Glenn Spearman, tenor saxophonist and composer, is simultaneously a throwback in time to free jazz of the ’60s/’70s and a pioneer for new jazz born in San Francisco/Berkeley clubs. He has been a prominent figure in contemporary music for more than 20 years. Spearman’s involvement in avant-garde music began in Berkeley and Oakland in the late 1960s. He moved to Paris in 1972, where he established Emergency. He recorded three albums and performed at the Avignon Festival and the American Center for the Artists. He also appeared on French radio, television, and radio. He was appointed artist-in-residence in the following year and became the leader, composer and conductor of a student orchestra in Rotterdam. He toured Europe extensively over the next few decades with his own band and other avant-garde American and European musicians. He was also a member of Cecil Taylor’s New York-based Big Band and Dance Orchestra and the Cecil Taylor Unit in 1983. He has been a Bay Area resident since 1984. He has performed all over the world, including in New York, Boston and Toronto. For the last four years he has been teaching at Mills College, where he recently participated in a performance/recording in a faculty showcase concert. He also has private students. His Double Trio performed at both the Monterey Jazz Festival and Vancouver International Jazz Festival in 1995. In October 1995, he was nominated by San Francisco Weekly for a “Whammie Music Award”. He was also commissioned to write and perform music for Move Dance Theatre’s two performances at Laney College. Spearman, a December 1995 concertmaster, performed with the Rove Saxophone Quartet (the music by John Coltrane) at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. This performance was described as “a powerful rendition…the spirit of the holy Trane is alive and well” (March 1996 down beat). Black Saint recorded the performance. The Double Trio was invited by West Ferman Radio in Cologne, Germany to perform and record a concert. Lynn Kiby, a Bay Area filmmaker, collaborated on a piece of video-music performance. His Sessionography can be found online. Search his name to find his Sessionography.
