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Addison Frei

Ever since Addison Frei (“Fry”) began playing piano professionally at age ten in local restaurants around Lawrence, Kansas, he has garnered accolades far beyond his years. The New York-based pianist has won first prize in several competitions including the 2017 Parmigiani Montreux Jazz Piano Solo Competition, the 2016 UNISA International Jazz Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, the 2015 American Jazz Pianist Competition in Melbourne, Florida, and the 2012 Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. He has released two albums on Armored Records, Intentions (2014) and Transit (2016), featuring frequent collaborator and Manhattan Transfer co-founder Janis Siegel. His latest recording on TCB Records-The Montreux Jazz Label will feature a new trio comprised of bassist Tamir Shmerling and drummer Mario Gonzi.

Frei also co-leads AMP Trio, contributing compositions to Three (2017), m(y)our world (2015), which rose to #24 on the Jazz Week charts, and Flow (2013). AMP Trio recently completed a Japanese tour and alongside vocalist Tahira Clayton, was selected as the winner of the DC Jazz Prix, earning a DC Jazz Festival performance in 2018. With his 2016 single and music video “Postcard”, Frei again teamed up with Clayton, this time expanding into a broader production palette. Following in this sonic path, he explored political themes in a digital EP, Future Speak (2017).

Frei currently holds the piano chair in the Juilliard Artist Diploma Ensemble, regularly performing and touring with the conservatory’s flagship jazz ensemble. In New York he has held residencies at the Kitano and the Cell Theatre. Frei performed a concert series at the 2017 Lucerne Piano Festival. He was also a featured soloist with Drew Zaremba’s Unity Orchestra in Dallas. Frei headlined the 2015 Wichita Jazz Festival and brought his group to the Dallas Museum of Art. He has toured alongside vibraphonist Christian Tamburr, Felix Peikli and Joe Doubleday’s “Showtime Band”, and the Charles Turner Quartet. His acclaimed compositions have earned him invitations to Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. Frei is a two-time recipient of the Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composers Award sponsored by ASCAP. He served as musical director of B-Side Productions’ Adding Machine and The Wild Party.

A 2014 summa cum laude graduate of the prestigious University of North Texas Jazz Studies program, Frei traveled with the One O’Clock Lab Band to headline the Next Generation Jazz Festival in Monterey, California and can be heard on Lab 2013. While at UNT he had the opportunity to perform with prominent jazz artists including Christian McBride, Mike Stern, and Peter Erskine. Frei also gave a duo piano recital alongside his mentor, Stefan Karlsson, featuring the music of Richie Beirach. In 2013 the faculty honored Frei with the Outstanding Undergraduate Jazz Studies Student Award.

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Album Review

Ben Wolfe: Unjust

Read "Unjust" reviewed by Maurizio Zerbo


Sul piano compositivo e dell'organizzazione sonora, Unjust è uno dei più luminosi gioielli jazzistici degli ultimi anni. Contrabbassista di ragguardevole talento, Ben Wolfe ribadisce nel suo decimo progetto discografico la predilezione per architetture ariose ma arzigogolate, dimostrando come la scrittura jazzistica possa captare lo spirito dei tempi nel rispetto dei classici modelli di riferimento. A dimostrare come il contrabbassista statunitense non si accontenti di riprodurre le idee altrui, l'impasto sonoro del suo ottetto trascende le atmosfere post-boppistiche e ...

8
Album Review

Ben Wolfe: Unjust

Read "Unjust" reviewed by Dave Linn


The history of modern jazz contains only a handful of bass players who have both led their own groups and been visionary in their compositions and approach. Charles Mingus, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, Jaco Pastorius and Christian McBride are those who come to mind. With the release of his 10th album, Unjust, Ben Wolfe shows he belongs in that group. Wolfe began his musical career as a classical bassist and studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in ...

1
Album Review

Staci Griesbach: My George Jones Songbook

Read "My George Jones Songbook" reviewed by William H. Snyder


Some might question why write an All About Jazz review of an album featuring songs made popular by George Jones? Duke Ellington had the answer when he said, “There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind ... the only yardstick by which the result should be judged is simply that of how it sounds. If it sounds good it's successful; if it doesn't it has failed." Staci Griesbach and her colleagues have made good music ...

2
Album Review

Kristiana Roemer: House of Mirrors

Read "House of Mirrors" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


Kristiana Roemer is a young German singer whose voice has a lilt and plush texture reminiscent of Annette Peacock. On this, her first album, she uses her intriguing sound in the service of both conventional jazz tunes and floating, airy pieces which border on art songs. Most of the material here is her own writing, though some lyrics derive from others' poetry. In addition, she proves her jazz bona fides by including familiar tunes by Stanley Turrentine and Charles Mingus. ...

3
Album Review

Cowboys & Frenchmen: Our Highway

Read "Our Highway" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Okay, the name may be rather out of the ordinary (Cowboys & Frenchmen?), but once past that, what remains is a burnished New York City-based quintet whose music might best be described as decidedly liberated and contemporary. This isn't “free" jazz wherein each member of the group goes his own separate way; there is, however, a large share of free-lancing within the established boundaries of melody, harmony and rhythm that moderate all save the most ungoverned forms of the music. ...

4
Album Review

Jocelyn Gould: Elegant Traveler

Read "Elegant Traveler" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


The first thing that attracts attention on Elegant Traveler, Jocelyn Gould's debut as a leader, is her guitar's tone. The sound she coaxes from the instrument has a profound effect on the music as a whole, yet it remains intimate, unpretentious and disarming. Whether Gould is playing a melody, improvising, or offering sparse accompaniment, it is these qualities, instead of an anxious, rapid-fire delivery, which lead the way. Every note is struck with care, stands up on its own, and ...

3
Album Review

The Seth Weaver Big Band: Truth

Read "Truth" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Truth, the debut album by New York-based trombonist / vocalist Seth Weaver, has its ups and downs, most of which involve the leader himself. The “ups" enter the picture thanks to Weaver's five far-better-than-average compositions, the “downs" whenever he chooses to sing, as he does on three of eight numbers. Luckily, the pluses far outweigh the minuses, thanks in large measure to Weaver's admirable ensemble, a number of first-rate soloists and the above-mentioned compositions, which herald Weaver as a talented ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz This Week: Eric Slaughter Trio with Jason Swagler, Ally Hany and Addison Frei, and More

Jazz This Week: Eric Slaughter Trio with Jason Swagler, Ally Hany and Addison Frei, and More

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman

The live jazz offerings are a bit sparse around town this long Independence Day weekend in St. Louis, but there still are a few shows worthy of your attention coming up over the next few days. On Friday and Saturday, guitarist Eric Slaughter will bring his trio (pictured) plus saxophonist Jason Swagler to Jazz at the Bistro. Although Swagler is billed as special guest, he and Slaughter actually have played together fairly often, including co-hosting a jam session the first ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Unjust

Resident Arts
2023

buy

Our Highway

Outside in Music
2021

buy

My George Jones...

Staci Griesbach
2021

buy

Under One Sky

MGL Music
2021

buy

Realization

D-Clef Records
2020

buy

Elegant Traveler

Posi-Tone Records
2020

buy

Where Is your Wealth

From: Our Highway
By Addison Frei

Realization

From: Realization
By Addison Frei

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