John Tchicai


John Martin Tchicai was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer.
WWW Official Site

Biography

Tchicai was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Congolese father. The family moved to Aarhus, where he studied violin when young, and in his mid-teens began playing clarinet and alto saxophone, focusing on the latter. By the late 1950s, he was travelling around northern Europe, playing with many musicians.
In 1962, he met trumpeter Bill Dixon and saxophonist Archie Shepp at a festival in Helsinki, Finland. At their suggestion, he moved to New York City the following year, and went on to participate in the October Revolution in Jazz and join the New York Contemporary Five and the New York Art Quartet. He also played on a number of influential free jazz recordings, including Shepp's Four for Trane, Albert Ayler's New York Eye and Ear Control, John Coltrane's Ascension, and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra's Communication.
Following his work in New York, Tchicai returned to Denmark in 1966, and shortly thereafter focused most of his time on music education. He formed the small orchestra Cadentia Nova Danica with Danish and other European musicians; this group collaborated with Musica Elettronica Viva and performed in multi-media events. Tchicai was a founding member of Amsterdam's Instant Composers Pool in 1968, and in 1969 took part in the recording of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions.
On 30 August 1975 Tchicai's appearance at the Willisau Jazz Festival was recorded and released later that year as Willi the Pig. On this record, he plays with Swiss pianist Irène Schweizer. Tchicai returned to a regular gigging and recording schedule in the late 1970s. In the early 1980s, he switched to the tenor saxophone as his primary instrument. In 1990, he was awarded a lifetime grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture.
Tchicai and his wife relocated to Davis, California, in 1991, where he led several ensembles. He was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1997. He was a member of Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith's "Yo Miles" band, a loose aggregation of musicians exploring Miles Davis's electric period.
Since 2001, he had been living near Perpignan in southern France. On 11 June 2012, he suffered a brain hemorrhage in an airport in Barcelona, Spain. He was recovering and had canceled all appearances when he died in a Perpignan hospital on 8 October 2012, aged 76.
2021 saw the publication of a biography titled A Chaos with Some Kind of Order, written by Margriet Naber, Tchicai's former wife and collaborator for 20 years, and published by Ear Heart Mind Media. Writer Richard Williams called the book an "intimate and valuable account of life and work".

Discography

As leader / co-leader

As sideman

With Albert Ayler
With the Berlin Jazz Workshop Orchestra
  • Who Is Who?
With the Binder Quintet
  • Binder Quintet Featuring John Tchicai
With Willem Breuker and Johan van der Keuken
  • Music For His Films 1967 / 1994
With Brotherhood of Breath
  • Yes Please
With the Brus Trio
  • Soaked Sorrows
With Burnin' Red Ivanhoe
  • M 144
With Curtis Clark
With John Coltrane
With Peter Danstrup
  • Reptiles in the Sky
  • Beautiful Untrue Things
With Dell – Westergaard – Lillinger
  • Dell – Westegaard – Lillinger feat. John Tchicai
With Pierre Dørge
  • Ballad Round the Left Corner with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Billy Hart
  • Ball At Louisiana
  • Brikama with New Jungle Orchestra
  • Very Hot, Even The Moon Is Dancing with New Jungle Orchestra
  • Johnny Lives with New Jungle Orchestra
  • Different Places - Different Bananas with New Jungle Orchestra
  • Peer Gynt with New Jungle Orchestra
  • Live In Chicago with New Jungle Orchestra
  • Giraf with New Jungle Orchestra
With Johnny Dyani
With John Ehlis
  • John Ehlis Ensemble
  • Along the Way
With The Engines
With Garrison Fewell's Variable Density Sound Orchestra
  • Evolving Strategies
With Charles Gayle
  • Always Born
With George Gruntz
  • Monster Sticksland Meeting Two – Monster Jazz
With Paul Hemmings
  • Letter From America
With The Instant Composers Pool
With The Jazz Composer's Orchestra
With Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith
  • Yo Miles! Sky Garden
  • Yo Miles! Upriver
With Adam Lane
  • For Being
With John Lennon and Yoko Ono
With Jorgen Leth
With New York Art Quartet
With New York Contemporary Five
With Giancarlo Nicolai
  • Giancarlo Nicolai Trio & John Tchicai
With the Open Orchestra
  • The Spiritual Man
With Francisco Mondragon Rio
With Rent Romus
  • Adapt... or DIE! with Lords of Outland
With Archie Shepp
With Katrine Suwalski and Another World
  • Message of Love
With Cecil Taylor
With Triot
  • Sudden Happiness
With Wiebelfetzer
  • Live
With Yggdrasil
  • Den Yderste Ø
  • Yggdrasil
  • Concerto Grotto
  • Askur
With De Zes Winden
  • Live At The Bim And More
  • Elephants Can Dance
  • Man Met Muts
  • Anger Dance
  • ''Manestraal''