Freddie Bryant has been playing the guitar since he was 8 years old. His early training was in classical guitar, but he soon started jazz in junior high school. He kept up the dual studies throughout high school and college developing the different techniques and musical styles separately and fully. The result was a thorough understanding and grasp of each idiom. After college he worked primarily as a jazz guitarist but kept up a steady schedule of classical performances. A few years later he received his Masters Degree from the Yale School of Music. It was during this time that the two techniques began to meld together. He began to play Brazilian jazz on the classical guitar, and his compositions for the classical guitar started to show more jazz influence in harmony and even improvisation.
He is still a jazz guitarist and a classical guitarist but his music is starting to challenge the traditional labels used by the industry. His talents are now being sought out by artists from diverse backgrounds. For example, he recently recorded a CD of Ray Charles songs with jazz singer Roseanna Vitro, and toured with the Klezmer virtuoso clarinetist Giora Feidman and the legend of African music, Salif Keita. This is an exciting period of his career characterized by a wide variety of great music.
His musical family experience is perhaps the most important aspect of his development as a musician. His mother, Beatrice Rippy (a concert and opera singer), performed with his father, pianist Carroll Hollister. Freddie made his debut with his parents as page turner in New York's historic Town Hall at the age of 6. His mother's repertoire, like his own, was varied. She did not sing jazz but she sang in seven languages and many styles from Negro Spirituals and Broadway show tunes to German Lieder and Russian lullabies. His involvement in music with his parents at this early age gave him an understanding of performance practice as well as an insight into the emotional content of music. One of his most memorable and moving experiences was hearing his mother sing "My Man's Gone Now" from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess." His father had a long career as an accompanist for singers and violinists including Robert Merrill, Robert McFerrin (Bobby's father), John Charles Thomas and violinist Micha Elman.
Freddie grew up in New York City and studied classical guitar with Jeff Israel and jazz with Sal Salvador, Gene Bertoncinni and trombonist, Ed Byrne. Later he studied with jazz guitarist Ted Dunbar. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Amherst College. His teacher there was classical guitarist Phillip de Fremery who has remained a mentor to this date. He studied with Ben Verdery at the Yale School of Music receiving his Masters degree and winning the Havemeyer scholarship. He has also worked with guitarist/composer Frederic Hand.
Over the last 15 years, Freddie has been active in New York's jazz scene and has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Max Roach, Lonnie Smith and guitar legend Kenny Burrell. He has led groups under his own name and with pianist Jonny King. His groups have featured such saxophonists as Ralph Moore, David Sanchez, Don Braden, Steve Wilson and Vincent Herring. Other musicians include trumpeters Randy Brecker and Claudio Roditi, pianists Kevin Hays and Renee Rosnes, as well as many others.
In 1994, Freddie celebrated the release of his first CD in Japan entitled Take Your Dance Into Battle. The group consisted of Steve Wilson and Don Braden on saxophones, Ira Coleman on bass, Billy Drummond on drums and Freddie on electric guitar.
Around the time of his stay at Yale, he formed a group called the Brooklyn Rain Forest featuring Randy Brecker, David Sanchez, bassist Dennis Irwin and Brazilian drummer, Portinho. The music was a mixture of original compositions and jazz standards over Brazilian rhythms. This was the first time that he used the classical guitar in a jazz setting on a regular basis. Out of this emerged his second CD, Brazilian Rosewood. The personnel and instrumentation is different from the Brooklyn Rain Forest, but the repertoire is the same. The addition of pianist Edward Simon and percussionist, Gilad gives the CD a wider variety of textures and colors.
Freddie has also been active as a sideman in the recording studio. He has recorded with Kevin Hays, Steve Wilson, Cecilia Smith (vibraphonist), and Roseanna Vitro, Bonnie Strickman and Kate Scott (vocalists).
With all this going on, Freddie is still concentrating on his classical playing. He has made a point to maintain a consistent and major investment in his development as a classical guitarist. He has played concerts in schools and churches around the northeast as well as in the Frank Colleymore Hall in Barbados and at the Summer Wind Arts Festival in Oklahoma. In 1996 he was honored to be featured in the New Faces concert series at the Tilles Center in Long Island.
Composing has always been an important part of his musical life. His first CD had nine original tunes, and his second CD features seven. He has also written music for the classical guitar; his "Suite for Nia Andrea" will be published this year by Kithara editions. Four of his jazz compositions will be published in the forthcoming book, "The Real New Standards." In addition to writing for solo guitar and his jazz groups, he has written for a 15 piece jazz orchestra with poetry, dance performances and for film.
