Jim Cuomo

Jim lived a full and colourful life. He was involved with many diverse musical projects. Born in Chicago in March 7, 1945, he studied saxophone at the North Texas State University 1966, then completed a masters at University of Illinois 1970, performed in Moscow with University of Illinois Jazz Band, computer card programmer for John Cage, avant guard psych events with Spoils of War 1969, toured Europe as musical director for New York’s La MaMa Experimental Theatre, two witchy acid-folk albums with Mormos on CBS 1971-2, He recorded three albums in the UK with New Zealand jazz-rock band Pacific Eardrum 1977-80, played on Marianne Faithfull’s album Broken English 1979, was musical director with Bonzo Dog Band’s Vivian Stanshall plus a movie (Sir Henry at Rawlinson End 1980), collaborated with Tim Hardin 1980. He then lived in Paris for 30 years, recorded a self-titled LP with French-African musicians in Paris CBS 1982, a televised concert in Madagascar 1984, created live electronica music for digital saxophone and computer animation during the mid-1980s (some for computer games ie, Defender of the Crown 1986), In Portland, Oregon during the mid-1990s, Jim made recordings with guitarist Jo Haemer in Duoglide, playing domra and glidophone. He appeared and provided music in the UK and France on several TV and radio spots and appeared in documentaries on various topics in Paris during early 2000s. He moved to Australia around 2007, where he performed gigs and contributed his compositions to the Moreland City band Phoenix Project, and with The Jim Cuomo Trio with Geoff Spooner and Ben Harmsen, which played his original compositions, and plenty of improvisation – a style that Jim calls “post-jazz” or “jazz different.” As he explains, “It’s a means to position it for people who need categories.” Jim died on February 6, 2018 in Portland, Oregon from pancreatic cancer.