Paul Rutherford

Paul William Rutherford, trombonist: born London 29 February 1940; died London 6 August 2007.

The jazz trombonist Paul Rutherford was an important figure in the European free improvisation scene. He had considerable influence on all free music and, significantly, on the trombone's role within it.

He was born in London in 1940 and served in the RAF from 1958 to 1963. On demobilisation, he studied trombone, as well as piano and composition, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and, while there, worked with Neil Ardley's New Jazz Orchestra. The work of the American trombonist J.J. Johnson initially interested him but he had retained contact with the aspiring musicians John Stevens and Trevor Watts, whom he had met during military service, and was won over by their more improvisational style.

Together they formed the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, a pioneer free unit that gave their own take on the music of Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy and Albert Ayler. They found a sympathetic home at the Little Theatre Club in St Martins Lane, London and regular sessions attracted tidy-sized audiences for the "new music". Their progress was documented by Eyemark Records under the eye of Eddie Kramer, the engineer associated with the music of Jimi Hendrix.

Although Rutherford's stay with the SME was not lengthy, it did show his burgeoning free improvisation skills and provided a stepping stone to work with other jazz talents. He played with the Mike Westbrook Concert Band and had a period with Watts's Amalgam and the brilliant Tony Oxley's sextet. It was here with Oxley that the jazz world encountered the flowering of Rutherford's fully mature free style, using his voice as well as his lips to produce a stunning contrapuntal sound.

In 1970, he formed Iskra 1903 with his former SME colleague Derek Bailey and the bassist Barry Guy. During the initial two-year life of Iskra 1903, the group's involvement in free improvisation was total, and was shamelessly chromatic. Rutherford was in his element and emerged as an influential figure, inspiring other trombonists of the possibilities of his voice-with-horn style.

Rutherford was very much in demand during the Seventies and Eighties. He became a prominent figure in the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, while continuing to feature with Westbrook. He reformed Iskra 1903 with the violinist Phil Wachsmann and Guy, and also played with Globe Unity Orchestra. He did more work with Tony Oxley and Peter Kowald and was sought after as a solo act. In all these realms he showed that he had lost none of his flair.

He made dozens of magnificent recordings over four decades; his solo albums include The Gentle Harm of the Bourgeoisie (1974), Old Moers Almanac (1976) and Neuph (1978).

Barry McRae