Jon Gibson (minimalist musician)

Jon Gibson (March 11, 1940 – October 11, 2020) was an American flutist, saxophonist, composer, and visual artist, known as one of the founding members of the Philip Glass Ensemble and as a key player on several seminal minimalist music compositions.

This article is about the minimalist musician. For the Christian musician, see Jon Gibson (Christian musician).

Jon Gibson
Born(1940-03-11)March 11, 1940
DiedOctober 11, 2020(2020-10-11) (aged 80)
Education
Occupation
OrganizationPhilip Glass Ensemble

Education

Gibson studied at Sacramento State University and with Henry Onderdonk and Wayne Peterson at San Francisco State University, where he earned a BA in 1964. His earliest work as an improviser and composer also dates from around this time, when he performed in the New Music Ensemble with composers Larry Austin, Richard Swift, and Stanley Lunetta.[1]

Career

Gibson used various instruments from around the world in his performances of jazz and classical music. He was a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble ,[2] and his mastery of circular breathing techniques made him crucial to the development of Glass' sound.[3] Gibson performed in the premieres of In C by Terry Riley and Drumming by Steve Reich, as well as Reich's 1967 composition Reed Phase, which Reich wrote especially for him.[1][2] For a time in the 1960s, alongside Philip Glass & Steve Reich, Gibson performed the music of Moondog during weekly sessions with the composer, recordings of which were made by Reich.[4] He was briefly a member of the Theatre of Eternal Music with La Monte Young, and in the 1970s Gibson studied with Pandit Pran Nath.[5]

He also performed and recorded with other composers, some of them minimalists, as well as composing for choreographers, including Christian Wolff, David Behrman, Harold Budd, Alvin Curran, Arthur Russell, Annea Lockwood, Robert Ashley, Lucinda Childs, Robert Wilson and Frederic Rzewski.[1][2]

In 1973, Gibson's debut solo recording Visitations was released on the Chatham Square label, run by Philip Glass.[6][7] Visitations is a departure from the structured repetitions of his minimalist contemporaries, instead using field recordings, ambient flutes, synthesizers and free-flowing percussive textures. In 1977 Two Solo Pieces was released, also on the Chatham Square imprint, consisting of the droning organ composition Cycles and Untitled, a piece for solo alto flute.[7]

Gibson was also an accomplished visual artist.[8] Throughout his career, he created numerous graphic text based works laden with musical information.[9] He also created the cover artwork for albums such as Two Solo Pieces and Criss X Cross.[8][7]

Gibson died on October 11, 2020 from complications of a brain tumor.[10] [11][2]

Discography

Gibson's recordings include:

  • Visitations (1973, Chatham Square)[7]
  • Two Solo Pieces (1977, Chatham Square)[7]
  • In Good Company (1992, Point Music)[8]
  • Criss X Cross (2006, Tzadik)[7]
  • The Dance (2013, Orange Mountain Music)[7]
  • Relative Calm (2016, New World Records)[7]
  • Violet Fire - An Opera About Nikola Tesla (2019, Orange Mountain Music)
  • Songs & Melodies, 1973-1977 (2020, Superior Viaduct)

References
  1. Strickland 2001.
  2. Hussey 2020.
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/arts/music/jon-gibson-dead.html?auth=linked-google1tap
  4. Glass 2007, p. Preface.
  5. Young 2018, p. 12, 15.
  6. Discogs 2016.
  7. AllMusic 2020.
  8. Gramophone 1993.
  9. Powell 2016.
  10. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/arts/music/jon-gibson-dead.html?auth=linked-google1tap
  11. Hughes 2020.

Cited sources
  • "Jon Gibson (2)". Discogs. Retrieved December 25, 2016.
  • Glass, Philip (2007). The Viking of 6th Avenue . Feral House. ISBN 978-0976082286.
  • Hussey, Allison (October 13, 2020). "Jon Gibson, Minimalist Composer, Dead at 80 / The woodwinds performer championed minimalism as a founding member of the Philip Glass Ensemble". pitchfork.com/. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  • Josiah, Hughes (October 13, 2020). "R.I.P. Minimalist Composer Jon Gibson". exclaim.ca. Retrieved October 13, 2020.
  • Powell, Britton (2016). "Jon Gibson". BOMB. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  • Strickland, Edward (2001). Sadie, Stanley (ed.). Gibson, Jon (Charles). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers.
  • Young, La Monte (2018). "Marian Zazeela 78th Birthday Tribute Celebration / Two Morning Concerts of Raga Bhairava". New York, NY: Mela Foundation. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  • "Jon Gibson / Discography". AllMusic. 2020. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  • "Jon Gibson In Good Company". Gramophone. June 1993. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
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