Alan Silva

Alan Silva (born Alan Treadwell da Silva, Bermuda, January 22, 1939) is an American free jazz double bassist and keyboard player. Born a British subject to an Azorean Portuguese woman (Irene da Silva) and a black Bermudian man known only as "Ruby" at the very height of segregation, Silva emigrated to the United States at the age of five with his mother, eventually acquiring U.S. citizenship by the age of 18 or 19. He adopted the professional name Alan Silva in his twenties. He was quoted in a Bermuda newspaper in 1988 as saying that although he left the island at a young age, he always considered himself Bermudian. He grew up in Harlem, New York City, first taking up the trumpet. Silva is known as one of the most inventive bass players in jazz and has performed with many of the great names in the world of avant-garde jazz, including Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Sunny Murray, and Archie Shepp. Silva performed in 1964's October Revolution in Jazz and for Ayler's Live in Greenwich Village album. He has lived mainly in Paris since the early 1970s, where he formed the Celestial Communication Orchestra, a group dedicated to the performance of free jazz with various instrumental combinations. In the 1990s he picked up the electronic keyboard, declaring that his bass playing no longer surprised him. He has also used the electric violin and electric sarangi on his recordings. Since around 2000 he has performed more frequently as a bassist and bandleader, notably at New York City's annual Vision Festivals.

Select Discography

as bandleader:

• "Luna Surface" (BYG Actuel)
• "Seasons" (BYG Actuel)
• "My Country" (Leo)
• "Skillfullness" (ESP Disk)
• "Inner Song" (Center of the World)

as Take Some Risks:

• "In Situ" (Adda)

with Albert Ayler:

• "The Village Concerts" (Impulse!)
• "Live in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings" (Impulse!)
• "Love Cry" (Impulse!)

with Sun Ra:

• "Sun Ra-Featuring Pharoah Sanders and Black Harold" (Saturn)
• "Nuit de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 1" (Shandar)
• "Nuit de la Fondation Maeght Vol. 2" (Shandar)
• "It's After the End of the World" (MPS/BASF)
• "Out In Space" (MPS)

with Cecil Taylor:

• "Unit Structures" (Blue Note)
• "Conquistador!" (Blue Note)
• "Soundtrack Ferrari" (CBS/Sony)
• "It Is In The Brewing Luminous" (hat Hut)

with Sunny Murray:

• "Sunny Murray" (ESP Disk)
• "Big Chief" (Pathe)
• "Hommage to Africa" (BYG Actuel)
• "Sunshine" (BYG Actuel)
• "Aigu-Grave" (Marge)
• "Firmanence" w/ Burton Greene (Fore)

with Shipen Lebzelter:

• "Rock and Other Four Letter Words" (Columbia)

with Archie Shepp:

• "Live at the Panafrican Festival" (BYG Actuel)
• "Poem For Malcolm" (BYG Actuel)

with Grachan Moncur III:

• "New Africa" (BYG Actuel)

with Dave Burrell:

• "Echo" (BYG Actuel)
• "After Love" (America)

with Jimmy Lyons:

• "Other Afternoons" (BYG Actuel)

with Francois Tusques:

• "Intercommunal Music" (Shandar)

with Frank Wright:

• "Center of the World" (Center of the World)
• "Last Polka in Nancy?" (Center of the World)
• "Solos & Duets" w/ Bobby Few (Sun Records)

with Bobby Few:

• "More Or Less Few" (Center of the World)
• "Rhapsody in Few" (Black Saint)
• "Solos & Duets" w/ Frank Wright (Sun Records)

with Bill Dixon:

• "Considerations 1" (Fore)
• "Bill Dixon In Italy, Volume One" (Soul Note)
• "Bill Dixon In Italy, Volume Two" (Soul Note)
• "November 1981" (Soul Note)

with Franz Koglmann:

• "Opium For Franz" (Pipe)

with Andrew Hill:

• "Strange Serenade" (Soul Note)

with the Globe Unity Orchestra:

• "Intergalactic Blow" (JAPO)

with Abdelhai Bennani:

• "Enfance" (Marge)
• "Entrelacs" (Tampon Ramier)

with Itaru Oki:

• "Paris-Ohraï" (Ohraï)

Films

• 2001 - Inside Out in the Open (2001). Directed by Alan Roth. Asymmetric Pictures. Distributed by Third World Newsreel.

External links

• Alan Silva discography from Center of the World site
• Alan Silva interviews by Dan Warburton, from Paris Transatlantic site
• "Free Man: Alan Silva’s 'Conductions'", by Jon Garelick (Boston Phoenix, February 27-March 6, 2003
• FMP releases