GARY WINDO
Born : November 7th, 1941 – Brighton (UK)
Died : July 25th, 1992 – NYC
Past Bands : Brotherhood of Breath (1970-73), Centipede (1970-75), Symbiosis (1970-71), The Running Man (1972), WMWM (Wyatt-MacRae-Windo-Matthewson) (1973), Matching Mole (1973), I Dogou (1974), Carla Bley Band (1977-80), NRBQ (1981-92), Psychedelic Furs (1982), various Gary Windo Bands.

A highly original musician with an instantly recognizable style, Gary Windo was marginally involved with the Canterbury scene in the Seventies. Most notable was his work with Robert Wyatt on the albums Rock Bottom (1974) and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard (1975), and Hugh Hopper on 1984 (1973) and Hoppertunity Box (1976). He was also a member of the Carla Bley band for three years.

Windo was born in England in a musical family, and began playing music at a very early age. He took up drums and accordion at six, then guitar at 12 and finally saxophone at 17. He settled in the USA in 1960, studying tenor sax and music theory with Wayne Marsh and Lennie Tristano. A long period of apprenticeship, both on- and off-stage, followed during the Sixties, until he finally decided to move back to England in 1969.

After jamming in London jazz clubs with musicians like Johnny Griffin, Chick Corea and Jimmy Ruffin, Windo rapidly became a fixture of the scene. In March 1970, he took part in an all-star jam session with Jack Bruce, Mitch Mitchell, Brian Auger and Graham Bond. And later that year he joined several jazz ensembles : Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Keith Tippett’s 50-piece orchestra Centipede, and Symbiosis, a jamming band featuring Mongezi Feza, Roy Babbington and Robert Wyatt.

Having played pub gigs with guitarist Ray Russell’s heavy-rock trio The Running Man, Windo recruited Russell for his own Gary Windo Quartet, which also featured Mongezi Feza on trumpet and Alan Rushton on drums. In the Summer of 1972, he played on Hugh Hopper’s first solo album, 1984, and the following year formed the jazz quartet WMWM with Robert Wyatt, pianist Dave MacRae and bassist Ron Matthewson. He almost became a member of the new line-up of Wyatt’s Matching Mole, before Wyatt had his accident and the project was shelved. However, Windo appeared on his subsequent albums Rock Bottom and Ruth Is Stranger Than Richard.

Meanwhile, Windo kept touring with Brotherhood of Breath and Centipede, and formed Gary Windo & Friends, with his wife Pam Windo on piano, guitarist Richard Brunton and the rhythm section of Bill MacCormick and Nick Mason. This line-up played its sole gig at Maidstone College of Arts in November 1975, but was the precursor to Windo’s Steam Radio Tapes project, recorded between 1976 and 1978 but never completed. Among the participants were, along with the aforementioned, Julie Tippetts, Robert Wyatt, Steve Hillage and Hugh Hopper. Read More on Calyx

GARY WINDO SOLO ALBUMS:
Dog Face, Europa Records, 1982 Discogs
Deep Water, Antilles, 1988 Discogs
His Master’s Bones, Cuneiform, 1996  Discogs
Steam Radio Tapes, Gonzo, 2013

FEATURED ON OTHER ALBUMS:
Symbiosis Live Session, BBC’s Top Gear, 1971
Centipede Septober Energy, Wessex Studios, 1971
Tes Esat Alan Shorter, Live at La Maison de la Radio, Paris, 1971
Travelling Somewhere Brotherhood of Breath, Cuneiform 1973
Rock Bottom Virgin Records, 1974
Ruth is Stranger than Richard Virgin Records’ The Manor, 1975
Amacord Nino Rota Hal Willner, 1981
Short Back & Sides Ian Hunter, 1981
Psychedelic Furs Forever Now, CBS, 1982
That’s the Way I feel Now Tribute to Thelonious Monk, 1984
Lost in the Stars Kurt Weill Tribute, 1985
The Lion for Real Alan Ginsberg, 1990
Eclipse at Dawn Brotherhood of Breath, Cuneiform 2004
Bremen to Bridgewater Brotherhood of Breath, 1971-1974, Cuneiform 2004

E-book 2012

HIM through ME Full Synopsis It was the winter of 1969, just two months after the hippies had descended on Woodstock.  Across the Atlantic in Brighton, a young man knocked at the door of a girl he’d known years ago in school. The young man was Gary Windo, a talented saxophone player who’d paid his dues in New York City’s jazz clubs and would set his sights on rousing the British music scene. Pam had traveled in Europe and North Africa and with Gary as muse, would take up piano. Together, they began a journey of exploration into marriage and music. The world had opened up; the young were breaking all the rules, in the arts as well as in sexuality.

Him through Me is a portrait and a love story, set in the days when we “made love, not war.” It is a celebration of the energy and innocence of the late sixties and seventies, and, because he died too young, ends as an elegy. Though he was a minor player in the rock-star hierarchy, Gary lived life in a major key, and made an indelible impression on everyone he met. He was a hard taskmaster but a good husband and a caring and inspiring father. He had an unstoppable urge to teach and encourage, and was both a man of the times, and ahead of them. He taught me to be bold on piano and brought me to play alongside him in the company of stars. His list of concerts, collaborations, and albums ran the gamut—from Robert Wyatt, the Brotherhood of Breath, Nick Mason, Brian Eno, and cameos with Suzi Quatro and Joan Armatrading, and when we returned to his beloved USA, Carla Bley, Todd Rundgren, The Psychedelic Furs, and Allen Ginsberg.

Rather than a memoir of fame and fortune, the story is both simple and universal, a courageous creative life remembered.