Guillermo Gregorio
Atavistic
Given that he was born into a musical household in the musical capital of Buenos Aires, Argentina in the early 1940s, it came as little surprise to anyone that the cerebral and artistically inclined Guillermo Gregorio was drawn to jazz as a teenager. While he initially played Chicago-style jazz, exposure as a young man to the groundbreaking modern jazz of musicians like Ornette Coleman as well as 20th century classical music and early musique concrete inspired Gregorio to begin his career-long exploration of the boundaries of sound. His education in the visual culture of modernist design and architecture also had a profound effect on his work. During the '60s, influenced by the work of social critics, philosophers, writers, and visual artists, Gregorio turned away from public performance and began to experiment in his home studio, where he pursued improvisation, overdubbing, and assorted tape collages.
These sundry assemblages of sound, some of them created by Gregorio alone, many of them featuring trumpeter Carlos Miralles, a few featuring ensembles, formed the basis for the recently released Otra Musica: Tape Music, Fluxus, and Free Improvisation in Buenos Aires 1963-1970. It's part of John Corbett's remarkably far-reaching, wonderfully esoteric Unheard Music series. It's a remarkable musical text, one that seems to translate the rationalism of constructivism into musical expression.
In the '70s, Gregorio continued to question and reconsider his musical and artistic philosophies, abandoning music several times. In recent decades he has resurfaced on a number of occasions, playing experimental music in Vienna, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Jesse Ashlock
last updated:
12/13/01
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