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George Freeman/Chico Freeman: All In The Family

By Dan Bilawsky
July 16, 2015
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George Freeman/Chico Freeman: All In The Family

There are few things more quintessentially "Chicago" in jazz than the Freeman family. Tenor titan

Von Freeman

saxophone, tenor
1922 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">Von Freeman ruled the roost in The Windy City decade after decade until his death in 2012; his brother, George Freeman, played with everybody from saxophonist

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker to organist

Shirley Scott

organ, Hammond B3
1934 - 2002

" data-original-title="" title="">Shirley Scott; his other brother, the late Eldridge "Bruz" Freeman, was part of the house band at the Pershing and the drummer in

Hampton Hawes

piano
1928 - 1977

" data-original-title="" title="">Hampton Hawes' quartet with

Jim Hall

guitar
1930 - 2013

" data-original-title="" title="">Jim Hall; and Von's son, saxophonist

Chico Freeman

saxophone
b.1949

" data-original-title="" title="">Chico Freeman, has ties to the AACM, has worked with eternal seekers like saxophonist

Arthur Blythe

saxophone, alto
1940 - 2017

" data-original-title="" title="">Arthur Blythe and drummer

" data-original-title="" title="">Jack DeJohnette, and has recorded extensively under his own name over the past four decades. Together, the Freemans managed to embody the entire sound of Chicago, creating music that runs the gamut from bar-walking blues to bop, far-out to funky, and tradition-minded to Afro-Futuristic. Here, the last two standing—George and Chico—join forces for the first time on record to pay tribute to their family and all that is Chicago.

Fully-improvised vignettes, full band numbers, and duo encounters quickly come and go on this twenty-two track album. There's a beautiful ballad to behold ("My Scenery"), a Latin lovely to admire ("Latina Bonita"), a number that continually morphs into new shapes and feels ("Inner Orchestrations"), some straight-up post-bop swing ("Chico"), a haunting take on a classic ("Angel Eyes"), a sunny groove tune ("Marko"), and more. Miniatures—bite-sized percussion morsels, a series of interludes, the album-ending remarks recorded live at the Englewood Jazz Festival—account for about half of the tracks, but they don't hamper the flow of the album. Quite the opposite, in fact, as they tend to keep ears guessing and keep things interesting.

Given the nature of the project, it should come as no shock that the personnel list would contain the names of more notable Chicagoans capable of giving a three-hundred-and-sixty degree view of the city's musical landscape: inside-outside players like drummer

Hamid Drake

drums
b.1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Hamid Drake and bassist

Harrison Bankhead

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Harrison Bankhead, longtime Von Freeman guitarist

Mike Allemana

guitar
b.1969

" data-original-title="" title="">Mike Allemana, and

Malachi Thompson

trumpet
b.1949

" data-original-title="" title="">Malachi Thompson-connected pianist

Kirk Brown

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">Kirk Brown, along with Swiss-born percussionist

Reto Weber

percussion
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Reto Weber, all ably assist in spreading the wide-ranging gospel of that fair city and saluting the Freeman family legacy.

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Track Listing

Dark Blue; Interlude V-2; Latina Bonita; Interlude V-6; My Scenery; Interlude V-9; Five Days in May; Vonski; Interlude V-8; Inner Orchestrations; ercussion Song Two; Chico; nterlude V-5; What's in Between; Essence of Silence; Interlude V-4; A Distinction Without a Difference; Interlude V-10; Angel Eyes; Percussion Song One; Marko; Chico & George Introductions.

Personnel

Chico Freeman

saxophone

George Freeman - Guitar

guitar

Album information

Title: All In The Family | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Southport Records

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