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About David Friesen
David Friesen: A Light Shining Through
by Dan McClenaghan
The music of bassist David Friesen is inspired by two major sources: his ancestral Ukrainian roots and his Christian faith. While the Christian aspect of the inspiration is probably long-term, the familial roots part of the equation seems to have gained traction with Testimony (Origin Records, 2021), a piece recorded with a jazz quartet 2018 in Kiev with the National Academic Symphonic Band Of Ukraine. Expansive in thematic scope and stunningly beautiful, the piece was triumphant. With Friesen pushing a ...
Continue ReadingDavid Friesen: This Light Has No Darkness, Volume 1
by Dan McClenaghan
In 2020, David Friesen, an American jazz artist with Ukrainian roots, released his masterpiece, Testimony (Origin Records). The set was an orchestral, spiritual soundscape featuring Friesen's jazz quartet and the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine. Recorded in Kyiv, in December of 2018--about three years before Russia invaded Ukraine--the music was a majestic testament to Friesen's faith, embracing tranquility and the strength of the certainty and the comfort drawn from his religious beliefs. The bassist followed Testimony up ...
Continue ReadingDavid Friesen: Day Of Rest
by Dan McClenaghan
Boasting a forty-year career in music, bassist & composer David Friesen found a home at Origin Records in 2014, with his Where The Light Falls, featuring his Circle 3 Trio and guest guitarist Larry Koonse. He has, in the ensuing years, created his finest art for the label, mostly in small groups--duos and trios, and also a solo outing--in addition to his masterpiece, Testimony (2020), featuring his quartet along with the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine. His ...
Continue ReadingDavid Friesen & Bob Ravenscroft: Passage
by Dan McClenaghan
After decades of recording in small ensemble formats, bassist David Friesen offered up Testimony (Origin Records) in 2020, an outing which found him backed by his quartet and the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine on his best and most ambitious recording. He followed that up in 2021 by going back to the—for him— familiar territory of the art of the duo, enlisting pianist Bob Ravenscroft in the creation of Passages. The duo presents twenty-five musical vignettes, brief ...
Continue ReadingDavid Friesen with orchestra and quartet: Testimony
by Jack Bowers
A visit to Ukraine by bassist, pianist, composer, arranger and genial jack-of-all-trades David Friesen, to flesh out his family heritage, led to this picturesque anthology by Friesen's quartet with reinforcement on eleven of its seventeen tracks from the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine. The orchestral numbers were recorded in December 2018 at the National Philharmonic Hall in Kiev, the quartet tracks in October 2019 at the Kyiv Institute of Music. Even with the presence of a ...
Continue ReadingDavid Friesen With Orchestra And Quartet: Testimony
by Dan McClenaghan
Most artists, in most fields, move into their eighth decade on an artistic decline, their best days behind them. But not so for the Portland, Oregon-based musician David Friesen. The bassist/pianist/composer hooked up with Seattle's Origin Records in 2014 with the release of Where the Light Falls. Five more sets arrived in short order, top tier duo, trio or solo outings. Now, with Testimony, Friesen embraces the orchestral, resulting in the gorgeous magnum opus of a long and successful career. ...
Continue ReadingDavid Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Triple Exposure
by Dan Bilawsky
For most, a triangle is the shape that readily springs to mind when analyzing, discussing, and/or conceptualizing a trio. There's no mistaking roles and positions, after all, when there are three clearly defined sides. A circle, on the other hand, offers no beginning, no middle, and no end. In many ways it's a better analog for a band, but only if the shape fits. Needless to say, when it comes to the musical marriage of bassist David Friesen, pianist Greg ...
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