theo travis
Theo Travis has Played on more albums by The Tangent than any musician other than Andy, Theo arrived one album late to claim the whole set. Replacing David Jackson is no easy task, but Theo did it with style and grace. Theo is a well giigged and in demand musician whose CV is impressive enough to be dizzying. Regular wind player for Gong for many years, Duet gigs and albums with Robert Fripp, Live work and albums with Bill Nelson, David Sylvian, The Tangent, Roger Eno, Steven Wilson, Keith Tippett, Harold Budd, John Foxx, Steve Hillage, John Etheridge, Cipher, Mick Karn & The Soft Machine of which he is a full paid up member, not to mention the tour he did not so long back with Dave Gilmour.
Theo, who plays Saxophones, Flutes, Duduk along with the odd clarinet and recorder studied classical music at the University of Manchester. His second CD on 33 Records, View from the Edge, was voted Best British Jazz CD of 1994 by the Jazz on CD Readers/Critics poll. He was also nominated as Rising Star in the 1996 and 1998 British Jazz Awards and was named Best Newcomer of 1993 by the Financial Times.
He records and composes music under his own name and fronts a band Double Talk which interestingly recorded the first "Cover Version" of a Tangent song (A Place In the Queue)... which Theo did write in the first place!
Andy Tillison said in 2022 in an interview with Prog Magazine, that Theo was a huge factor in giving The Tangent an identity of its own. "It's surprising that, if I play the music without the wind parts in the studio, just how much more generic the band sounds"
As wind is an integral part of the band sound, Theo's variety of sounds and textures are never far away from the front of the sound stage. Like David Jackson in Van Der Graaf Generator (and Theo's predecssor in The Tangent) Theo revels in the modification of his sounds by electronic means and has an arsenal of modifers at his feet. He was the first Tangent member to use loopers in the band and he devised special wind sections relying on this for songs like "In Earnest" and "The Winning Game"
All Theo's recordings made for the band have been made at Andy's studio - wherever it happens to be at the time - including the time it was in the south of France. Somewhere in the roughly two year cycle, there's a weekend when Theo is working with Andy, there's a meal, plenty of discussion and listening to other music together. Andy & Theo have sometimes performed as a duo at small events which is always a pleasurable night
Like all members of The Tangent, Theo has a massively wide range of influences. You'd expect that from a man who has fronted a Jazz Ensemble at Ronnie Scotts, played the Sax Solo in "Shine On" in a stadium next to Gilmour himself and soaked up the heady atmosphere of concerts by Gong. The man!
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