Alan Gowen was a fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

/progressive rock

Progressive rock

Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...

 keyboardist, best known for his work in Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh (band)

Gilgamesh were a British jazz fusion band in the 1970s led by keyboardist Alan Gowen, part of the Canterbury scene.-History:...

 and National Health

National Health

National Health were a progressive rock band associated with the Canterbury scene. Founded in 1975, the band included members of keyboardist Dave Stewart's band Hatfield and the North and Alan Gowen's band Gilgamesh, the band also included guitarists Phil Miller and Phil Lee and bassist Mont...

.

History

Gowen joined Assagai in 1971 before going on to found Sunship in 1972 with Jamie Muir

Jamie Muir

Jamie Muir is a UK painter and former percussionist, best known for his work in King Crimson.-Biography:Muir attended Edinburgh College of Art during the 1960s and began playing jazz on trombone before settling on percussion....

 (drums, also from Assagai) and Laurie Baker (bass). The band also included Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth

Allan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...

 on guitar.

He formed Gilgamesh in 1973 and started a collaboration with Hatfield and the North

Hatfield and the North

Hatfield and the North were an experimental Canterbury scene rock band that lasted from October 1972 to June 1975, with some reunions thereafter.-Career:...

, eventually founding National Health with Hatfield and the North's keyboardist Dave Stewart in 1975. Gowen left National Health in 1977.

In 1978, Gowen formed Soft Heap

Soft Heap (band)

Soft Heap was a Canterbury scene supergroup founded in January 1978. The name references Soft Machine while "Heap" comes from the first letters of the band's founders: Hugh Hopper , Elton Dean , Alan Gowen and Pip Pyle . Hopper and Dean had worked together in Soft Machine, while Gowen and Pyle had...

 with Elton Dean

Elton Dean

Elton Dean was an English jazz musician who performed on alto saxophone, saxello and occasionally keyboard....

, Hugh Hopper

Hugh Hopper

Hugh Colin Hopper was a progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and various other related bands.-Early career:...

, and Pip Pyle

Pip Pyle

Phillip "Pip" Pyle was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France...

. With Dave Sheen replacing Pyle, the band toured as Soft Head in the summer of 1978. He also recorded a second Gilgamesh album that year.

Gowen re-joined National Health in 1979-1980 and also continued with Soft Heap in this period. Before a Word is Said (1981), recorded with Richard Sinclair

Richard Sinclair

Richard S. Sinclair is a progressive rock bassist, guitarist and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene.-Biography:...

 (bass, briefly in Gilgamesh), Phil Miller

Phil Miller

Phil Miller is an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist who was part of the Canterbury scene.He was a member of the bands Delivery, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Short Wave and has since worked in solo projects and in his band In Cahoots, which he founded in 1982...

 (guitar, from National Health) and Trevor Tomkins

Trevor Tomkins

Trevor Ramsey Tomkins is an English jazz drummer best known for his work in a number of British bands in the 1970s, including Gilgamesh.His recorded several albums with pianist Michael Garrick in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

 (drums, from Gilgamesh), was the last album Gowen recorded before his death from leukaemia in 1981.

Discography

• 1975 Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh
• 1978 Soft Head - Rogue Element
• 1979 Gilgamesh - Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into
• 1979 Soft Heap - Soft Heap
• 1980 Hugh Hopper & Alan Gowen - Two Rainbows Daily
• 1980 Alan Gowen & Hugh Hopper - Bracknell
  Bracknell
  Bracknell is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It lies to the south-east of Reading, southwest of Windsor and west of central London...
  
  -Bresse
  Bresse
  Bresse is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Rhône-Alpes, Bourgogne, and Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne , which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located...
  
  Improvisations
• 1981 Alan Gowen, Phil Miller, Richard Sinclair, Trevor Tomkins - Before A Word is Said
• 1982 National Health - D.S. al coda (tribute album featuring Gowen compositions)
• 1995 National Health - Missing Pieces (1975-6 recordings)
• 2000 Gilgamesh - Arriving Twice (1973-5 recordings)
• 2001 National Health - Playtime (1979 recordings)

Sources

• Calyx on Alan Gowen