Mike Freeman

Mike Freeman

Musicians | Instrument: Vibraphone | Location: New York City

Latin jazz doesn't get any better than this.

—Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz

Updated: July 17, 2023

Born: August 25

Musician - Composer - Band leader - Recording Artist - Producer - Educator

With spirited soulful swing vibraphonist and composer Mike Freeman performs mambo- and salsa-inflused originals creating a distinct brand of jazz-Latin-blues. Dan McClaneghan of Allaboutjazz described him as "masterful" and ranked among other top names of the instrument. Freeman's performances have taken him from North America and Europe to the Azores, Caribbean, and South America. His recordings of original music include tributes to Cal Tjader, Tito Puente, and NEA Jazz Master Bobby Hutcherson. Freeman's recordings have received national and international attention and extensive radio airplay, charting on jazz, contemporary jazz, and World Music radio.

A Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement grant recipient Freeman produced the concert series Boricua Blues, Hell’s Kitchen Soul Sauce, and Latin Music In Hell’s Kitchen, A History that included guest legends Ray Mantilla and Jose Mangual Jr. performing at the Times Center, The Highline, Pier 84 and Riverbank State Park in NYC. He’s also produced two Band Together benefit concerts. One for musicians affected by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria with proceeds going to the Jazz Foundation of America and the other after Hurricane Katrina, benefitting the Tipitinas Foundation and New Orleans–area musicians.

Other endeavors include writing a decade-long series of commissioned compositions and arrangements for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Percussion Scholarship Program. In 2014 he was commissioned by the late drummer/educator Ed Uribe to write arrangements for China's national percussion curriculum that were performed by members of the Shanghai Symphony at Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Performance highlights for Freeman as a leader include the Fox Jazz Festival and Riverfront Jazz Festival in WI; the Trinidad & Tobago Steelpan & Jazz Festival; Festival Internacional, Terciera, Azores; Central Park’s Harlem Meer concert series in New York City; performing for Flood Relief in Des Moines, IA; Jazz on the Green in Omaha, NE; the Berks, Rehoboth Beach, Hennessy Greenwich Village, and JVC Newport (at Saratoga) jazz festivals; the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) convention, and an extensive tour of Portugal, cosponsored by the Fulbright Foundation and the American Embassy (USIA), where he received the Medal of the City of Guarda.

Freeman is also known for his work and recordings with several acclaimed Latin groups. The vibes behind the name, he worked extensively with legendary percussionist Ray Mantilla’s Good Vibrations Band (touring much of Italy), Ray's Tres Amigos, and as a regular guest with Space Station. "Good Vibrations,” Savant Records, was Jazzweek's top Latinjazz recording on radio in 2006.

Read more

Tags

All About Jazz Articles

6
Album Review

Metropolitan Jazz Octet: The Bowie Project

Read "The Bowie Project" reviewed by Paul Reynolds


A tribute to a pop artist by jazz musicians--as with the new David Bowie album by Chicago's Metropolitan Jazz Octet--has to tread a careful line. It obviously won't--can't--be a rote reproduction of the originals, a flaw that sinks many pop-to-pop tributes. Yet it needs to translate the songs into jazz--its harmonic sophistication, especially--in a way that retains the essence of the artist being celebrated. The MJO effort deftly rises to that challenge. This 11-song project should intrigue Bowieists ...

4
Liner Notes

Metropolitan Jazz Octet featuring Paul Marinaro: The Bowie Project


Read "Metropolitan Jazz Octet featuring Paul Marinaro: The Bowie Project
" reviewed by Neil Tesser


In the words of David Bowie: “Changes." The Metropolitan Jazz Octet's two previous albums teem with unadulterated jazz. Paul Marinaro is a hard-swinging, expressive baritone steeped in the Great American Songbook and the jazz tradition. So what in the galaxy are they doing with the music of pop legend--and onetime glam rocker, dancehall king, visual visionary, music man of multiple personae, and cultural icon--David Bowie? Historians might note that Bowie started playing jazz saxophone in his ...

29
Multiple Reviews

Latin Jazz Roundup: Mike Freeman ZonaVibe, Terceto Kali, Will Jarvis, Livio Almeida, & Sergio Pereira

Read "Latin Jazz Roundup: Mike Freeman ZonaVibe, Terceto Kali, Will Jarvis, Livio Almeida, & Sergio Pereira" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


A wide variety of recent Latin jazz releases. Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and flamenco influences are all represented. Mike Freeman ZonaVibe Blue Tjade VOF Recordings 2015 Vibraphonist Mike Freeman leads his ZonaVibe group through an exciting program of Latin jazz originals on his sixth album as leader. The title tune acknowledges the great Latin jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader--but he is only one of the forebears referenced. “Dance of the Dead" was influenced by a ...

179
Album Review

Mike Freeman: The Vibesman

Read "The Vibesman" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


The sound of the vibraphone glows--a ringing and sustained sonic luminescence. Current masters of the instrument include Gary Burton, Joe Locke, Bobby Hutcherson, and the perhaps lesser-known but also masterful Mike Freeman. With his percussion-soaked group Zonavibe--that includes, besides the vibes, the sounds of marimba, and kalimba, congas, bongos, campana and timbales--Freeman stirs up a multicultural brew of vibrant optimism and Latin and world jazz grooves. Tenor sax and flute, steeped in an organized rhythmic clamor on the ...

154
Album Review

Mike Freeman: Wiggle Stomp

Read "Wiggle Stomp" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Mike Freeman's second self-produced album features a program of his compositions. The underlying theme is Latin and Brazilian jazz and calypso. Freeman not only plays the vibes, but the marimba as well, the latter reserved for the calypso music. If the picture on the album is accurate, Freeman uses the four mallets getting a voicing that is more defined and not as resonant as other practitioners of that technique. The musical program is one of contrasts. A pensive, ...

Read more articles

Articles Across the Web

...or were mentioned in an All About Jazz article.

58

Music Industry

Focusing the Spotlight: A Little More About Mike Freeman

Focusing the Spotlight: A Little More About Mike Freeman

Source: All About Jazz


"Latin jazz doesn't get any better than this" –Mark Sullivan, All About Jazz
"frost-fresh…with off-beat rhythms driven hard" Latinjazznet September 27, 2018 –Raul da Gama

"Swinging sounds that are reminiscent of vintage Cal Tjader sessions…irresistible grooves. Oye!" Jazz Weekly November 1, 2018 –George Harris
"…Freeman is wildly talented on the vibraphone" –Mike Greenblatt, Classicalite
"brilliantly played…" "The music cooks; it burns; it swings…" – Steven A

Read more

Primary Instrument

Vibraphone

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Intermediate to advanced

Credentials/Background

35 Years of private teaching, clinic/workshop and camp experience.

Clinic/Workshop Information

The Vibraphone in Latinjazz and Salsa.

Stan Getz
saxophone, tenor
Cal Tjader
vibraphone
Dave Samuels
vibraphone

Artists who share similar musical characteristics to Mike Freeman.

Contact

Publicist

Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

Links

Followers

All About Jazz user Mike Freeman All About Jazz user Larry Tamanini All About Jazz user Michael Ricci All About Jazz user Mark Haskins All About Jazz user Alfredo Chacon All About Jazz user Christopher Burnett All About Jazz user Billie Davies PR

Music

Slow Burn

From: The Bowie Project
By Mike Freeman