Alto, soprano, tenor saxophones; piano Born Pittsburgh PA in 1942 and grew up around Philadelphia and Chicago. He began playing saxophone in 1952, with private instruction; meanwhile also singing in groups large and small through 1964, after which he ceased playing music. Attended Lafayette College in Easton PA, where he studied European history and literature and graduated 1964; Johns Hopkins University, MA in European history, 1972; taught history at Temple U.
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Alto, soprano, tenor saxophones; piano Born Pittsburgh PA in 1942 and grew up around Philadelphia and Chicago. He began playing saxophone in 1952, with private instruction; meanwhile also singing in groups large and small through 1964, after which he ceased playing music. Attended Lafayette College in Easton PA, where he studied European history and literature and graduated 1964; Johns Hopkins University, MA in European history, 1972; taught history at Temple U. 1968-72, after which he left the academic world. In this latter period he was involved in left politics, organizing on a community level. In the late seventies he returned to music in earnest, and began playing free improvised music on the saxophone, and piano. He sought out partners in NY and the East Coast, then in 1983 began extensive tours in Europe, which continued until 1986. In the US his partners were Toshi Makihara, Jim Meneses, William Parker, Todd Whitman; in Europe he performed with Hannes Bauer, Joe Sachse, Wigald Boning, Lars Rudolph, Wittwulf Malik, Peter Hollinger, Bernhard Arndt, and Andreas Stehle, touring Germany, England, Switzerland and Italy. In 1984 he began touring the US, either as soloist or with his European partners, Roger Turner and Lars Rudolph, and an American dancer from Chicago, Bob Eisen. In this period of the eighties his music would be considered free jazz, very full and expressive. He was known for playing in places that had never been exposed to free improvisation, and encouraging young players everywhere, such that Davey Williams titled him the “Johnny Appleseed” of North American free improvisation. In 1988 he moved to Boulder CO and got involved in painting and writing, continuing his private study of European literature and philosophy. Yet he was still playing regularly, as a member of the local community of players, and touring the US regularly. In the late nineties there was a resurgence of interest in non-idiomatic free improvisation in the US, especially coming from Boston, but increasingly throughout the country. In 2000 Wright did an extensive tour of the West Coast with Boston soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey, and recorded with him in three different groups. His music became largely sound-oriented, using space, texture, and sustained tones, but always with a characteristic energy and musicality. He moved back to the East Coast in 2003 to be closer to his playing partners and now lives in Easton PA. Since then he has become closely involved with the New York scene. He has presented his music at most of the new improv festivals in the US: four years at High Zero in Baltimore, The Seattle Improv Festival, the SFALT Festival in the Bay Area, California, the Autumn Uprising in Boston, and the Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn. In 2005 he performed at the Museum of Modern Art in NY in a mini-festival, Relay, involving 13 American and European players. In recent years he has renewed his label, Spring Garden Music, which presents his own music and that of his partners. He continues to seek out new partners, and in 2002 and every year since he has returned to Europe to that end. Those partners living in Europe with whom he has been playing most consistently the past three years are Alberto Braida, piano, Milan; Sebastian Cirotteau, tpt, Toulouse France; Michel Doneda, sop. sax; Phil Durrant, computer, violin, London; Michael Griener, drums, Berlin; Grundik Kasyansky, electronics, London; Agnes Palier, voice, Rambouillet France; Sharif Sehnaoui, guitar, Paris; Christine Sehnaoui, sax, Paris; Fabrizio Spera, drums, Rome; Olivier Toulemonde, percussion, Bourg-en-Bresse France; and Sabine Vogel, flute, Berlin. He has been increasingly active in bringing European, especially French musicians to tour in the US (see "The Paris Experiment" in the Phila. City Paper). His most recent tours have been with Agnes Palier and Olivier Toulemonde in Europe and the US East Coast; with Carol Genetti, vocalist, and Jon Mueller, perc. (NomTom) in France and the US; with Pittsburgh electronicist Michael Johnsen and Sebastien Cirotteau of Toulouse, in Europe and the US, with French soprano sax player Michel Doneda and percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani (From Between) in Japan, France and the US (30 performances),with cellist Bob Marsh of the Bay area; in Europe with Nate Wooley, trumpet, of NY; a cross-country tour with Michael Griener percussion and Sabine Vogel flute of Berlin; with Reuben Radding; with Phil Durrant ;and with Tom Djll from Oakland and soprano sax player Bhob Rainey.
