Articles

David Friesen & Bob Ravenscroft: Passage

by Dan McClenaghan
April 25, 2021

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 ...

David Friesen with orchestra and quartet: Testimony

by Jack Bowers
January 2, 2021

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 ...

David Friesen With Orchestra And Quartet: Testimony

by Dan McClenaghan
November 12, 2020

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. ...

David Friesen Circle 3 Trio: Triple Exposure

by Dan Bilawsky
November 30, 2016

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 ...

David Friesen & Glen Moore: Bactrian

by Dan Bilawsky
April 7, 2016

Time and space can take nothing away from certain musical relationships. There are those on-and-off partnerships that flourish regardless of the frequency of encounters and years gone by, and this is clearly one of them. The connection between bass masters David Friesen and Glen Moore goes back some five decades. It yielded two previous duo recordings--In Concert (Vanguard, 1977) and Returning (Burnside, 1993)--and it continues to bear fruit. This third recorded chapter of the Friesen-Moore story began ...

David Friesen: Waterfall Rainbow

by John Kelman
January 12, 2015

David FriesenWaterfall RainbowInner City1977 Today's Rediscovery is Waterfall Rainbow, from a bassist who garnered significant attention back in the '70s and '80s, but sadly never sustained it for reasons unknown--certainly nothing to do with his talent--and has, in the decades since, remained an active player, but one largely forgotten by the general jazz public. After taking a relatively bold step and making Color Pool (Muse, 1975), his first album as a leader, a ...

David Friesen and Jeff Gardner: Grace

by C. Michael Bailey
June 25, 2002

Duet...

Small places, big faces...The smaller and more intimate the jazz combo becomes, the greater the musical distillation and exposure to the elements of the listener. It is always a high-wire act when jazz musicians reduce to a trio or less. The trio offers the bare minimum of a rhythm section of bass and drums and a lead instrument like a piano, guitar, or a reed. The duo typically reduces this further, like a fine sauce or rue, often to ...