Testimony by David Friesen

David Friesen

Testimony

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Origin Records
UPC: 0805558280924
Catnr: ORIGIN 82809
Release date: 09 April 2021
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Label
Origin Records

UPC
0805558280924

Catalogue number
ORIGIN 82809

Release date
09 April 2021

"... And the repeat button wants to be pressed. Friesen's music can be addictive!"

Jazzpodium, 31-1-2021

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

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About the album

A major international jazz figure for over 50 years, bassist-composer David Friesen continues his unflagging process of creating new defining works, with the ambitious, expansive, and deeply personal musical explorations found on Testimony. Through the desire to better understand his Mother's Ukrainian heritage, and with inspired leg-work from his Czech-based assistant, Natalie Digtyar, Friesen found himself on a 2015 tour of family landmarks in Smila, Ukraine, fully researched and led by a television crew and the local historical museum. Meeting Oleksandr Pirozhenko, director of the National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine, set in motion the collaboration heard here, beginning with a sold-out 2016 "homecoming" concert in Smila's Concert Hall, followed by this live recording from Kiev's National Philharmonic Hall in December, 2018. Arrangements of Friesen's profoundly spiritual compositions unfold, offering passages exploding with orchestral grandeur alongside lone whispers from solo piano, vibes or bass, and intimate quartet vignettes, all reflecting the myriad emotions exposed through his journey of ancestral discovery.

Der Bassist und Komponist David Friesen, der seit mehr als 50 Jahren zu den wichtigsten Vertretern des internationalen Jazz gehört, setzt seinen unermüdlichen Prozess der Schaffung neuer definierender Werke mit den ehrgeizigen, weitreichenden und zutiefst persönlichen musikalischen Erkundungen auf Testimony fort. Durch den Wunsch, das ukrainische Erbe seiner Mutter besser zu verstehen, und mit der inspirierenden Unterstützung seiner in Tschechien lebenden Assistentin Natalie Digtyar, fand sich Friesen 2015 auf einer Tour zu den Wahrzeichen der Familie in Smila, Ukraine, wieder, die von einem Fernsehteam und dem örtlichen historischen Museum vollständig recherchiert und geleitet wurde. Ein Treffen mit Oleksandr Pirozhenko, dem Leiter der National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine, setzte die hier zu hörende Zusammenarbeit in Gang, beginnend mit einem ausverkauften "Heimkehr"-Konzert 2016 in der Konzerthalle von Smila, gefolgt von dieser Live-Aufnahme aus der Nationalen Philharmonie von Kiew im Dezember 2018. Die Arrangements von Friesens zutiefst spirituellen Kompositionen entfalten sich und bieten Passagen, die mit orchestraler Größe explodieren, neben einsamen Flüstern von Solo-Klavier, Vibraphon oder Bass und intimen Quartett-Vignetten, die alle die unzähligen Emotionen widerspiegeln, die durch seine Reise zur Entdeckung der Vorfahren offenbart wurden.

Artist(s)

David Friesen (bass)

Anyone acquainted with David Friesen's exceptional music quickly thinks of his creative universe. Ocean-deep in his sensitivity to the human spirit, Friesen is compassionate and his music founded on integrity and the pursuit of excellence.
David Friesen has recorded over 80 CDs as a leader/co-leader and appeared as a sideman or featured artist on more than 100 recordings.
He has performed and/or recorded with many of the great names and legends of jazz including: Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, Michael Brecker, Bud Shank, Dizzy Gillespie, Woody Shaw, Freddy Hubbard, Art Farmer, Clark Terry, Joe Venuti, Mal Waldron, Jaki Byard, Kenny Drew Sr., Chick Corea, Milt Jackson, Slim Gaillard, John Scofield, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Paul Motian, Jack Dejohnette, Airto Moreira, and many others. He has performed in concert as a soloist (Friesen is one of two or three bassists in the world that is able to play a solo concert and keep an audience riveted) and with his own groups throughout the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Turkey, Poland, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, China, Russia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and the Ukraine.
In a recent 2006 jazz bass poll, David Friesen was listed as one of the 20 most influential bass players in the history of jazz. He is also included in a recent poll as one of the 100 Greatest Jazz Bassists of all time.
Friesen was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame at the first induction ceremony Sept. 2007 and the Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame in May 2012.
David Friesen's original composition Playground placed 2nd in the 2014 International Songwriting Competition with over 18,000 applicants.

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