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Von Freeman: The Improvisor
by Dan McClenaghan
Saxophonist Von Freeman wasn't bitten by the wanderlust--a disadvantage in a jazz career. You've got to tour, or at the very least move to New York or Los Angeles. Or so they say. But Freeman stayed in Chicago, and for the better part of the last thirty years has been holding court at The Apartment Lounge, working his artistry outside the bigger limelights, developing, over the course of time, virtuoso--if underappreciated--skills.Put Von's new CD, The Improvisor, on blind, ...
Continue ReadingVon Freeman & Frank Catalano: You Talkin' To Me?!
by Derek Taylor
Break out the party hats and cut the celebratory cake; another Von Freeman jam session is out of the can and ready for the grasping hands of Windy City jazz fans! Vonski is cat so good at what he does that even the most callous critical eye can’t help becoming weepy in admiration. The man has been staging weekly jam sessions for virtually any and all comers for years, providing not only a proving ground for young talent, but also ...
Continue ReadingVon Freeman & Ed Petersen: Von & Ed
by Derek Taylor
Down and dirty cutting contests are nothing new in Jazz and their allure seems to transcend any idiomatic boundaries in the music. There’s a long lineage to draw on from the spirited jousts of Lester Young and Herschel Evans in the early incarnations of Basie’s Orchestra to Long Tall Dex and Wardell Gray slugging it out on the seminal bop brawl “The Chase.” Even a glance at the specs on this session should reveal it for what it is- a ...
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