New CD Fred Farell "Distant Song" Fred Farell Sings the Music of Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach + Upcoming Live Appearance

Higher Power

Fred Farell brings the good word on Distant Song

What The Press Is Saying About
Fred Farell
"Distant Song"
Fred Farell Sings the Music of Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach

" Fred Farell's new CD is rewarding...adding to the Jazz Vocal Repertoire.
His singing is warm, quietly expressive, and really gets into the messages of the songs.
...Fans will find much to enjoy on this rewarding set." 
Scott Yanow, Jazz Journalist/Historian

"The mood of the Program is dark blue, solemn, and well matched to Fred's Baritone, and the accompanying Instrumentation...with Farell writing all the Lyrics."
D. Oscar Groomes: O's NOTES - O's Place Preview

"...FARELL is the real deal in terms of Sincerity, his voice speaks authority as does the tender Truth expressed in his Lyrics...and musical arrangements...A performance that regularly stops you...in your tracks..."
Stephen Graham/MARLBANK

"I give Fred, and his fellow master (musicians) an energy quotient rating of 4.99 for this CD.
...One of the strongest Jazz Vocal performances I've listened to yet in 2018."
Rotcod Zzaj (Dick Metcalf Associates/"Contemporary Fusion Reviews)

"Listening to Farell is like stepping back in Time, to mid-20th Century America, when Jazz and Romance were popular. His Sounscapes are like Odes to Love...Farell's "Distant Song" provides enough soothing sounds for listeners to ponder the Human condition...

He is joined by Dave Liebman on soprano & tenor Saxophones, and by Richie Beirach on acoustic Piano."  Dodie Miller-Gould, Lemon Wire

Fred Farell "Distant Song"
(Whaling City Sound WCS 103)
Street Date: January 26, 2018 
Fred Farell sings the music of Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach 

Fred Farell Voice
Dave Liebman Soprano & Tenor Saxophones, Wooden Recorder

Richie Beirach-Acoustic Piano

As a featured soloist and ensemble singer, Fred Farell has made a name for himself as a preeminent pro jazz voice. Across five decades and at venues as esteemed and diverse as Avery Fisher Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Museum of Modern Art, Farell has demonstrated inspired interpretive abilities to go with his heartfelt lyricism and sweet pipes. Distant Song, his debut for Whaling City Sound, a home for much quality jazz, is a profound experience, thanks partly due to his composers and loyal accompanists saxophonist Dave Liebman and piano/keys player Richie Beirach, both of whom have collaborated on the original music for this record.

Farell’s own wordsmithing is sublime, requiring deftness, patience and passion on the microphone. His compositions unfold gently, religiously. Infused with sacred messaging, Distant Song is an emotional project -part, jazz, part spiritual, part loving experiment- produced with happiness and love by a veteran talent clearly confident and at peace with himself and his abilities.

1. Broken Wing 5:55

2. Lonnie’s Song 4:53

3. Forgotten Fantasies (Instrumental) 6:16

4. Leaving 7:33

5.Tomorrow’s Expectations 6:58

6. Sunday Song 4:24

7. Mitsuku 7:56

8. Zal (Instrumental) 5:19

9. Places 4:22

10. Distant Song 5:34

Tracks 1,4,6,7

Richie Beirach,

Beirach Music, BMI

Fred Farell (lyrics),

FarellSongs Publishing, BMI

Tracks 2,5,9,10

Dave Liebman,

Liebstone Music, BMI

Fred Farell (lyrics),

FarellSongs Publishing, BMI

Track 3

Dave Liebman,

Liebstone Music, BMI

Track 8

Richie Beirach,

Beirach Music, BMI

FRED FARELL

Fred Farrell began singing professionally during his military service in the USA,

and Europe in 1967. His musical training includes: Jazz Vocal improvisation with

Pianist-composer and educator Richard Beirach; Private voice studies with

Cynthia Hoffman, Richard Dorr, and Larry Chelsi; and Music courses taken at

The City College of New York; at which time he enrolled in Jazz studies taught

by Jazz songstress and educator Sheila Jordan.

His first appearances as a solo artist and group leader in New York, were at

Loft galleries, and Jazz clubs during the 1970's and early 1980's; including

return engagements at Sweet Basil, and Greene Street; during which time he

was an artist-member of Cobi Narita's Universal Jazz Coalition.

As a featured soloist, as well as an ensemble singer, Mr. Farell has performed

at Avery Fisher Hall, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Kitchen, WBAI Radio,

The Musuem of Modern Art, and Symphony Space, with such Jazz Masters

and artists as the late saxaphonist Dexter Gordon; Pianists: Barry Harris,

the late Albert Dailey, and Kenny Barron; Bassists: the late Herman Wright,

Rufus Reid and Ratso Harris; Female Vocal Artist-educator Jay Clayton (The

Voice Group); and Natural Sound Composer-pianist Kirk Nurock.

In the creative expression of Jazz used to present the Gospel message, the

singer has been a featured soloist with the Don Hanson Ensemble, led by the

Saxaphonist-composer; has appeared on the Queens Public Cable TV Network;

and is currently co-leader of the Gospel Jazz group "JazzLite". In this group

setting, Mr. Farell ministers with his gospel lyrics for original compositions,

and Jazz standards, and features Pianists Jeff Kruh, and Joel Weiskopf in

varying instrumental formats, depending upon the venues entered.

Richie Beirach - Inborn 2CD (April 20, 2018)

'Inborn' a 2CD set led by pianist Richie Beirach, presents recordings from 1989 featuring Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, John Scofield, George Mraz and Adam Nussbaum! All the tracks were recorded at the legendary Clinton Recording Studios in New York, where many of the great Bill Evans trio and some of the later Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner records were made.

This all-star combo was assembled under the leadership of pianist Richie Beirach (born 1947), it included the Brecker Brothers - the late tenor saxophonist Michael and the trumpeter Randy, the guitarist John Scofield, bassist George Mraz and the drummer Adam Nussbaum. At the time of recording all six of them were internationally recognised names in jazz, with the Brecker Brothers, who were fast becoming "superstars" of modern jazz, leading the way.

The setting for the recording was quite exceptional and is worth mentioning. On the first day of their recording session in mid-April of 1989 the six jazz musicians performed the pieces highly focused and without disturbance at the Clinton Studios in New York. However, on the second day they invited friends and acquaintances and played some of the same pieces as the day before, but now under more difficult conditions, live on stage in front of an audience. The result is a double album of historical significance for the world of jazz. A must-have for your collection!

DISC 1 - LIVE

1. Paradox

2. Alone Together

3. Inborn

4. Con Alma

5. Sunday Song

6. In Your Own Sweet Way

7. You Don't Know What Love Is

8. Broken Wing

DISC 2 - STUDIO

1. My Funny Valentine

2. Leaving

3. Inborn

4. Some Other Time

5. Sunday Song

6. Young & Foolish

7. Paradox

Richie Beirach (piano)

Randy Brecker (trumpet, flugelhorn)

Michael Brecker (tenor saxophone)

John Scofield (guitar)

George Mraz (bass)

Adam Nussbaum (drums)

Anders Bergcrantz Quartet - In This Together (2017)

Anders Bergcrantz is widely considered to be one of the major voices of his instrument. He has performed and / or recorded with a diverse range of notable musicians, including Dave Liebman, Billy Harper, Victor Lewis, Billy Hart, Richie Beirach, Monica Zetterlund, The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Norrlandsoperans Symphony Orchestra, Adam Nussbaum, McCoy Tyner, Mike Brecker a.o.

Bergcrantz has won numerous awards and polls, including the 1995, 2007, “The Golden Record” which is the finest and foremost Swedish jazz award. In 1995 and 2008 he received “The Jazz Cat” in the category “Contemporary star of Jazz. Anders grew up into a musical family. His father Sven Bergcrantz (1931-1998) was a major voice of the jazz piano and Anders two older brothers, Håkan and Thomas played professionally for many years.

Anders Bergcrantz is long known to be a soloist capable of stunning physical power and broad emotional range in the tradition of trumpet stars like Woody Shaw, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan and Miles Davis and has strongly developed a deep and soulful individual voice of his own. Bergcrantz is performing all over the world as guest soloist and with his own constellations. He is active as a clinician / educator.

Wake Up

Other Bells

Emerald

Majoun

Hope

Aurora

Sapphire

McJolt

Ruby

In This Together

Axis

Flammable

Anders Bergcrantz: trumpet, flugelhorn

Richie Beirach: piano

Ron McClure: bass

Adam Nussbaum: drums

The New Richie Beirach Trio - Gaia (JAZZ SICK RECORDS 2017)

Richie about the album

I am very excited about my new trio, because it is different of anything I ever played or recorded in my long discography of over 40 years of recording. The combination of new instruments like the synthesizer, keyboard and vocoder of Regina and the lack of a bass player and the special talents of Chris`s drumming including special percussion instruments with new tuned cymbals makes it so unique.

This trio including my acoustic piano creates a whole world of new sounds and very interesting tonal and percussive combinations of sound. Also we have new compositions specifically written for this group, but also including my very well know songs like Elm, Zal and Leaving to create a new program of jazz standards original compositions and free atmospheric musical worlds.

This is the first time I have formed a group with such a different colorful instrumentation in three generations – which gives new colors, very dynamic burning pieces and beautiful intimate ballades combined with special arrangements.

Regina was born in Moscow but has been living and working in Germany for ten years. She is a super talented player, improviser and composer. Since the true heart of any good jazz group is the drummer I got my friend Christian Scheuber on drums and special percussion – he is a great dynamic contemporary musician and a sensitive percussionist in the style of Jack de Johnette.

01. Riddles

02. The Last Rhapsody

03. Chris`s House

04. November Sketch Nr. 1-14 November

05. Gaia

06. Rectilinear

07. Transparent Minor

08. November Sketch Nr. 2 - Kolybelanya

09. The Snow Leopard

10. ZAL

11. Faces

12. Footprints

13. November Sketch Nr. 3 - Tuman

Richie Beirach & Gregor Huebner - Live at Birdland New York (ACT MUSIC 2017)

Dave Liebman & Richie Beirach - Beyond Words (Live in Poland 2011) 2016

01. Pendulum (Live) 9:02

02. KnowingLee (Live) 15:15

03. Napanoch (Live) 14:34

04. Beyond Words (Live) 9:49

05. ZAL (Live) 10:26

06. Lonely Woman (Live) 9:23

Richie Beirach, piano

Dave Liebman, tenor and soprano saxophones, wood flute

Dave Liebman & Richie Beirach - Balladscapes (2016)

Source: Intuition Records

Fast 50 Jahre. Eine Ewigkeit. Lyndon B. Johnson war damals noch Präsident, die Beatles standen zum letzten Mal bei einem Konzert auf der Bühne und der Film „My Fair Lady“ erhielt acht Oscars. Ein halbes Jahrhundert. So lange kennen und schätzen sich Dave Liebman und Richie Beirach schon als Menschen und Partner. Der heute 69-jährige Sopran- und Tenorsaxofonist und sein 68-jähriger Partner am Piano lernten einander bei einer Jamsession im Queens College in New York kennen. Zwei hungrige Studenten, berauscht, euphorisiert und inspiriert von all den Jazzgrößen, die für die Musiker jener Zeit den Horizont weiter nach hinten rückten.

Die beiden trafen sich regelmäßig. Entweder in Liebmans Loft an der 19. Straße in Manhattan oder in Beirachs Bude an der Spring Street. Der eine half dem anderen dabei, ein eigenes Vokabular herauszuarbeiten. Sie spielten, meist Freejazz in Stile des späten Coltrane, probierten alles Mögliche aus, ließen sich fallen und fanden allmählich einen gemeinsamen inneren Puls. Manchmal kam auch der Bassist Frank Tusa vorbei und ergänzte die kreative „Hanging Out“-Beziehung. Es sollte allerdings noch bis 1973 dauern, ehe die Seelenverwandten ihre erste gemeinsame Platte aufnahmen. Liebman war gerade mit Miles Davis in Japan unterwegs, als er Beirach traf, der sich just zur selben Zeit mit Stan Getz auf Tour befand. Zusammen mit Jack DeJohnette und Dave Holland nahmen sie schließlich Liebmans Debütalbum „First Visit“ auf.

Ein Song aus jener Session blieb den Freunden bis heute im Gedächtnis: „Round Midnight“. Das allererste Duett von zahllosen, die in den nächsten 43 Jahren folgen sollten, entweder bei Liveauftritten mit den Bands Lookout Farm und Quest oder aber anderen gemeinsamen Projekten. „Denn ein Duo“, erklärt der legendäre Produzent Michael Cuscuna in den Linernotes zu „Balladscapes“, „ist die wohl reinste und direkteste Form des musikalischen Dialogs. Es schenkt den Beteiligten eine ganz bestimmte Form von Freiheit, die sie für scheinbar endlose Solos voller Farbigkeit, Emotionalität und Tiefe nützen können und sich irgendwann darin verlieren. Alles, was Dave und Richie zusammen machen, besitzt enorm viel Substanz und Intelligenz, völlig unabhängig vom jeweiligen Kontext oder Genre.“

Obwohl Dave Liebman und Richie Beirach in den zurückliegenden Jahrzehnten ihre musikalischen Zwiegespräche regelmäßig mit Balladen anreicherten, ist „Balladscapes“  doch das erste reine Balladenalbum auf einem langen gemeinsamen Weg. Wer die musikalische Vita der Abenteurer jedoch kennt, der ahnt bereits, dass auch dieser Exkurs mitnichten automatisch auf dem glatt asphaltierten Mainstream enden muss. Die 13 im CMP-Studio in Zerkall aufgenommenen Songs beinhalten sowohl einige neue und alte Originalkomposition wie „Quest“ oder „Kurtland“, aber auch unorthodoxe Bearbeitungen von Johann Sebastian Bach („Siciliana“), Kurt Weill („This Is New“), Antonio Carlos Jobim („Zingaro“), Wayne Shorter („Sweet Pea“), Billy Strayhorn („Day Dream“) und natürlich John Coltrane („Welcome/Expression“). Dabei öffnet sich ein reiches, weites Feld, auf dem sich der Sopransaxofonist, der hier außerdem zum Tenorsaxofon sowie zur Flöte greift, und der Pianist im eingespielten, vertrauten, aber stets würdevollen Zwiegespräch nach Herzenslust aneinander reiben, ineinander verschränken und gegenseitig aufrichten können.

„In jeder meiner bisherigen Bands, an denen Richie beteiligt war, besaß er die Funktion eines Ankers, mehr als jeder Bassist und jeder Schlagzeuger“, preist Dave Liebman die besonderen Qualitäten Beirachs. „Denn seine Time ist einfach perfekt!“ Und so basiert das Zusammenspiel auch auf „Balladscapes“ auf einer inneren Symmetrie, die nur Menschen miteinander entwickeln können, die sich kennen und mögen. Seit fast einem halben Jahrhundert.

Two real jazz legends - saxophonist Dave Liebman and pianist Richie Beirach - join forces in this duet, playing ballads in the smallest possible band constellation.

Over the years, these two have used ballads in their performances and recordings, but this is the first all-ballad album they've done. And it's quite unusual in its approach. The program offers some originals (new and old), but includes far-ranging material from Bach, Weill, Jobim, Strayhorn, Shorter and Coltrane. Beirach and Liebman take fewer liberties with the material that one might expect and the music is better off for that restraint. This is a gorgeous, mesmerising chamber music recital. And like all great music, it bears fruit with every repeated listening.

April 15, 2016

Dave Liebman, soprano and tenor sax, flute

Richie Beirach, piano

Siciliana (J.S. Bach)

For All We Know (Fred Coots)

This Is New (Kurt Weill)

Quest (D. Liebman, R. Beirach)

Master of the Obvious (D. Liebman)

Zingaro (Antonio Carlos Jobim)

Sweet Pea (Wayne Shorter)

Kurtland (D. Liebman, R. Beirach)

Moonlight in Vermont (Karl Suessdorf)

Lazy Afternoon (Jerome Moross)

Welcome/Expression (John Coltrane)

DL (R. Beirach)

Day Dream (Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington)

BUY THIS ALBUM

Domi

Zingaro

John Abercrombie, Richie Beirach, George Mraz, Peter Donald - The First Quartet (2015)

This 3-CD set with recordings from 1978 to 1980, issued in ECM’s acclaimed Old & New Masters series, returns some historically-important material to the catalogue, namely the albums Arcade, Abercrombie Quartet and M. The quartet with Richie Beirach, George Mraz and Peter Donald – John Abercrombie’s first touring band as a leader – was the group in which the guitarist defined some priorities, moving away from a jazz-rock period into a more spacious, impressionistic and original music. Abercrombie and pianist Beirach had a strong musical rapport as improvisers and wrote almost all of the band’s book between them. George Mraz and Peter Donald provided imaginative support. For this edition the recordings - made in Oslo and Ludwigsburg and produced by Manfred Eicher – were remastered from original analog sources.

John Abercrombie, Guitar, Mandolin Guitar

Richie Beirach, Piano

George Mraz, Double Bass

Peter Donald, Drums

CD 1

1. ARCADE (John Abercrombie) 09:43

2. NIGHTLAKE (Richie Beirach) 05:35

3. PARAMOUR (John Abercrombie) 05:09

4. NEPTUNE (Richie Beirach) 07:34

5. ALCHEMY (Richie Beirach) 11:34

CD 2

1. BLUE WOLF (John Abercrombie) 08:33

2. DEAR RAIN (John Abercrombie) 06:54

3. STRAY (Richie Beirach) 06:36

4. MADAGASCAR (Richie Beirach) 09:05

5. RIDDLES (Richie Beirach) 08:12

6. FOOLISH DOG (John Abercrombie) 06:18

CD 3

1. BOAT SONG (John Abercrombie) 09:57

2. M (John Abercrombie) 06:19

3. WHAT ARE THE RULES (Richie Beirach) 07:33

4. FLASHBACK (Richie Beirach) 06:17

5. TO BE (John Abercrombie) 05:17

6. VEILS (Richie Beirach) 05:44

7. PEBBLES (George Mraz) 04:45

BUY THIS ALBUM!!!

JAVI