Name: Philip Gibbs
Nationality: British
Occupation: Improviser, guitarist
Current release: Phil Gibbs teams up with Paul Dunmall, Keith Tippett, and Pete Fairclough for Onosante, out via 577. The quartet of Keith Tippett, Julie Tippetts, Philip Gibbs, and Paul Dunmall also recently re-released their Album Mahogany Rain via 577.



When did you first start getting interested in musical improvisation?  

My first real interest in improvisation came when first learning the guitar and hearing the blues. Then soon after, particularly Jimi Hendrix, Clapton etc. Their power of expression captivated my mind and spirit. I desperately wanted to be able to experience that power firsthand.

A bit later on I heard Mclaughlin and Coltrane and became aware of the deeper nature of expressing something profound, and universal through the art of improvising. The recordings A Love Supreme, and Expression by Coltrane and My Goals Beyond, and A Handful of Beauty by Mclaughlin were especially inspiring



Here, for me, was the perfect marriage of technical brilliance and emotional power - and most importantly striking originality.

What was your own learning curve / creative development like when it comes to improvisation - what were challenges and breakthroughs?

Improvising came quite naturally to me. I didn't have to think about how to do it, rather it was just instinct, a 'flow' that I enjoyed from the very start. The hard part being the many technical aspects of playing that would best yield what I wanted to say.

Of course the journey is deeply personal and subjective. For me the blues, then jazz, fusion, world folk, classical, all became rich vehicles of exploration in terms of musical language etc. In a way I just set out to steal everything that resonated with me from whatever source I could find. No form was off limits, it all served to facilitate my hunger for creative material.

To begin with I was playing (mostly) various imitations, 'pastiche central' of musical styles. But eventually I began to develop a voice of my own. I found some (to me) new guitar techniques and preparations, which led to more and more discoveries. Here I truly felt the joy of creativity.

Tell me about your instrument and/or tools, please. How would you describe the relationship with it? What are its most important qualities and how do they influence the musical results and your own performance?  

I have now been playing both acoustic and electric guitar for some 50 years, and of course I love my instrument. By now it is almost a physical extension of my self. But as with most musicians, the search for better sound / tone, technique, amp, effects, strings etc just goes on and on. We're all seeking the holy grail which eventually you realise you will never drink from …

Understanding / acceptance of continued instrumental transcendence is essential!

Can you talk about a work, event or performance in your career that's particularly dear to you? Why does it feel special to you? When, why and how did you start working on it, what were some of the motivations and ideas behind it?

Continual transcendence also applies to artistic development/unfoldment..I have a body of work of which I am very happy, but in a way 'this now' is who I am as an artist / improviser …

The latest efforts I have recorded are on youtube and these performances probably best express the ideas and feelings I currently desire to communicate.

How do you feel your sense of identity influences your collaborations? Do you feel as though you are able to express yourself more fully in solo mode or, conversely, through the interaction with other musicians? Are you “gaining” or “sacrificing” something in a collaboration?

Most recently I have enjoyed the 'solo' format. It's a particularly challenging experience but also potentially very rewarding. The no hiding place nakedness of it demands a slightly different approach and sense of what you create.

When playing in collaboration you are spontaneously responding to, and with your partners but when flying solo that isn't an option. I think you can become even more aware of the total allowance and alignment you can have with 'you'. But the psychology of self judgement here is at its keenest and needs must be seen through, transcended and ultimately 'let go of'.

Collaborations though are of course often richly rewarding. The heightened surprise element is a fertile trigger for new seams of expressiveness. Playing with the genius of Dunmall and Rogers a case in point!



Derek Bailey defined improvising as the search for material which is endlessly transformable. Regardless of whether or not you agree with his perspective, what kind of materials have turned to be particularly transformable and stimulating for you?

For me the 'material which is endlessly transformable' (Derek Bailey) is one's own voice (once found), the development of which is an occupation worthy of a lifetime. The search / discovery of an endless variety of artistic possibilities.

Words are difficult and clumsy when it comes to describing such things, the best description I know of is this from Sri Aurobindo -

"What he does is to take up the material available to him in the past history of thought, to choose, select, reject; to present new light on old ideas, to develop latent suggestions, to bring into prominence what was before less prominent or not so trenchant and definite, to give a fresh, striking and illuminating sense to old terms, to combine what was before not at all or else ill combined; in doing so he creates; his philosophy, though not new in its materials, is new in the whole effect it produces and the more powerful light that in certain directions it conveys.”

To you, are there rules in improvisation? If so, what kind of rules are these?

For me there are no rules when improvising. The very nature of it is freedom from, not being trapped by, 'form' …

Whether solo or in ensemble, ultimately the aim is to get to a place of 'inner stillness', a kind of neutral awareness from which infinite invention may flow. When that happens, I am truly 'not the do'er'. This is to experience joy.

How do you see the relationship between sound, space and performance and what are some of your strategies and approaches of working with them?

The sound space and conditions of a performance are critical in as much as they can influence and affect the final result.

It took me some time to realise that the conditions, so often less than ideal, are a constant variable, and it's best you accept each as it comes and 'resolve' it as part of the performance, embracing rather than being in resistance to.

Like playing a sport in snow, rain, brutal heat or with a dodgy ref!

In a way, improvisations remind us of the transitory nature of life. What, do you feel, can music and improvisation express and reveal about life and death?

I would say that improvisation, like life, is indeed transitory. Its success is due in many ways to the 'art of letting go'  which then allows for the fullness of something new.

What this means is being in creative flow rather than resistance to it, 'to be' truly in the 'now' making music, improvising without thought and without judgement. experiencing the joy of who you are in any given moment. Spontaneously sharing that energy, that frequency, of which you are an expression of, and a human extension of. This is the essence of a creative life.

The greater experience of life, like music, is the opportunity to 'shift' consciousness. a moment of 'gnosis', the direct experience that you are more than this personality, more than a physical material being. Grasping a fleeting 'sense of' the infinite spiritual reality you truly are.