Don Friedman

Klaus Flenter

Henk Haverhoek

Eric Ineke

Togetherness

Urs Leimgruber

Bobby Burri

Joël Allouche

Reflexionen

A Day in the City (All Tracks Remastered, Ep)

Thelonious Monk

Sunday at the Riverside - The Best Time of Jazz Piano I, Vol. 4

The Progressive

Jed Levy

Tim Ferguson

Tony Jefferson

My Foolish Heart

Frank Luther

Ronnie Bedford

Jazz Dancing

Hot Knepper and Pepper

Essential Jazz Masters

Lee Konitz

Attila Zoller

Thingin (Live)

Jack Millman Quartet and Quintet

Lin Halliday

Clarence Jones

Four More

Peter Bernstein

Martin Wind

Waltz for Marilyn

Herb Geller

At The Movies

Thingin

Tommy Bradascio

Jeff Fuller

Standards In Cagliari

Clark Terry Quintet

Clark Terry

Jesse Davis

The Hymn

My Romance

Ron McClure

Matt Wilson

Almost Everything

Billy Hart

Never Always

The Maybeck Recital Series, Vol. 33

Metamorphosis

Booker Little And His Quintet

Julian Preister

Eric Dolphy

Out Front (Remastered)

by  Michael G. NastosFor Friedman's fifth recording, he is definitely exploring the progressive edges of modern mainstream post-bop. He's more sublimated as a voice, with guitarist Attila Zoller taking a prominent role as frontman, while the performances of bassist Richard Davis and drummer Joe Chambers provide perfect foils for Friedman's swashbuckling creative urges. While the pianist utilizes elements stemming from bop and the avant garde, the melodic and listenable ingredients are juxtaposed with challenging ideas, and the leader acts as a true ringleader in the midst of his three brilliant compadres. "Wakin' Up" starts the six tracks in a quirky, mid-swing waltz; Zoller's signature clipped, staccato leads and the innovative Davis' ruminating bass chords identify a sound prevalent throughout. "Spring Signs" presents a written 16-bar head, then scattered melodic and harmonic shards, and some free improv with instruments countermoving each other. A bop-swing mid-section, bowed long tones as only Davis can conjure, and Zoller rambling on and on roughly signifies this A-B-A composition, which runs 11 and a half minutes. Jimmy Guiffre's churning "Drive" has a design that the writer describes as a difficult piece of music which is embellished, perhaps even expounded upon, by the collective light of these four. The most tunefully attractive "Extension" of Zoller's is again boppish, with guitar and ostinato bass leading the way. It is here that Friedman's gypsy voice comes to the forefront amidst a string of probing, wafting, bright, and beautiful harmonic inventions, with or without guitar, in no time or with meter. "Troubadour's Groovedour" is Zoller's dark 12-tone based musical limerick, with phrases traded equally, swing in 4/4, and leading to a conspiratorial bridge of call and response with guitar and piano only. The finale, Zoller's "Dream Bells," is also a no time tryptych;, angular and Monk-like, it has a contained intensity much like the state of REM. The bowed bass of Davis has spaced-out overtones, and a nifty, multiple-cymbal solo from Chambers is delicate yet direct, in 6/8 or rubato fashion. Certainly Friedman challenges listeners with this music, but he also challenges his own abilities and concepts. For the time period, it is one of the most vital, original, progressive statements, and one that, after all these years, retains a timeless freshness that bears not only a second listening, but consideration as a creative music hallmark.

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