Howard Fishman

Last updated

Howard Fishman
BornHartford, CT
Origin Brooklyn, New York, United States
Genres Jazz, blues, rock, folk-pop, New Orleans jazz, country, funk, gospel, Avant-garde music
Occupation(s)Author, performing musician, composer, playwright, actor, theater director
Instrument(s) Vocals, guitar, piano, banjo
Years active1998–present
LabelsMonkey Farm Records
Website howardfishman.com

Howard Fishman is an American author, culture writer, singer, guitarist, bandleader, playwright, and composer from Brooklyn, New York. Since 2016, Fishman has been a contributing writer for The New Yorker . [1] His writing has also appeared in The New York Times , Rolling Stone , The Washington Post Magazine , The Boston Globe , Artforum , Vanity Fair , San Francisco Chronicle , MOJO , and No Depression .

Contents

Brooklyn Magazine describes his music and discography as "steeped in country, soul, gospel, rock, blues...jazz, Gypsy swing, and American folk." [2] His plays have been presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and at Henry Street Settlement.

Fishman's first book, "To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse," was published by Dutton/Penguin Random House in May, 2023.

Musical biography

In a 2021 reflection, Fishman traced his introduction to Cat Stevens's music to when, as teenagers in the mid-1980s, friends and he watched the Hal Ashby movie Harold and Maude . One of Stevens's songs used in the movie—which "could be called its theme", namely, “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out”—led Fishman the "very next day [to] acquire... a cheap guitar" and begin teaching himself how to play. He continued:

Stevens’s songs eventually led me to Bob Dylan; Dylan led me to early-20th-century blues, jazz and country music; and by my early 20s I was living in New Orleans, fronting my first band. [3]

WAMC's Joe Donahue describes Fishman as having begun "his musical career on the streets of New Orleans and the subways of New York before landing his first major engagement at the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel [4] in 1999." [5] [6] He has since headlined in major venues both in the United States and abroad, including the Steppenwolf Theatre, the Blue Note, NJPAC, the Pasadena Playhouse, Joe's Pub, the Bottom Line, and Le Petit Journal in Paris. He made his Lincoln Center debut in February 2007, when he was presented as part of this season's American Songbook series. Fishman has also been a guest on various NPR programs, making feature-length appearances on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, [7] "World Cafe" with David Dye, "The Leonard Lopate Show," [8] and "Soundcheck" with John Schaefer, [9] among others. [2]

Performing projects

The Howard Fishman Quartet

Fishman's first music project was the Howard Fishman Quartet, a band that first appeared on the NYC scene in 1999, who went from performing on Brooklyn subway platforms to a nine-month residency at the Algonquin Oak Room. The original group featured Russell Farhang on violin, Peter Ecklund on cornet, and Jason Sypher on bass. Fishman led the band on guitar, vocals, and (occasionally) banjo, playing genres that ranged from early jazz to pop, blues, parlor songs, and rural numbers. [10] After the release of their first CD, The Howard Fishman Quartet, Jason Sypher was replaced by Jon Flaugher on bass. A second CD, The Howard Fishman Quartet, Vol. 2, featuring additional material from the sessions that produced the first CD, was released in 2005.

The quartet toured Paris in May 2000, and returned to become a fixture on the New York music scene, garnering favorable reviews from The New York Times , The New Yorker , Le Monde , the International Herald Tribune , and The Village Voice . The band was awarded the BackStage Award for "Outstanding Musical Group". [11] Trumpeter Erik Jekabson joined the Howard Fishman Quartet in the summer of 2000 (replacing cornetist Peter Ecklund).

After two of the four original members left and Fishman began writing more original material, the group began to pursue a different musical path. The band had regular residencies at downtown hotspots like Joe's Pub at The Public Theater and hipster venues in Brooklyn like Pete's Candy Store and Galapagos, where they joined the burgeoning Williamsburg music scene. The shows became more experimental, and Fishman's original material took center stage.

The quartet's second album, I Like You A Lot, was included on Andrew Dansby's list of top albums of 2001 in Rolling Stone [12] and landed Fishman national exposure as a featured guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross. [13]

The Basement Tapes Project

Fishman's Basement Tapes Project had its debut at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in New York City in 2006. Over the course of three evenings, Fishman and members of his band (including Mazz Swift, Mark McClean, Michael Daves, and Ian Riggs) presented most of the over 80 bootlegged songs (all of them since then officially released), known as Bob Dylan and The Band's Basement Tapes . [14] The project included readings from Greil Marcus's Invisible Republic (book).


A CD/DVD featuring highlights from these shows, Howard Fishman Performs Bob Dylan & The Band's 'Basement Tapes' Live at Joe's Pub, was released in 2007, and included a cover of I'm Not There (1956), which was praised by Marcus. [15] The project has subsequently been programmed at performing arts centers across America, including Lincoln Center (where it was featured as part of the "American Songbook" series), at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, at Duke University. [16] , Keene State College, Mercyhurst University, and at University of Iowa.

The Biting Fish Brass Band

Fishman's Biting Fish Brass Band, formed in 2008, features Fishman fronting a New Orleans-style brass band and performing an eclectic repertoire that includes street-beat style, traditional gospel, covers, as well as Fishman's originals.

A former New Orleans resident, [2] Fishman brings his deep affection for Louisiana music to bear, with references to classic R&B stylists Smiley Lewis and Professor Longhair and jazz legends Danny Barker and Jelly Roll Morton, and explores some of the region's rural Cajun repertoire. Regular members of the Biting Fish include Skatalites trombonist Andrae Murchison, trumpet player Etienne Charles, sousaphonist Kenneth Bentley, Jr., and percussionists Jordan Perlson, Moses Patrou, and Jeremy "Bean" Clemons. The group has toured Northern Europe several times, and is a favorite in Finland and Estonia. [2] In 2013, they headlined the August Blues Festival at Haapsalu Castle in Estonia. [17]

Trilogy of albums

In January 2009, Fishman entered the recording studio to record three CDs of all-new material—each with a different theme and group of musicians. All three CDs were released in 2010 and "showcased his versatility." [18]

The first CD, Better Get Right, features the Biting Fish Brass Band on a set of material devoted to Fishman's musical roots in New Orleans. No Further Instructions is a concept album about traveling through Romania and Eastern Europe and features Fishman backed by a string quartet. The World Will Be Different is concerned mainly with a turbulent, passionate love affair.

Howard Fishman Quartet Vol. III

In 2011, Fishman released a third installment of his series of quartet recordings, reuniting with his original violinist Russell Farhang, original cornet player Peter Ecklund, and bassist Andrew Hall for an album of songs with the subtitle Moon Country, featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael.

Theater Projects

We are destroyed

We are destroyed is an original theater work that incorporates original music, songs, text, and dialogue to explore an archetypal chapter in the American Story, the Donner Party tragedy. It has been described by Fishman as "a tone poem, a jazz opera, a musical inquiry." [19]

Excerpts from We are destroyed were first performed as part of the New Works Now! Festival at The Public Theater. Expanded versions and excerpts have subsequently been presented at Joe's Pub in New York City, the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, the Pasadena Playhouse in California, as part of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab West, at The Abrons Arts Center in NYC, and most recently in a workshop reading at New York Theatre Workshop. A number of songs from the score of We are destroyed have been recorded by Fishman on his various albums, including "In Another Life," "Do What I Want," and "A New Life" on Do What I Want.

A Star Has Burnt My Eye

Fishman's play A Star Has Burnt My Eye, featuring the songs of Connie Converse, was given workshop showings at Joe's Pub, Henry Street Settlement, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, at the Vox Festival at Dartmouth College, and at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn, in a workshop production that featured Fishman, along with the performers Jean Rohe, Charlotte Mundy, and Liam Robinson. [2] The play sold out its world premiere run at Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 2016, in a production staged by Paul Lazar and featuring performers Fishman, Mundy, Rohe, and Nicholas Webber, and went on to tour in a revised version featuring Fishman, Mundy, Osei Essed (of The Woes), and Dina Maccabee (of Real Vocal String Quartet), in a production performed at Skidmore College, Castelton University, and Vermont Arts Exchange. [18] [20]

As producer

Connie's Piano Songs

In 2014, Fishman produced an album entitled Connie's Piano Songs, consisting of recordings of the "Art Songs" of Elizabeth Connie Converse, sung by soprano Charlotte Mundy accompanied by pianist Christopher Goddard for the Monkey Farm Records label.

Discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phish</span> American rock band

Phish is an American rock band formed in Burlington, Vermont, in 1983. The band consists of guitarist Trey Anastasio, bassist Mike Gordon, drummer Jon Fishman, and keyboardist Page McConnell, all of whom perform vocals, with Anastasio being the lead vocalist. The band are known for their musical improvisation and jams during their concert performances, and for their devoted fan following.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ornette Coleman</span> American jazz musician and composer (1930–2015)

Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He was best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation. His pioneering works often abandoned the harmony-based composition, tonality, chord changes, and fixed rhythm found in earlier jazz idioms. Instead, Coleman emphasized an experimental approach to improvisation, rooted in ensemble playing and blues phrasing. AllMusic called him "one of the most beloved and polarizing figures in jazz history," noting that while "now celebrated as a fearless innovator and a genius, he was initially regarded by peers and critics as rebellious, disruptive, and even a fraud."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steppenwolf (band)</span> American rock group

Steppenwolf was a Canadian-American rock band that was prominent from 1968 to 1972. The group was formed in late 1967 in Los Angeles by lead singer John Kay, keyboardist Goldy McJohn, and drummer Jerry Edmonton, all formerly of the Canadian band the Sparrows. Guitarist Michael Monarch and bass guitarist Rushton Moreve were recruited via notices placed in Los Angeles-area record and musical instrument stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Boswell Sisters</span> Singing trio popular during the Jazz Age

The Boswell Sisters were an American close harmony singing trio of the jazz and swing eras, consisting of three sisters: Martha Boswell, Connie Boswell, and Helvetia "Vet" Boswell. Hailing from uptown New Orleans, the group blended intricate harmonies and song arrangements featuring effects such as scat, instrumental imitation, ‘Boswellese’ gibberish, tempo and meter changes, major/minor juxtaposition, key changes, and incorporation of sections from other songs. They attained national prominence in the United States in the 1930s during the twilight of the Jazz Age and the onset of the Great Depression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brooklyn Academy of Music</span> Theater and concert hall in Brooklyn, New York

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a multi-arts center in Brooklyn, New York City. It hosts progressive and avant-garde performances, with theater, dance, music, opera, film programming across multiple nearby venues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milt Jackson</span> American jazz vibraphonist (1923–1999)

Milton Jackson, nicknamed "Bags", was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms. He is especially remembered for his cool swinging solos as a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet and his penchant for collaborating with hard bop and post-bop players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Percy Heath</span> American jazz bassist (1923–2005)

Percy Heath was an American jazz bassist, brother of saxophonist Jimmy Heath and drummer Albert Heath, with whom he formed the Heath Brothers in 1975. Heath played with the Modern Jazz Quartet throughout their long history and also worked with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk and Lee Konitz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jakob Dylan</span> American singer-songwriter (born 1969)

Jakob Luke Dylan is an American singer-songwriter. He rose to fame as the lead singer and primary songwriter for the rock band The Wallflowers.

<i>The Last Waltz</i> 1978 concert film directed by Martin Scorsese

The Last Waltz was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The Last Waltz was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert appearance", and the concert had The Band joined by more than a dozen special guests, including their previous employers Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan, as well as Paul Butterfield, Bobby Charles, Eric Clapton, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Ronnie Wood, and Neil Young. The musical director for the concert was The Band's original record producer, John Simon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolling Thunder Revue</span> 1975–76 concert tour by Bob Dylan

The Rolling Thunder Revue was a 1975–76 concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan with numerous musicians and collaborators. The purpose of the tour was to allow Dylan, who was a major recording artist and concert performer, to play in smaller auditoriums in less populated cities where he could be more intimate with his audiences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mundy</span> Musical artist

Edmond Enright, known professionally as Mundy, is an Irish singer-songwriter and founder of the independent record label Camcor Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Kay</span> American drummer (1927–1994)

Conrad Henry Kirnon known professionally as Connie Kay, was an American jazz and R&B drummer, who was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abigail Washburn</span> American musician

Abigail Washburn is an American clawhammer banjo player and singer. She performs and records as a soloist, as well as with the old-time bands Uncle Earl and Sparrow Quartet, experimental group The Wu Force, and as a duo with her husband Béla Fleck.

Bearsville Sound Studio was a recording studio founded by Albert Grossman in the Bearsville section of Woodstock, New York.

Martin Oliver Grosz is an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, vocalist, and composer born in Berlin, Germany, the son of artist George Grosz. He performed with Bob Wilber and wrote arrangements for him. He has also worked with Kenny Davern, Dick Sudhalter, and Keith Ingham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Ecklund</span> American musician (1945–2020)

Peter Ecklund was an American jazz cornetist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Licari</span> American jazz musician

Joe Licari is an American jazz clarinetist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connie Converse</span> American musician (born 1924)

Elizabeth Eaton Converse was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known under her professional name Connie Converse. She was active in New York City in the 1950s, and her work is among the earliest known recordings in the singer-songwriter genre of music. Before and after the period in which she wrote her music she was an academic, writer, assistant editor for the Far Eastern Survey and editor for the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

"Santa-Fe" is a song that was recorded by Bob Dylan and the Band in the summer or fall of 1967 in West Saugerties, New York. It was recorded during the sessions that would in 1975 be released on The Basement Tapes but was not included on that album. These sessions took place in three phases throughout the year, at a trio of houses, and "Santa-Fe" was likely put on tape in the second of these, at a home of some of the Band members, known as Big Pink. The composition, which has been characterized as a "nonsense" song, was copyrighted in 1973 with lyrics that differ noticeably from those on the recording itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Low Cut Connie</span> Musical artist

Low Cut Connie is an American rock and roll band based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Low Cut Connie has become the alter ego for frontman, pianist, and songwriter Adam Weiner, who has been the band's only constant member since its formation. Beginning as an impromptu recording session in 2010, Low Cut Connie gradually evolved into a vehicle for Weiner's songwriting and his onstage persona. The band has earned praise for its high-energy live performances, which Los Angeles Weekly described as "unmatched in all of rock right now." NPR Music described Weiner as “masterfully fluent in the foundational languages of Western pop.” Low Cut Connie has also gained notoriety for attracting high-profile endorsements such as a surprise inclusion on Barack Obama’s Spotify Summer Playlist in 2015, and a personal association with Elton John, who has called the band one of his favorites. Drummer/bassist Jarae Lewis joined in 2019.

References

  1. ↑ "Contributors – Howard Fishman". The New Yorker. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Pantuso, Phillip (September 28, 2015). "Strange Ways: The Long Journey of Howard Fishman". Brooklyn Magazine. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  3. ↑ Fishman, Howard, "The Meaning of Yusuf/Cat Stevens", Washington Post, September 20, 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-20.
  4. ↑ Sander, Roy (February 21, 2001). "BISTRO BITS: Howard Who?". www.backstage.com. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Holden, Stephen (April 16, 1999). "CABARET REVIEW; Recasting the Upbeat Spirits Of Swing and Dixieland". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  6. ↑ Donahue, Joe (February 27, 2013). ""No Further Instructions" at the Arthur Zankel Music Center". WAMC Public Radio. Retrieved February 27, 2013.
  7. ↑ Gross, Terry (July 26, 2001). "Guitarist and Singer Howard Fishman of the Howard Fishman Quartet". NPR. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  8. ↑ Lopate, Leonard (May 1, 2003). "The Howard Fishman Quartet". wnyc.org. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  9. ↑ Schaefer, John (July 26, 2005). "Bandleader for the 21st century". wnyc.org. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  10. ↑ Holden, Stephen (February 16, 2001). "Goin' His Own Sweet Way, From Bluegrass to Swing". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  11. ↑ Eaker, Sherry (February 21, 2001). "Centerstage". www.backstage.com. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  12. ↑ Dansby, Andrew (December 26, 2001). "Our Critics' Top Albums of 2001". Rolling Stone . Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Guitarist and Singer Howard Fishman of the Howard Fishman Quartet". NPR . October 28, 2002. Retrieved February 17, 2016.
  14. ↑ "Soundcheck-Howard Fishman". WNYC. January 30, 2007. Archived from the original on August 13, 2007. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  15. ↑ "Ask Greil (2017)". January 2, 2018.
  16. ↑ Wilcock, Don (September 29, 2015). "For Howard Fishman, Dylan Is Just the Beginning". The Record. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  17. ↑ "The Biting Fish take Estonia!". Howard Fishman. August 17, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  18. 1 2 Fusilli, Jim (November 1, 2016). "Discovering a Disappeared Artist in a Musical Drama". Wall Street Journal. ISSN   0099-9660 . Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  19. ↑ Rice, Traven (April 23, 2009). "At the Abron's Art Center we are destroyed". The Lo-Down. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  20. ↑ Vincentelli, Elisabeth (November 12, 2016). "Review: A Lost Folk Musician's Haunted Dreamland in "A Star Has Burnt My Eye"". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved January 17, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.