Pianos, Toys, Music and Noise: Conversations with Steve Beresford

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List of Steve Beresford's Top Tips for Improvisers List of illustrations Foreword by Stewart Lee Introduction Short biography of Steve Beresford
1. Early Life 1950-1974, and Musical Education Martin Mayes
2. The Portsmouth Sinfonia Gavin Bryars
3. Second-Generation Free Improviser Brian Marley, Mike Cooper
4. Derek Bailey
5. Company Week 1977 + The Dutch School + Alterations + White String's Eugene Chadbourne, David Toop, Terry Day, David Brown
6. Saxophonists: Evan Parker, Tony Coe, Lol Coxhill Evan Parker
7. Piano, Toy Piano, Toys Chris Burn, Alex Ward, Adam Fairhall
8. Jazz, Free Jazz, And Free Improvisation Rachel Musson
9. Teaching Improvisation
10. The 1980s And 90s Kazuko Hohki, Jean Rochard, John Butcher, Paul Hession, Hannah Marshall
11. Film Music (Including Cue Sheets Number One) + Video Artists + Christian Marclay + Visual Art Helen Petts
12. Graphic Notation + John Cage + Classical Music Philip Thomas, Tania Caroline Chen, Mandhira de Saram
13. The Improv Scene + The Audience
14. Post-2000 Alan Tomlinson, Elaine Mitchener, Blanca Regina, Leila Adu-Gilmore, Cara Stacey
15. Comedy And Entertainment
16. Popular Music, Popular Culture Tessa Pollitt, Adrian Sherwood
17. Electronics, Sound And Recording Pat Thomas Steve Beresford Discography Bibliography and Discography Index

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Steve Beresford's polymathic activities have formed a prism for the UK improv scene since the 1970s. He is internationally known as a free improviser on piano, toy piano and electronics, composer for film and TV, and raconteur and Dadaist visionary. His résumé is filled with collaborations with hundreds of musicians and other artists, including such leading improvisers as Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and John Zorn, and he has given performances of works by John Cage and Christian Marclay. In this book, Beresford is heard in his own words through first-hand interviews with the author. Beresford provides compelling insight into an extensive range of topics, displaying the broad cultural context in which music is embedded. The volume combines chronological and thematic chapters, with topics covering improvisation and composition in jazz and free music; the connections between art, entertainment and popular culture; the audience for free improvisation; writing music for films; recording improvised music in the studio; and teaching improvisation. It places Beresford in the context of improvised and related musics – jazz, free jazz, free improvisation – in which there is growing interest. The linear narrative is broken up by 'interventions' or short pieces by collaborators and commentators.

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There is a lot of noise interfering with the signal of improvised music, the milieu in which Steve Beresford has spent his entire working life as a musician - lots of theories competing for our attention as to what it's all about. But as the conversations in this remarkable book make clear, when you get round down to it, to improvise is to play. And so what we have here is the fascinating and idiosyncratic chronicle of the life and times of a musician who liked to play. Around. A lot. And not just in so-called experimental music circles either, but in multiple other milieus, from reggae and post-punk to theatre and commercial music. Throughout, the desire, the ability, to improvise has remained the imperative. It is the one thing which has enabled this singular musician to play in any given situation, make it count, and not lose his soul in the process

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