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Still Waters by David Friesen

From the album

Album Title: Testimony
Label: Origin Records
Released: 2020

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About the Album

A major international jazz figure for over 50 years, bassist-composer David Friesen continues his unflagging process of creating new defining works, with the ambitious, expansive, and deeply personal musical explorations found on Testimony. Through the desire to better understand his Mother's Ukrainian heritage, and with inspired leg-work from his Czech-based assistant, Natalie Digtyar, Friesen found himself on a 2015 tour of family landmarks in Smila, Ukraine, fully researched and led by a television crew and the local historical museum. Meeting Oleksandr Pirozhenko, director of the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine, set in motion the collaboration heard here, beginning with a sold-out 2016 "homecoming" concert in Smila's Concert Hall, followed by this live recording from Kiev's National Philharmonic Hall in December, 2018. Arrangements of Friesen's profoundly spiritual compositions unfold, offering passages exploding with orchestral grandeur alongside lone whispers from solo piano, vibes or bass, and intimate quartet vignettes, all reflecting the myriad emotions exposed through his journey of ancestral discovery.

Tracks

Prelude; Still Waters; Meaningful; Distant Shores; Tribute; Sequence; Another Time, Another Place; Time Never Ends; Deep South Blues; My Faith, My Life; Make Believe; New Ballad; Sailing; Going Forth; Pumpkin; New Hope; Lament For The Lost/ Procession.

Personnel

David Friesen

bass

Additional Personnel

David Friesen: Hemage bass, piano, percussion; Eugene Dobrovolskyi: vibraphone (3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 15), Alex Fantaev: drums, percussion (3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 15); Mykola Ryshkov: tenor saxophone (3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 15); David Friesen with the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine (1, 2, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17).

Reviews

Testimony by Jack Bowers
Testimony by Dan McClenaghan

Date featured

December 20, 2020

This song appears by permission of the contributing artist and/or record company. It is for personal use only; no other rights are granted or implied.