Peter Laurence Gordon (born June 20, 1951) is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, pianist and experimental composer,[1] whose influences include jazz, disco, funk, rock, opera, classical and world music.

[3] His earliest musical influences were jazz artists from New Orleans, as well as The Shadows, The Ventures, Albert Ayler, Igor Stravinsky, Sun Ra, The Animals and The Yardbirds.

[4] Discussing his time in California, Gordon told The Irish Times, “Initially, I had a very austere, modern, avant-garde classical schooling in San Diego and I rebelled against that….I always had a mission to create music which integrated the head and the body.”[6] Gordon has led a varied career: He has helmed his ensemble The Love Of Life Orchestra, collaborated with other composers, and composed works for stage shows, particularly at Brooklyn Academy of Music.

[8] At various points Arthur Russell, Rhys Chatham, Kathy Acker, Ernie Brooks, Jill Kroesen and Peter Zummo were collaborators in Love of Life Orchestra.

[2] Gordon was an early proponent of Tape Music, which according to musicologist and composer Ned Sublette, “created an original kind of continuum between the composed and improvised, and between the acoustic and the virtual, one that gave performers a broad scope to create their own sound and their own parts while hewing to a carefully thought-out composition…” [7] He collaborated with “Blue” Gene Tyranny a number of times, including for the Trust In Rock recordings, performed live at the University Art Museum in Berkeley in 1976, and released as a recording on Unseen Worlds in 2019.

[9] He collaborated with writer Kathy Acker, artist David Salle and director Richard Foreman on the opera The Birth Of The Poet, which opened in Rotterdam in 1984, and had its U.S. premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1985.

[7]  That same year, Gordon composed the score for Secret Pastures, a collaboration with choreographers Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane, artist Keith Haring, and designer Willi Smith, which premiered at BAM in 1984.

Gordon has collaborated on a number of occasions with Willi Smith's company Williwear, including the film Expedition, used to introduce the designer's 1986 collection, which was directed by Max Vadukul and shot on location in Dakar.