Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW December 26, 2018

Davis - Frith - Greenlief: Lantskap Logic

Read "Lantskap Logic" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

Guitarist Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Massacre, Arte Quartett) is one the earth's greatest improvisers. He is joined on Lantskap Logic by a pair of attuned futurists--pipe organist, educator Evelyn Davis (Cheer Accident), and saxophonist/composer Phillip Greenlief (They Might Be Giants)--to record this album at the Mills College chapel, which houses the pipe organ, and seemed to be an ideal venue for this rather utopian electro-acoustic musical event. Soon after this recording, Frith retired from his position as Professor ...

RADIO October 8, 2018

Fred Frith Solo Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam

By BIMHUIS

Since the 1960s, composer and multi-instrumentalist Fred Frith has been blurring the borders between rock, folk, improvisation and contemporary music. His influence as an artist was already evident in the early seventies, first as a result of his work with the innovative British rock band Henry Cow and later with Brian Eno. He moved to New York at the end of that decade, and began collaborating with artists like John Zorn, Tom Cora and Bill Laswell. He has worked as ...

LIVE REVIEW February 23, 2018

Fred Frith's solo performance at the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra's Concert Hall

By Nenad Georgievski

Fred Frith The Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra's Concert Hall Skopje, Macedonia February 21, 2018 Nothing about guitarist Fred Frith's quiet demeanor as he walks on stage towards his guitar would give any indication of what will follow soon and where he will take the music and the audience with him. And during the performance at the Concert Hall of the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, this master improviser and master conceptualist has shown the audience why he is ...

ALBUM REVIEW September 6, 2016

Fred Frith Trio: Another Day in Fucking Paradise

By Glenn Astarita

The album title may equate to what a disgruntled co-worker may utter at the office on a Monday morning. Yes, some of us have used this line, but master improviser, guitarist Fred Frith's prowess and boundless creativity is the antithesis to anything that may cause a semblance of drudgery. Jason Hoopes' bursting e-bass lines and Jordan Glenn's vigorous drumming and colorful accents supply all the ammo Frith needs via his speed riffing, unearthly effects and keen use of ...

ALBUM REVIEW May 27, 2016

Fred Frith / Darren Johnston: Everybody's Somebody's Nobody

By John Sharpe

Here's a West Coast entrant to the slim body of guitar/trumpet duets from iconoclastic strummer Fred Frith and trumpeter Darren Johnston. It collects 11 short cuts from two studio sessions into a three-quarter hour program. They're not averse to co-opting rhythms (Frith) or melodic figures (Johnston), meaning that what we have here can be termed the accessible avant-garde. Each jointly crafted extravaganza explores a different mood. They ring the changes both between numbers but also within them, especially in some ...

LIVE REVIEW April 6, 2015

Brilliant Corners Jazz Festival 2015

By Ian Patterson

Brilliant Corners Jazz Festivaljny:Belfast, Ireland March 25-28 , 2015 Brilliant Corners may not be the biggest jazz festival in Northern Ireland--that accolade belongs to the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band Festival--but in just three editions it can already lay claim to being the best. Eschewing the populist acts that characterize jny:Derry's sprawling jazz festival, promoter Moving On Music has quickly established Brilliant Corners as the home of new and cutting edge ...

MULTIPLE REVIEWS September 14, 2012

Two Sides of Fred Frith

By John Eyles

From the very start of his musical career, guitarist Fred Frith has been equally at home as an improviser, a songwriter or a combination of the two. His first group, the legendary Henry Cow, always featured a balance between songs that were used as a springboard for improvisation and free improvisations. In contrast, his debut solo album Guitar Solos (Caroline, 1974) featured eight tracks of unaccompanied improvised guitar, including prepared guitar; Frith's innovative, experimental approach to his instrument was highly ...