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Freddie Bryant

t the start of his career the great guitarist Kenny Burrell wrote, “Freddie Bryant is a brilliant young guitarist and composer.” Since then he has shown his versatile skills in jazz, classical, Brazilian and other world genres. Freddie is currently in demand in the New York jazz scene. He worked with Ben Riley for over a decade with the Monk Legacy Septet (Memories of T on Concord Records) and The Ben Riley Quartet (Grown Folks Music on Sunnyside Records). He has been a member of the Mingus Orchestra since the millennium and has toured and recorded with Tom Harrell (Paradise on RCA). His own group, KALEIDOSCOPE whose CD, Live Grooves…Epic Tales is on the HiPNOTIC record label features grooves from around the world including Brazil, Cuba and New Orleans as well as influences from blues, gospel, India and the Middle-East.

His latest CD Monk Restrung is an exciting project featuring the compositions of Thelonious Monk with Freddie’s trio of guitar, bass and drums with guest appearances of three of the finest guitarists in jazz: Howard Alden, Peter Bernstein and Romero Lubambo.

2014 marked the release of Bryant’s seventh CD, Dreamscape: Solo, Duo, Trio which features the stellar cast of Chris Potter – reeds and Scott Colley – bass as well as the leader playing four guitars: Telecaster, Jazz arch-top, classical and 12-string. Jazz writer Bill Milkowski wrote: “Imbued with Bryant’s inimitable touch, inherent soulfulness and the element of surprise, Dreamscape: Solo-Duo-Trio is also marked by the guitarist’s ability to seamlessly traverse the classical-jazz divide on this collection of jazz standards and compelling originals.”

Freddie has also had the honor of touring with three legends of the music world: African singer, Salif Keita, the virtuoso klezmer clarinetist, maestro Giora Feidman and the jazz trumpet great, Tom Harrell (as a member of his quintet, 1999-2001). He has recorded and/or played with D.D. Jackson, Steve Wilson, Kevin Hays, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, bassist Avishai Cohen, Rosanna Vitro, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Sheila Jordan, Randy Brecker, David Sanchez, Joshua Redman, Wynton Marsalis, Max Roach, Lonnie Smith and many others. He is also on the first call list of many singers and Brazilian musicians because of his sensitive accompanying and his knowledge of Brazilian guitar and has toured with pianist/singer Eliane Elias.

Over the years he has toured in 55 countries and has had the opportunity of collaborating with musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds including the Indian sitarist, Shubhendra Rao, the Kenyan singers, Achien’g Abura, Suzanna Owiyo, the Taarab master oud player Zein L’abdin and traditional groups in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. In 2006 he performed in Cuba as a solo artist and spent a week of musical exchange with Cuban musicians including the trumpet player, “El Greco” formerly of Irakere. He has toured as a cultural ambassador for The U.S. Department of State numerous times and performed at the Kennedy Center with the Billy Taylor Trio appearing on National Public Radio Show, “Live at the Kennedy Center.”

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Radio & Podcasts

New Music From Illegal Crowns, Idle Hands, Freddie Bryant And More

Read "New Music From Illegal Crowns, Idle Hands, Freddie Bryant And More" reviewed by Bob Osborne


On this show new music from Illegal Crowns (Tomas Fujiwara, Mary Halvorson, Taylor Ho Bynum & Benoit Delbecq), Ingebrigt Håker Flaten & Paal Nilssen-Love, Freddie Bryant, La Disidencia de las Máquinas, James McGowan, Voodoo Drummer, Sana Nagano and Leonor Falcón, Idle Hands, and a never before heard recording of John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy.Playlist Show Intro 00:00 Illegal Crowns “Unclosing" from Unclosing (Out Of Your Head Records) 00:54 Ingebrigt Håker Flaten & Paal Nilssen-Love “Part 7" from Guts ...

Radio & Podcasts

Freddie Bryant's Upper Westside Love Story

Read "Freddie Bryant's Upper Westside Love Story" reviewed by David Bixler


In this episode of LINER NOTES I speak with guitarist, composer, and now lyricist Freddie Bryant about his song cycle Upper Westside Love Story. With the help of vocalist Carla Cook and soloists Regina Carter, Steve Wilson, and Donny McCaslin, Freddie pays homage to his New York City childhood neighborhood and takes the listener on a journey of the changes it has endured. You can visit upperwestsidelovestory.com to learn more. This episode features music from Freddie Bryant's Upper ...

174
Album Review

Freddie Bryant: Boogaloo Brasileiro

Read "Boogaloo Brasileiro" reviewed by Dave Nathan


I don't know who is responsible picking covers on jazz albums, but some of them puzzle me, like the cover of Freddie Bryant's Boogaloo Brasileiro. It pictures him (or someone, since it's from the back) as a wild haired, guitar waving nut. When you discover who he is and listen to this album you quickly find out he is anything but that. First, Bryant has great musical genes. His mother was an opera singer and his father a pianist. He ...

127
Album Review

Freddie Bryant: Boogaloo Brasileiro

Read "Boogaloo Brasileiro" reviewed by Michael Askounes


OK, let me admit it up front: I wouldn't know what good Brazilian Jazz was supposed to sound like if Pele snuck up behind me and hit me over the head with a timbale. My exposure to Latin music is pretty much limited to the “Ricky's" - Martin and Ricardo. So it is with much humility and trepidation that I present to you - the Brazilian Jazz buying public - with my honest opinion of jazz guitarist Freddie Bryant's latest ...

174
Album Review

Freddie Bryant: Boogaloo Brasileiro

Read "Boogaloo Brasileiro" reviewed by Joel Roberts


Freddie Bryant is a busy young man with a taste for diverse musical adventures. Along with an active career as a classical guitarist, Bryant is also a current member of trumpeter Tom Harrell's quintet. And he's appeared with everyone from African pop star Salif Keita to Klezmer virtuoso Giora Fiegman. On his third CD as a leader, Bryant renews his romance with the music of South America, succesfully melding his superb classical technique with the explosive rhythms of Brazil.

The ...

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Album Review

Freddie Bryant: Boogaloo Brasileiro

Read "Boogaloo Brasileiro" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Like many of you, the name of guitarist Freddie Bryant was certainly a new one to me. My only previous encounter with his work was on a Steve Wilson Criss Cross date of several years ago and that in no way prepared me for the kind of mature and stylish presentation that awaited on Boogaloo Brasileiro. A heady mix of formidable jazz and Brazilian-inflected rhythms, the guitarist's septet breezes its way through four Bryant originals and four preferred standards.

A ...

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Festival

Berkshire Gateway To Feature Phil Woods, Freddie Bryant, Greg Caputo Big Band

Berkshire Gateway To Feature Phil Woods, Freddie Bryant, Greg Caputo Big Band

Source: Ed Bride Associates

Berkshires Jazz, Inc. today announced the second annual Berkshire Gateway Jazz Weekend, bringing marquee performers and local jazz musicians to downtown Lee, Massachusetts, July 25-28. In collaboration with Berkshire Gateway Preservation, Inc., Berkshires Jazz presents the {Greg Caputo Big Band, Phil Woods, and the Freddie Bryant Quartet in the striking performance space at First Congregational Church, 25 Park Place, and other venues. In addition to the headline performances on July 26 and 27, the weekend will include “jazz about town,” ...

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Performance / Tour

Jazz Guitarist Freddie Bryant Performs at Ryles in Cambridge on Wednesday, June 8

Jazz Guitarist Freddie Bryant Performs at Ryles in Cambridge on Wednesday, June 8

Source: MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts


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Performance / Tour

Guitarist Freddie Bryant and "Kaleidoscope Trio" to perform at the Vermont Jazz Center on Saturday, March 8th at 8:00 PM

Guitarist Freddie Bryant and "Kaleidoscope Trio" to perform at the Vermont Jazz Center on Saturday, March 8th  at 8:00 PM

Source: All About Jazz

This Saturday, March 8th at 8:00 PM, The Vermont Jazz Center will present guitarist Freddie Bryant as he leads the Kaleidoscope Trio, a group whose vibrant and varied sounds reflect the rich musical worlds in which this New York-based ensemble travel. The concert will be held at the Vermont Jazz Center at the Cotton Mill Building at the South end of South Main Street in Brattleboro, Vermont. Bryant brings with him Israeli percussionist, Gilad and bassist Greg Ryan.

New York, ...

“Guitarist Freddie Bryant is a rhythmic and melodic sponge. Put him in any musical situation, be it classical, jazz, funk, Senegalese, etc., and he’ll tend to become one with the music.” — Jason Koransky, www.downbeatjazz.com

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

ENSO

Sonic Image
2022

buy

Live Grooves… Epic...

HiPNOTIC Records
2013

buy

Brazilian Rosewood

Self Produced
2004

buy

Brazilian Rosewood

Black Lion
1998

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