Jazz Articles about Joe Friedman

About Joe Friedman

Album Review

Cup O' Joe is a surprisingly upbeat and enjoyable debut album for St. Louis-born guitarist Joe Friedman. After playing alongside contemporaries like Cyrus Chestnut and ably providing guitar duties on tour for chanteuse Eartha Kitt, Friedman was given the chance to record his first album as a leader by a fellow Oberlin College alumni, producer and drummer Neal Smith. Alumni brotherhood aside, Smith obviously saw a certain special something in Friedman's playing and his instincts were apparently right on the ...

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Album Review

Joe Friedman: Cup O'Joe

Read "Cup O'Joe" reviewed by Ernest Barteldes

by Ernest Barteldes
March 25, 2007

From the opening riffs of guitarist Joe Friedman's up-tempo arrangement of “Pure Imagination (taken from the soundtrack of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), it is clear that this is a new talent who deserves quick recognition. He plays electric guitar cleanly, with little or no reverb or other electronic effects, and turns many clever phrases, as on Monk's “Bolivar Blues . There are two original compositions on the disc. “A Darker Shade of Rose begins as ...