Biography
Jeff Rian
Jeff Rian is an American musician, composer, singer, and writer. Rian has successfully combined two careers: as an accomplished guitarist and songwriter, and a noted art critic and professor of art. He has lived in Paris since 1995.
Born in Japan in 1948, Rian was raised in Bailey’s Crossroads, a suburb of Washington, D.C. He began performing in public with a folk group at the age of 11, a month after learning to play on a $17 Sears acoustic guitar. Three years later, the folk group became a rock band, and by the late 1960s, when he was 19, he was playing six nights a week on the Washington, D.C., nightclub circuit.
Inspired by the music he heard at Woodstock in 1969, he took to the road and a year later ended up studying art and art history at the University of Colorado Boulder and playing in jazz and rock bands. He completed a master’s degree in art history and moved to New York, where he managed an art gallery. In 1985-86, he lived in Vienna, Austria, where he helped organize Wien Fluss: 1986, an exhibition of international artists.
Throughout, Rian never stopped playing the guitar. Back in New York City, in the early 1990s he wrote songs and performed in Downtown clubs with singer Andrea Egert. In 1995, he moved to Paris to work as a writer and editor for Purple magazine and its many offshoots (Purple Prose, Purple Fiction, Purple Journal, Purple Fashion). In 1996, he was appointed professor of art and art history, starting in French art schools and later at the Sorbonne.
Over the years, Rian has been a regular contributor to the magazines Art in America, Flash Art, frieze, and Artforum. He is the author of a number of books, including The Buckshot Lexicon (French title: Lexique Revolver), Purple Years, and monographic essays on artists Richard Prince, Franz West, Lewis Baltz, Hubert Duprat and others.
Since living in Paris, Rian has made many recordings, including four albums on major labels with singer Alexandra Roos (A7, Quand à Tokyo un papillon bat des ailes, Fanfares, and 8 de pique). Other works include the soundtrack for the television documentary William Styron (France 2/PBS), an all-guitar recording with Jean-Jacques Palix (Everglade, Beauregard), and three albums with musician and sound-engineer Bob Coke (Battle Songs, Météo, Wind & Wood), and appeared on two recordings by the Swedish singer-songwriter, Jay-Jay Johanson.
Coriolis Sounds is now releasing an album of ten songs, “Such Is Life,” in a style he calls “fozz,” which mixes folk music and jazz harmonies, which will be followed by live recordings with a band.
Rian continues to perform live (vocals and guitar), both solo and with a band.
Born in Japan in 1948, Rian was raised in Bailey’s Crossroads, a suburb of Washington, D.C. He began performing in public with a folk group at the age of 11, a month after learning to play on a $17 Sears acoustic guitar. Three years later, the folk group became a rock band, and by the late 1960s, when he was 19, he was playing six nights a week on the Washington, D.C., nightclub circuit.
Inspired by the music he heard at Woodstock in 1969, he took to the road and a year later ended up studying art and art history at the University of Colorado Boulder and playing in jazz and rock bands. He completed a master’s degree in art history and moved to New York, where he managed an art gallery. In 1985-86, he lived in Vienna, Austria, where he helped organize Wien Fluss: 1986, an exhibition of international artists.
Throughout, Rian never stopped playing the guitar. Back in New York City, in the early 1990s he wrote songs and performed in Downtown clubs with singer Andrea Egert. In 1995, he moved to Paris to work as a writer and editor for Purple magazine and its many offshoots (Purple Prose, Purple Fiction, Purple Journal, Purple Fashion). In 1996, he was appointed professor of art and art history, starting in French art schools and later at the Sorbonne.
Over the years, Rian has been a regular contributor to the magazines Art in America, Flash Art, frieze, and Artforum. He is the author of a number of books, including The Buckshot Lexicon (French title: Lexique Revolver), Purple Years, and monographic essays on artists Richard Prince, Franz West, Lewis Baltz, Hubert Duprat and others.
Since living in Paris, Rian has made many recordings, including four albums on major labels with singer Alexandra Roos (A7, Quand à Tokyo un papillon bat des ailes, Fanfares, and 8 de pique). Other works include the soundtrack for the television documentary William Styron (France 2/PBS), an all-guitar recording with Jean-Jacques Palix (Everglade, Beauregard), and three albums with musician and sound-engineer Bob Coke (Battle Songs, Météo, Wind & Wood), and appeared on two recordings by the Swedish singer-songwriter, Jay-Jay Johanson.
Coriolis Sounds is now releasing an album of ten songs, “Such Is Life,” in a style he calls “fozz,” which mixes folk music and jazz harmonies, which will be followed by live recordings with a band.
Rian continues to perform live (vocals and guitar), both solo and with a band.