Steve Beresford is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

 who graduated from the University of York

University of York

The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...

. He has played a variety of instruments, including piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

, euphonium

Euphonium

The euphonium is a conical-bore, tenor-voiced brass instrument. It derives its name from the Greek word euphonos, meaning "well-sounding" or "sweet-voiced"...

, double-bass and a wide variety of toy instruments, such as the toy piano

Toy piano

The toy piano, also known as the kinderklavier , is a small piano-like musical instrument. The present form of the toy piano was invented in Philadelphia by a 17-year-old German immigrant named Albert Schoenhut. He worked as a repairman at Wanamaker's department store, repairing broken glass...

. He has also played a wide range of music. He is probably best known for free improvisation

Free improvisation

Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

, but has also written music for film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 and television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and has been involved with a number of pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 groups.

He played in Derek Bailey's Company

Company (free improvisation group)

Company was an ever changing collection of free improvising musicians. The concept was devised by guitarist Derek Bailey in order to create challenging and artistically stimulating combinations of players who might not otherwise have had an opportunity to work together.At various times Company has...

 events and in the groups Alterations with David Toop

David Toop

David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...

, Terry Day and Peter Cusack, and the Three Pullovers with Nigel Coombes and Roger Smith. He was also a member with Gavin Bryars

Gavin Bryars

Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...

 and Brian Eno

Brian Eno

Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...

 of the Portsmouth Sinfonia

Portsmouth Sinfonia

The Portsmouth Sinfonia was an orchestra founded by a group of students at the Portsmouth School of Art in Portsmouth, England, in 1970. The Sinfonia had an unusual entrance requirement, in that players had to either be non-musicians, or if a musician, play an instrument that was entirely new to...

.

Beresford has continued to play free improvisation with a number of prominent musicians, including Evan Parker

Evan Parker

Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...

, Lol Coxhill

Lol Coxhill

Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...

, John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

, Alfred Harth

Alfred Harth

Alfred 23 Harth is a German multimedia artist, band leader, multi-instrumentalist musician, and composer who mixes genres in a polystylistic manner...

 in the group Gestalt et Jive

Gestalt et Jive

Gestalt et Jive were a multinational avant-rock group founded in West Germany in 1984 by multi-instrumentalist Alfred Harth, comprising Steve Beresford , Anton Fier , Alfred Harth , Peter Hollinger , Ferdinand Richard and Uwe Schmitt .In 1980 Harth produced the LP Es herrscht Uhu im Land on...

 and Han Bennink

Han Bennink

Han Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....

. He has also worked with a number of popular music

Popular music

Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...

ians, including The Slits

The Slits

The Slits were a British punk rock band. The quartet was formed in 1976 by members of the bands The Flowers of Romance and The Castrators. The members were Ari Up , who died of cancer in October 2010, and Palmolive , with Viv Albertine and Tessa Pollitt replacing founding members, Kate Korus and...

, Frank Chickens

Frank Chickens

Frank Chickens are a female Japanese musical group based in London, who have performed songs mainly in English from 1982.Founder members of Frank Chickens were Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi. Taguchi was later replaced by Atsuko Kamura and then Chika Nakagawa and others in the 1990s...

, Ted Milton

Ted Milton

Ted Milton is an English poet and musician, best known for leading the Blurt, an experimental jazz-rock group.Milton grew up in Africa, Canada and Great Britain. He published some early poems in magazines like Paris Review...

 and The Flying Lizards

The Flying Lizards

The Flying Lizards were an English experimental rock band, who were formed in 1976 in England. They are best remembered as New wave one-hit wonders, thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's "Money", which became a UK and US chart success in 1979.-Career:Formed by and led by...

.

Selected discography

• The Melody Four: La Paloma...: Chabada
• The Melody Four: Love Plays Such Funny Games: Chabada
• 1985: Steve Beresford His Piano & Orchestra: Eleven Songs for Doris Day: Chabada
• The Melody Four?: Si Señor: Chabada
• 1986: The Melody Four: T.V.? Mais oui!: Chabada