Don Friedman & Gary Smulyan Play Hot and Cool Together

by Daniel Kassell
March 20, 2007

Don Friedman Trio with Gary Smulyan Kitano Lounge New York, NY March 9, 2007

Without any fanfare Don Friedman's piano a cappella intro to “Alone Together intricately established the melody and sequence of his first performance on Friday the 9th of March 2007 before the evening's lead instrument, an antique green-tinged brass saxophone played by the youthful Gary Smulyan--bespeckled above, soul patch below and wearing a beret on top--stood in the piano curve ...

Don Friedman: Piano Works VI: From A To Z

by Chris May
June 7, 2006

At a venerable 71 years old, California-born pianist Don Friedman still has his formidable technique firmly in place. He's playing with the attack of a young man--and the devil-may-care abandon of a mature artist wholly at ease with himself.

The subtitle From A To Z refers to Friedman's friend and collaborator, the Hungarian guitarist Attila Zoller (1927-98), to whose memory this album is dedicated. Friedman and Zoller first played together in Herbie Mann's band in the early 1960s, and by ...

Piano Trios: At Shelly's Manne-Hole & Timeless

by Andrew Velez
March 5, 2006

Bill Evans Trio At Shelly's Manne-Hole Riverside/Concord 2006

He's been gone since 1980, over a quarter century. Yet Bill Evans' influence continues to grow. This 1963 session, with Chuck Israels (bass) and Larry Bunker (drums) at Shelly Manne's famed Hollywood club, is like the superb Complete Village Vanguard Recordings 1961 (Riverside, 2005)--an opportunity to savor hearing him captured in a live performance. What's heard here and on the rest of the Manne-Hole ...

Don Friedman: Live at JazzBaltica

by Andrey Henkin
September 19, 2005

This group featured on this album, yet another in the happy slew of recordings coming out from Don Friedman in the last few years, is billed as the Salzau Trio. What this means is that on the occasion of Friedman's invitation to the 14th Annual JazzBaltica Festival in Salzau, Germany, he convened a trio with regular bassist Martin Wind and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington for a first-time appearance. The result, a set from July 3, 2004, was recorded and released ...

Don Friedman

by Andrey Henkin
March 14, 2005

Pianist Don Friedman's sessionography reads like a jazz encyclopedia. A favorite choice on the keys for his tasteful yet progressive playing, he has played with luminaries from Booker Little to Jimmy Giuffre to Clark Terry. Friedman now leads a piano trio and we spoke with him after a successful engagement at the Kitano in February.All About Jazz: Why did you move to New York from the West Coast?Don Friedman: I realized...that the greatest jazz music, the ...

Don Friedman: My Favorite Things

by Riel Lazarus
October 6, 2004

One of the sweetest sounds in jazz is that of a well groomed piano trio. Many would agree, there's little to contend with an able- bodied threesome, flipping through the pages of this or that tune, together finding its cozy hearth in harmony and rhythm. Veteran pianist Don Friedman has found that center and, alongside bassist George Mraz and drummer Lewis Nash, tendered a second offering from their ensemble, this time entitled My Favorite Things. The trio's first ...

Don Friedman: Waltz for Debby

by Andrey Henkin
December 7, 2003

Somewhere Attila Zoller is smiling, pleased to see to his one-time foil, pianist Don Friedman, playing to a full audience at the Jazz Standard last month in support of his new album Waltz for Debby. Those giddy days of the Zoller-Friedman quartet days are long past, but Don Friedman has lost little of the touch that made him a darling of that vague area between hard bop and avant-garde bubbling in the '60s.Most know Friedman now for his ...