instruments | Bass guitar Electric upright bass |
| Years active | 1974 - present |
| Labels | Ayler Records, MussoMusic, Red Toucan |
| Associated acts | The Jair-Rohm Parker Wells Trio, The London Tourbillon |
| Website | http://www.myspace.com/jairrohm |
| Notable instruments | |
| Steinberger Bass guitar, NSD electric double bass | |
Jair-Rôhm Parker Wells (born October 13, 1958) is an American free jazz bassist (bass guitar and electric upright bass), composer and conceptualist. He is one of the founding members of the improvising band Machine Gun which featured Thomas Chapin. Resident in Stockholm, Sweden since 1985, he has been active internationally as a promoter of improvised and experimental music performing and recording extensively. He has collaborated with Karl Berger, Daniel Carter, Jaron Lanier and Tony Scott among others.
Raised in southern Germany, Jair-Rôhm moved to New York in 1978. After touring the United States for a year with a top forty band he attended Tulane University in New Orleans. While at Tulane, he regularly performed with local jazz and rhythm and blues artists. He also performed as a member of Tulane University's Tulanians, met and studied with Richard Payne (the first person to record with the electric bass) and discovered the music of Harry Partch. He returned to the New York area in the fall of 1980 where he met and started work study under saxophonist/composer Ken Simon. During this period Jair-Rôhm also met Anthony Braxton and became involved in the study of his music. In 1982 Jair-Rôhm founded his own experimental music/theater group GLASS THOUGHT THEATER ENSEMBLE. Between 1982 and 1983 he was composer in residence at the New York Theater Ensemble (New York, N.Y.) where he wrote and produced a trilogy of progressive"operas". He received a MEET THE COMPOSER grant in 1983. From 1984 - 1985 he was resident in New Jersey where he continued composing and playing the bass. He was a founding member of the New Brunswick Jazz Musician's Collective (New Brunswick, N.J.) for which he composed and performed many significant works for various ensembles.
On 13 August 2008 Jair-Rohm performed alongside Elliott Levin (sax, flute, poetry) & Robbie Knight (longcat - rhodes electric piano) on yr3wk9 of the longcat weekly improvisation in London.
On 15 November 2008 Jair-Rohm returned to the longcat weekly improvisation for yr3wk22 with Robbie Knight (longcat).