Geoff Leigh
| Geoff Leigh | |
|---|---|
Geoff Leigh performing in Schiphorst, Germany, 5 July 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Geoff Leigh |
| Born |
5 October 1945 England |
| Genres | Jazz fusion, world, progressive rock, electroacoustic, experimental |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Saxophone, flute |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Associated acts | Henry Cow, Black Sheep, Ex-Wise Heads, Mirage |
Geoff Leigh (born 5 October 1945) is an English jazz and progressive rock musician, playing primarily soprano saxphone and flute. He was a member of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow and founded several bands himself, including Red Balune, Random Bob, Black Sheep, Mirage, and Ex-Wise Heads.
Geoff Leigh's first gigs were with soul music bands in Manchester in 1965, (the beginnings of the now infamous Northern Soul Scene), in clubs like the Twisted Wheel. His professional career began in 1968, touring the United Kingdom and Europe with various jazz-rock-progressive rock groups, mainly Crazy Mabel. In 1969 he joined Gerry Fitzgerald's band Mouseproof, which introduced Leigh to the budding Canterbury scene and musicians like Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt.
In the early 1970s Leigh performed with Henry Cow on several occasions, having known the band's drummer, Chris Cutler, from school. Leigh accepted Henry Cow's invitation to join the band in 1972, and he played on their first album Legend (1973). After a tour of the Netherlands at the end of 1973, and his preference for playing composed as opposed to improvised music, Leigh left Henry Cow. (Leigh himself insists it was the other way round – he found the composed music becoming more complex for the sake of it, and the improvisations too contemporary classical for his essentially free jazz approach). The band's timeline of its history in the 1991 CD of Legend stated that Leigh left because he was "apparently unhappy with [the] increasingly total & scheduled group life."
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