Grew up amongst the Canterbury music life of the 1960’s with a strong broad jazz root and a love of songs.

First formal performance in improvisation in duo with Chris Biscoe for the British council, Brighton 1966. Moved to London in 1968 and worked with the Ghanaian drum ensemble Mask and toured with the experimental and innovative Ritual Theatre.

Invited to play at the Beckenham arts lab free festival 1969 in the arts lab band ((organised and compered by David Bowie, and the first U.K free festival )).

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Since 1974 work was primarily concentrated on opening the way to a more personal percussion language, working in the U.K. with John Russell, Steve Beresford, Gary Todd et al.

Started the first collaborations with London improvisors John Russell, Steve Beresford, Nigel Coombes, Gary Todd.

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1977: first concerts outside the U.K. with Gary Todd in Belgium and at the Setubal os Comicos festival in Portugal 1979, and to work with Carlos Zingaro in the U.K., Portugal and Italy.

1978: invited into John Stevens short-lived percussion quartet with John, Paul Burwell, Terry Day.

1979: co-founded the label CAW records for improvised music with Anthony Wood (founder of the Wire Magazine), and John Russell, and became active in the establishment of platforms for improvised music in London. involvements with the London musicians’ collective. formed "trump music" with Gary Todd to promote concerts at "the box" and other venues in West London.

founded the workers’ music association series, funded by Kensington and Chelsea arts with concerts in West London involving Derek Bailey, Eugene Chadbourne, Paul Rutherford, Jon Rose, Lol Coxhill, etc etc.

first incus records release-- "sunday best " --duo with Gary Todd.

 

Arts council of Great Britain bursaries for solo percussion 1980 and in 1983 for investigation into percussion with electronics... solo concerts in the Brussels festival for new percussion and at the Bracknell jazz festival, plus club solo work followed.

 

1980: CAW records first LP release records "artless sky", a trio with Toshinori Kondo and John Russell following a U.K tour.

1981: released the solo LP " the blur between" on CAW records.

Began working with the vanguard of hi and low-fi electronic musicians developing a drum and percussion vocabulary for electro-acoustic music. this period saw the rise of the recedents with Lol Coxhill and Mike Cooper, a trio that moved ungraciously through the spheres of electronics, jazz, blues, noise, contemporary classical/new music without referencing any. this period also saw the start of work with Phil Minton and the development of percussion vocabularies for improvisation with voice.

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1982: co-formed the recedents with Lol Coxhill and Mike Cooper, and the 1980's saw perhaps the most fruitful work for the band with multiple tours across the U.K., Europe and Canada.

1983: first tour in the U.S.A.-- with Jack Wright.

1984: toured in south-east Australia with Jon Rose, Jim Denley, Maggie Nichols et al.

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The Phil Minton --Roger Turner duo was also formed in the early 1980's and in the next 10 years toured twice around  the U.S.A., twice across Canada, and numerous times throughout Europe. the duo became a trio for a year with the addition of Keith Rowe for a series of U.K-based concerts.

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Invited to give workshop residences at Alan Silva’s institut art cultur perception, Paris 1984&5, where long-term collaborations with Alan began.

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1984: Mariette Rouppe van der Voort's band that included Ab Baars, Wolter Wierbos, Ernst Reysenger, Maartje Tenhoorn, myself and later Phil Minton. two tours in Holland , and a live introduction to the Dutch music scene.

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1983-85: established the duo with Annette Peacock working with her open-form song compositions; extensive duo work in the U.K., Europe and Norway. recorded the duo LP " i have no feelings" on the Ironic label.

1986-1987: recordings and BBC John Peel broadcast with post-wave band the nose flutes. 2 LP's followed.

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1989: formed turner's all saints quartet with Carlos Zingaro, Ab Baars and Paul Rogers. U.K tour.

formed the tradition trio with Alan Silva and Johannes Bauer 1990, a further extension of electro- acoustic investigations and free jazz.

 

The 1990's to the present day have seen work with numerous jazz-based ensembles including those of Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, the traditon trio, Charles Gayle trios, the wardrobe trio with Steve Beresford and Joe Williamson, as well as in ad hoc mixes with new york jazz musicians (inc. Roy Campbell, Cecil Taylor, Henry Grimes…)

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1990's to the present day collaborations with visual artists, film-makers & image projection include work with Martin Klapper, Chikako Oyama, Fabienne Audeoud, Susan Turcot in places ranging from the Japan foundation, Paris, the Jan van Eyck academy, Maastricht, to the southern Alberta art gallery, Canada and the White Cube gallery, London.

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1990's to the present day music for dance/performance includes work with Carlos Zingaro’s encontros projects in Lisbon (with Annette Peacock) & Macau, China (with Otomo Yoshihide); Josef Nadj production “etc.etc” (premiered vandoeuvre, France, 2008, with Sohie Agnel and Phil Minton); with fine Kwiatkowski (and Urs Leimgruber).

 

1997: saw the formation of konk pack with Tim Hodgkinson and Thomas Lehn, in a sense a continuation of the electro-acoustic explorations that started with the recedents and continued in the trio with Keith Rowe and Phil Minton in the 1980's. Konk pack has since toured throughout Europe playing festivals and concerts on a regular basis, and played 4 major tours across the U.S.A.

 

the period from 2000 to now has seen numerous other Europe-based collaborations in ad hoc and group situations that has included work with Urs Leimgruber, Axel Dorner, Joelle Leandre, Michel Doneda, Eugenio Sanna, Arnaud Riviere, a trio with Michel Doneda and John Russell; the jazz-centred piano trio with Steve Beresford and bassist Joe Williamson “the wardrobe trio”, and the Anglo-French trio with Daunik Lazro and Jean Francois Pauvros

 

2006 to the present day: has collaborated with Japanese musicians including Kazuhisa Uchihashi, Yoshihide Otomo, Tetsu Saitoh, Masahiko Satoh, Akira Sakata, Akio Suzuki and played three major tours throughout Japan, a relationship and activity which continues into the present day.

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Investigations into percussion with voice continued , playing with Dorothea Schurch, Annette Peacock, Maggie Nichols, Ute Wassermann, Isabelle Duthoit, Tenko, Phil Minton......

investigations into percussion with piano also continued with work with Irene Schweizer, Steve Beresford, Fred van Hove, Matthew Bourne, Frederic Rzewski, Achim Kaufmann, Pat Thomas.....

 

2000 to now has also seen numerous tours mainly throughout Europe and Scandinavia, the U.S.A., Canada, Russia, and Japan, as well as concerts in the U.K. with musicians including the tradition trio, konk pack, the recedents, Fred Frith, Charles Gayle, Roy Campbell, the Phil Minton quartet, Alex Ward, Pat Thomas, 6ix, Axel Dorner, Arnaud Riviere, Eugene Chadbourne, Yukihiro Isso, Joelle Leandre, Alexander Frangenheim, Philipp Wachsmann...............

 

Work with electronic manipulations included a residency at the studio electroakustische musik in berlin in 2005, which produced improvised solo work and composition for percussion and electronics, pieces with the poet/activist Urs Jaeggi, and the infamous performance “hit and run” berlin location events .

 

2009 performed and travelled in Svalbard in the arctic, with the "north of everything" group that included Jaap Blonk, Kaffe Matthews and Jon Hegre.

started the duo collaborations with Urs Leimgruber in 2008 that have included concerts throughout the U.K., Europe and in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

2010 also invited into the Leimgruber-jacques Demierre group 6ix that includes Dorothea Schurch, Thomas Lehn and Okkyung Lee.

2015: first duo concerts with Fred van Hove.

2016: re-appearance of the Minton-Turner duo in Germany.

 

music-making with international musicians in ad hoc and group collaborations have since the 70’s to the present day also additionally included Toshinori Kondo, Derek Bailey, Trio’z with Carlos Zingaro and Tom Cora, Evan Parker, Turner's All Saints quartet with Ab Baars, Paul Rogers and Carlos Zingaro,William Parker, Cecil Taylor,  Shelley Hirsch, , Ab Baars, Barry Guy, Barre Philips, Paul Rutherford, Gunter Christmann, Alan Tomlinson, Marilyn Crispell, Irene Schweizer, Frederic Rzewski,  Malcolm Goldstein, Dennis Palmer, Davey Williams, Henry Grimes,  ……

 

Current work also includes a new duo with the canadian guitarist arthur bull, with urs leimgruber , a revival of the duo with phil minton, with fred van hove , continuation of the konk pack saga, an occasional duo with chris biscoe, …..

 

 

 

festivals, tours, and concerts throughout europe, australia, canada, u.s.a., mexico, china , japan......the arctic....

and a large number of cd’s and lp’s.

interviews: impetus magazine ; wire magazine ; coda magazine.....

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short cv :

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Turner has been working as an improvising percussionist since the early 1970’s, collaborating in numerous established and ad hoc configurations.

solo work, work with electro-acoustic ensembles & open--form song, extensive work with dance and visual artists, plus specific jazz-based ensembles have brought collaborations with the most interesting european & international musicians and performers from Annette Peacock to Phil Minton, Cecil Taylor to Masahiko Satoh, Charles Gayle to Lol Coxhill, Derek Bailey to Otomo Yoshihide,  Alan Silva to Keith Rowe, Josef Nadj to Min Tanaka, Toshinori Kondo to Axel Dorner, etc. etc.

He has toured and played concerts worldwide from Sydney to the Arctic, Tokyo to Belfast, New York to Beirut.

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