Paul Horace Plimley (16 March 1953 – 18 May 2022) was a

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

and

vibraphonist The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vib ...

. He was one of the doyens of the Canadian jazz avant-garde, a co-founder of the New Orchestra Workshop Society and frequent collaborator with the bassist Lisle Ellis. He was well-versed in classical music and in all styles of jazz; he was one of the first and most convincing interpreters of

Ornette Coleman Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...

's music on the piano (an instrument usually seen as antithetical to Coleman's music). Born in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Plimley studied classical piano under Kum-Sing Lee at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

(1971–73). In 1978–79 he studied with

Karl Berger Karl Hans Berger (March 30, 1935 – April 9, 2023) was a German-American jazz pianist, vibraphonist, composer, and educator. He was a leading figure in jazz improvisation from the 1960s when he settled in the United States for life. He founde ...

and

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in comple ...

at the

Creative Music Studio The Creative Music Studio (CMS) was a premier study center for contemporary creative music during the 1970s and 1980s, based in Woodstock, New York. Founded in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, and Ornette Coleman, it brought together students an ...

Woodstock, NY Woodstock is a town in Ulster County, New York, United States, in the northern part of the county, northwest of Kingston. It lies within the borders of the Catskill Park. The population was 6,287 at the 2020 census, up from 5,884 in 2010. Hi ...

. In 1977, he founded the New Orchestra Workshop (NOW), and he has been active in many of the ensembles associated with NOW, including the NOW Orchestra. His work with Lisle Ellis is extensive, and includes the duo CD ''Both Sides of the Same Mirror'' (Nine Winds, 1989); ''When Silence Pulls'', with

Andrew Cyrille Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer ...

(

Music & Arts Music & Arts is a classical and jazz record label founded in Berkeley, California by Frederick Maroth. It began in 1984 as a classical music label before adding jazz and world music. The catalog includes classical composers and musicians Milton B ...

, 1990); ''Noir'', with Bruce Freedman and Gregg Bendian (Victo, 1992); ''Density of the Lovestruck Demons'' with Donald Robinson (Music & Arts, 1994); and ''Safecrackers'' with Scott Amendola (Victo, 1999). He made two recordings for Hat Art: the collection of Ornette Coleman interpretations, ''Kaleidoscopes'' (1992), and (under

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who plays the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, the flugelhorn and the valve trombone. Although born in Miami, Florida, McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, ...

's leadership), a revisiting of

Max Roach Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He wo ...

's '' Freedom Now Suite'' called ''Sweet Freedom, Now What?'' (1994). In May 2000, he recorded a live act at the 17th International Festival of New Music in Victoriaville, Quebec with John Oswald,

Marilyn Crispell Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of ''The New York Times'' ...

and Cecil Taylor. The album was released at Victo Records. He was a regular performer at the

Vancouver International Jazz Festival The Vancouver International Jazz Festival is a jazz festival held every summer in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The festival grew out of a local jazz scene that centred on Vancouver Co-op Radio (CFRO-FM), a community radio station, in the ...

. Plimley died in Vancouver at the age of 69 on 18 May 2022 from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

Discography

Solo albums

*1995: ''Everything in Stages'' (Songlines)

As band leader

With Lisle Ellis *1991: ''When Silence Pulls'' with

(

) *1992: ''Kaleidoscopes'' ( Hat Art) *1993: ''Noir'' (Les Disques Victo) with Gregg Bendian With

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of or ...

*1997: ''Sensology'' (Maya) *2012: ''Hexentrio'' (Intakt), with Lucas Niggli With

Trichy Sankaran Trichy Sankaran (born 27 July 1942) is an Indian percussionist, composer, scholar, and educator. He was awarded the Madras Music Academy's Sangeetha Kalanidhi in 2011. As a mridangam ''vidwan'', he has been called a "doyen among the percussionist ...

*1998: ''Ivory Ganesh Meets Doctor Drums'' (Songlines) With John Oswald,

and

*2001: ''

Complicité Complicité is a British theatre company founded in 1983 by Simon McBurney, Annabel Arden, Marcello Magni and Fiona Gordon. Its original name was Théâtre de Complicité. The company is based in London and uses extreme movement to represent the ...

'' (Les Disques Victo)

Collaborations

With

*1995: '' Sweet Freedom - Now What?'' (

Hat Hut Hathut Records is a Swiss record company and label founded by Werner Xavier Uehlinger in 1974 that specializes in jazz and classical music. The name of the label comes from the artwork of Klaus Baumgartner. Hathut encompasses the labels hat ART, ...

) With

Henry Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, ...

*1999: ''Passwords'' ( Spool), with Danielle DeGruttola *2012: ''The Starbreak Splatterlight'' (There), with

Weasel Walter Weasel Walter (born Christopher Todd Walter, May 18, 1972) is an American composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and founder of ugEXPLODE Records. Walter's work has been informed by techniques and traditions of music including A ...

and Lukas Ligeti With

Mei Han Mei Han () is a Chinese-Canadian ''guzheng'' performer and scholar. She was born into a military family in Beijing, the youngest of four children. Her father Han Shu came from Shanxi, and her mother, who is half Miao, came from Hunan. Her mater ...

*2006: ''Ume'' (ZA Discs) With

Anthony Davis Anthony Marshon Davis Jr. (born March 11, 1993), nicknamed "AD" and "the Brow", is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Davis, a Power forward (basketball), power f ...

*2016: ''Past Piano Present , Live at Western Front 1985 - 2015'' (Western Front New Music), including with Al Neil and John Kameel Farah With

Glenn Spearman Glenn Spearman (February 14, 1947 – October 8, 1998) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He was associated with free jazz and experimental music. Spearman was active in Oakland, California, in the late 1960s but moved to Paris in 1972 and f ...

* ''

Free Worlds ''Free Worlds'' is a posthumously released album by saxophonist Glenn Spearman. It was recorded during 1994 and 1995 in San Francisco and Oakland, California, and was released in 2000 by the Black Saint label. The album features Spearman in four d ...

'' (Black Saint, 2000)

TV appearances

* ''In the Key of Eh! Canadian Jazz Piano'' (1996) * ''Duos: the jazz sessions'' (2000) * ''Solos: the jazz sessions'' (2004)

References

External links

Official Site
*

All Music AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the datab ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Plimey, Paul 1953 births 2022 deaths Avant-garde jazz musicians Canadian jazz pianists Canadian jazz vibraphonists Musicians from Vancouver 21st-century Canadian pianists Music & Arts artists Intakt Records artists Deaths from cancer in British Columbia Deaths from lung cancer in Canada