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Jair-Rohm Parker Wells

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells (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 and Tony Scott among others.

Raised in southern Germany, Jair-Rohm 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- Rohm also met Anthony Braxton and became involved in the study of his music. In 1982 Jair-Rohm 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 13th 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 15th November 2008 Jair-Rohm returned to the longcat weekly improvisation for yr3wk22 with Robbie Knight (longcat).

Gear

Fichter Electric Upright Bass, NSD Electric Upright Bass.


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Take Five With...

Take Five With Jair-Rohm Parker Wells

Read "Take Five With Jair-Rohm Parker Wells" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Meet Jair-Rohm Parker Wells: Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is an improvising musician based in Stockholm, Sweden. Curator of the MEETING series of festivals and developer of Loopadelica, a method of improvising with looping devices. Bassist with the improvising trio Decision Dream. Current with the releases AMDG (Ad Majoram Dei Gloriam) on Klanggold and Meditations on Albert Ayler on Ayler Records.Bio: American bassist, composer, programmer, conceptualist and record producer Jair-Rohm Parker Wells has been a resident of Stockholm, Sweden since ...

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Interview

Bassist Jair-Rohm Parker Wells Summer 2011

Bassist Jair-Rohm Parker Wells Summer 2011

Source: Jair-Rohm Wells

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is a bassist who knows no limits. From ground-breaking slap bass on pop hits to avant-garde electronica to Jazz and Blues. He literally covers all basses. Jair-Rohm  rounded out last year with a new quartet release as well as a residency at the Lima Lima club in Pattaya, Thailand with other former members of the Dr. Alban touring band (of which he's been a member since the mid-nineties). This autumn, the bassist will host a series of ...

Primary Instrument

Bass, electric

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Music

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