Matthew Fries

Last updated
Matthew Fries
Born (1968-09-24) September 24, 1968 (age 55)
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania
Genresjazz
Occupation(s)jazz pianist, composer, educator, musician
Instrument(s)piano
Years active1996–present
Labels Concord Records
Website MatthewFries.com

Matthew Fries (born September 24, 1968) is an American jazz pianist, composer, educator and winner of the 1997 Great American Jazz Piano Competition.

Contents

Early life and education

Born into a musical family in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, Matthew Fries began studying piano and music theory under the tutelage of his father John Fries at an early age. John was a piano professor at Susquehanna University from 1966-1996. His mother Harriet was a classical vocalist, choir director and an original member of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale. [1] [2]

Fries received a Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College in 1990 and a Master of Music degree from the University of Tennessee in 1993, both in Jazz Studies. His jazz piano teachers include Donald Brown, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller. [3]

Mid-Career: Great American Jazz Piano Competition and New York City

In 1997 Fries won The Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida, which was associated with the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. [4] He placed second in the competition the year before. In 1998 Fries was a finalist and runner-up in the American Pianists Association Jazz Piano Competition.

Fries' debut as a leader, "Song for Today," was released in 2001 and was named a JAZZIZ Magazine Critic's Pick for the year. After moving to New York City, Fries established the collaborative jazz piano trio TRI-FI, which features Phil Palombi on bass and Keith Hall on drums and has released five albums to date. DownBeat gave 2014's "Staring into the Sun" a 4-star review, citing the ensemble's "intimate group interplay." [5]

Fries is known as an accompanist for jazz vocalist Curtis Stigers, with whom he recorded four albums on Concord Records. [6]

He has since performed with a diverse group of musicians including Ann Hampton Callaway, DeeDee Bridgewater, Vincent Herring, Steve Wilson, Dave Samuels, Claudio Roditi, and Terell Stafford. [7]

Fries has performed as both a leader and sideman at notable jazz clubs such as the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, Smalls Jazz Club, Birdland and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. [8]

Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University

Fries is currently Assistant Professor of Jazz Piano at Western Michigan University School of Music.

Selected discography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Shearing</span> British jazz pianist

Sir George Albert Shearing, was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 titles, including the jazz standards "Lullaby of Birdland" and "Conception", and had multiple albums on the Billboard charts during the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. He died of heart failure in New York City, at the age of 91.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wynton Kelly</span> American jazz pianist (1931–1971)

Wynton Charles Kelly was an American jazz pianist and composer. He is known for his lively, blues-based playing and as one of the finest accompanists in jazz. He began playing professionally at the age of 12 and was pianist on a No. 1 R&B hit at the age of 16. His recording debut as a leader occurred three years later, around the time he started to become better known as an accompanist to singer Dinah Washington, and as a member of trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie's band. This progress was interrupted by two years in the United States Army, after which Kelly worked again with Washington and Gillespie, and played with other leaders. Over the next few years, these included instrumentalists Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Hank Mobley, Wes Montgomery, and Sonny Rollins, and vocalists Betty Carter, Billie Holiday, and Abbey Lincoln.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Stewart (musician)</span> American jazz drummer

William Harris Stewart is an American jazz drummer. He has performed with Maceo Parker, John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Lonnie Smith, Nicholas Payton, Bill Carrothers, Steve Wilson, Seamus Blake, Larry Goldings and Peter Bernstein, and Jim Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barry Harris</span> American jazz pianist and educator (1929–2021)

Barry Doyle Harris was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and educator. He was an exponent of the bebop style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny O'Neal</span> American jazz pianist and vocalist

Johnny O'Neal is an American neo-bop jazz pianist and vocalist. His playing ranges from the technically virtuosic to the tenderest of ballad interpretations. Though unique in style, he is influenced by many jazz elders, including Oscar Peterson and Art Tatum. He has led many recording dates with musicians such as Russell Malone and many others. He was a 1997 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Goldings</span> American musician, composer and arranger

Lawrence Sam "Larry" Goldings is an American jazz keyboardist and composer. His music has explored elements of funk, blues, and fusion. Goldings has a comedic alter ego known as Hans Groiner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtis Stigers</span> American jazz singer (born 1965)

Curtis Stigers is an American jazz singer. He achieved a number of hits in the early 1990s, most notably the international hit "I Wonder Why" (1991), which reached No. 5 in the UK and No. 9 in the US.

Jesse Green is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and record producer. He has recorded three albums as a leader, all released by Chiaroscuro Records.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Colianni</span> American jazz pianist

John Colianni is an American jazz pianist.

Ralph Earl Sutton was an American jazz pianist born in Hamburg, Missouri. He was a stride pianist in the tradition of James P. Johnson and Fats Waller.

"Don't Worry 'Bout Me" is a 1938 song composed by Rube Bloom, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was introduced in the "World's Fair" edition of the Cotton Club show in 1939. The first hit recording was in 1939 by Hal Kemp and His Orchestra.

<i>A Caddy for Daddy</i> 1967 studio album by Hank Mobley

A Caddy for Daddy is an album by jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded on December 18, 1965, and released on the Blue Note label in 1967. It features performances by Mobley with trumpeter Lee Morgan, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Billy Higgins.

Melissa Morgan is an American jazz singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Williams (musician)</span> American jazz musician

James Williams was an American jazz pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Alexander (keyboardist)</span>

Mark Alexander is an American keyboardist, vocalist, and producer–songwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smalls Jazz Club</span> Jazz club located in New York City

Smalls Jazz Club is a jazz club at 183 West 10th Street, Greenwich Village, New York City. Established in 1994, it earned a reputation in the 1990s as a "hotbed for New York's jazz talent" with a "well-deserved reputation as one of the best places in the city to see rising talent in the New York jazz scene". Its jazz musicians are noted for being "talented, though largely unknown" while its music is characterized as "modern versions of bebop and hard bop". The club's main room is in a basement with a capacity of 50 people that expanded to 60 people. Smalls Jazz Club should not be confused with Smalls Paradise in Harlem, which was founded in 1925 by Ed Smalls and closed in the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Jazz Messengers</span> American jazz band


The Jazz Messengers were a jazz combo that existed for over thirty-five years beginning in the early 1950s as a collective, and ending when long-time leader and founding drummer Art Blakey died in 1990. Blakey led or co-led the group from the outset. "Art Blakey" and "Jazz Messengers" became synonymous over the years, though Blakey did lead non-Messenger recording sessions and played as a sideman for other groups throughout his career.

"Yes sir, I'm gonna to stay with the youngsters. When these get too old, I'm gonna get some younger ones. Keeps the mind active."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Vuckovich</span> American jazz pianist from Yugoslavia (born 1936)

Larry Vuckovich is an American jazz pianist from Yugoslavia.

Vadim Neselovskyi is a Ukrainian pianist and composer based in New York City. He currently serves as a professor of jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Neselovskyi joined 6-Time Grammy Winner Gary Burton’s Generations Quintet of future all-stars including Julian Lage, Luques Curtis, and James Williams in 2004 and has been working as Gary Burton’s pianist and arranger for more than a decade, touring the US, Europe, and Japan. His recent appearances with Burton include Newport Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival and Detroit Jazz Festival. His work can be heard on three Gary Burton’s recordings: Next Generation (Concord) as a pianist, composer and arranger, If You Love Me as an arranger and on Common Ground as a composer. The "Next Generation" CD has reached Nr.1 on Jazzweek chart in US on April 27, 2005.

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

Chiara Izzi is an Italian jazz singer/composer and musician. She sings in Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese. Winner of the Montreux Jazz Festival Voice Competition in 2011, her vocal style fuses jazz, pop, and Mediterranean sounds.

References