Bio
Bobby Naughton is self-taught as a performer and composer. After playing in rock-and-roll groups he took up the vibraphone in 1966, and in the late 1960s played with Perry Robinson, Sheila Jordan, and others. He continued to work intermittently with Robinson while recording as a leader from 1969 on his own label, Otic; in 1971 he wrote a score for Hans Richter’s silent film Everyday (1929). He played with the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra in 1972 and Leo Smith (from the mid 1970s), and joined the Creative Music Improvisors Forum in New Haven, Connecticut. Naughton’s vibraphone playing, like that of Gunter Hampel, emphasizes the instrument’s role in group improvisation rather than its possibilities as a solo vehicle. He plays fluently with four sticks, exploits the vibraphone’s overtones, and sometimes controls manually the instrument’s vanes (which vary its sound intensity). His piano playing (which may be heard on the first of his own albums) has a melodic strength and terseness reminiscent of Paul Bley.
Roger Dean, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, copyright Macmillan Reference Ltd 1988
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Bobby Naughton, vibraphone, Wadada Leo Smith, trumpet
AMSTERDAM NEWS MARCH
Wadada Leo Smith & New Dalta Ahkri.
Florence, July 4, 1979
Controlled Stop
Bobby Naughton: electronics, Joe Fonda: bass
‘Bout Time
Bobby Naughton, vibraphone, Jerome Harris, bass, Cleve Pozar, percussion
Go Where?
Bobby Naughton, electronics, Joe Fonda, bass
Zoar
Bobby Naughton: vibraphone, Joe Fonda: bass, Randy Kaye: percussion
OTIC 2002 (1983)
Pomperaug Diversions
Bobby Naughton: vibraphone, Joe Fonda: bass, Randy Kaye: percussion
OTIC 2002 (1983)
Shepaug Strut
Bobby Naughton: vibraphone, Joe Fonda: bass, Randy Kaye: percussion
OTIC 2002 (1983)
Snicker
Bobby Naughton: vibraphone, Joe Fonda: bass, Laurence Cook: drums
(recorded 2008)
Fancy Free
Bobby Naughton: vibraphone, Mario Pavone: bass, Laurence Cook: drums
(recorded 1974)