Kerry Minnear

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Kerry Churchill Minnear (born on January 2 1948 in the town of Shaftesbury in Dorset, England), is a multi-instrumentalist musician who performed with the progressive rock band Gentle Giant from 1970 to 1980.

It was at the Royal Academy of Music in London that he graduated in composition. He notably contributed to the success of Gentle Giant as a composer and arranger. Like the rest of the band, Kerry is agile on several instruments. He did therefore ensure all the performances on keyboards (organ, clavinet, synthesizer, piano), etc. Which it succeeds brilliantly and with transparency to integrate into acoustic contexts. He thus handled a multitude of other instruments such as the cello, classical percussions (including vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, timpani and snare drum) etc. During concerts, his vibraphone solos often took the form of long and engaging improvisations.

On studio albums, Kerry Minnear and Derek Shulman regularly swapped leadership roles within the band. We can therefore just as easily find them alternately in the same songs, though some others are entirely sung by Kerry. However, his extremely smooth voice, often losing itself in the highs, characteristic of the group's quieter songs, was too low for the amplification at the time. His solo parts were therefore sung either by Derek or Phil Shulman, when the latter was in the group, during the concert performances, Minnear providing only the backing vocals.

Kerry also composed the original musical soundtrack for the video game Azrael's Tear in 1996, starring Ray Shulman.

He now lives in Solihull (West Midlands) with his wife Lesley and has three children, Sally, Sam and Susie. Still a member of the Gentle Giant franchise, he also composes for cinema and television.

In the years following the dissolution of Gentle Giant, Minnear was a member of a Christian music band, The Reapers, in the 1980s. They released three albums between 1982 and 1986, "Star of the morning" in 1982, "Come And Praise" in 1984 and finally "Christmas Joy" in 1986. He was also a teacher and, as a Christian, a church organist. He and his wife Lesley own Alucard Music, which releases Gentle Giant CDs and DVDs. He also plays occasionally with the group Three Friends which reproduces Gentle Giant songs in concerts. The group is made up of Mick Wilson on vocals, ex-Gentle Giant Gary Green on guitar, Andrew Williams also on guitar, Roger Carey on bass, Kerry Minnear on keyboards, John Donaldson on piano and keyboards and another ex-Gentle Giant, Malcolm Mortimore on drums.

His son Sam Minnear is a founding member of alternative pop group Misty's Big Adventure.

The Reapers[]

• 1982 : Star of the morning
• 1984 : Come And Praise
• 1986 : Christmas Joy

References[]

External links[]

• Blazemonger.com