Mike Freeman | |
|---|---|
 Mike Freeman performing with ZonaVibe in New York City, 2013 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 1959 (age 63–64) Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, Latin jazz, salsa |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vibraphone, marimba |
| Website | jazzvibe |
Mike Freeman is an American jazz vibraphonist and composer from Omaha, Nebraska based in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan since 1981.
Freeman started learning drums at age six and began playing professionally at age thirteen. At twelve, he began playing the vibraphone, and by fifteen, he was a percussionist for the Omaha Symphony Orchestra under conductor Thomas Briccetti. [1] During his last year of high school, he began traveling to Chicago to study with renowned percussionist and veteran studio musician Bobby Christian. [2] He graduated from DePaul University with a Bachelor of Music composition in 1981. In New York, he studied with composer and arranger Hale Rood. [3]
Freeman has performed in North America, Europe, the Azores, Caribbean, and South America. In 1985, he did an extensive tour of Portugal, sponsored by the American Embassy and the Fulbright Foundation. The tour was arranged by Rui Martins, [4] director of the Hot Club of Portugal, and USIA Cultural Affairs Officer Wally Keiderling. [5] He performed in areas of the country rarely visited by American musicians and not previously visited by a vibraphone player. In Guarda, Portugal, he received the medal of the city. [6]
His seven recordings of original music [7] [8] gained national and international attention [9] and extensive radio airplay, charting on jazz, [10] [11] contemporary jazz, and world music radio as well as airing on syndicated radio programs. [12]
A three time Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement grant recipient, Freeman produced Latin Music in Hell's Kitchen, A History 2019, Hell's Kitchen Soul Sauce 2021, and Boricua Blues 2022. [13] [14] [15] [16] At Manhattan Plaza he produced and organized benefit concerts for musicians affected by devastating hurricanes. He wrote a series, spanning more than a decade, of commissioned compositions and arrangements for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Percussion Scholarship Program [17] and in 2014 was commissioned by drummer and educator Ed Uribe to write arrangements for China's national percussion curriculum that were performed by members of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at the Shanghai Symphony Hall. [18]
Freeman is also known for performing and recording with several acclaimed Latin groups including percussionist Ray Mantilla from 2002 until Mantilla's passing in 2020. Good Vibrations on Savant Records was Jazzweek's top Latinjazz recording on radio in 2006. [19] He performed and recorded with Jose Mangual Jr's Son Boricua featuring Jimmy Sabater (one of the architects of Boogaloo) from 2003 to present, with Julio Salgado from 2000 to present and with Lucho Cueto's all-star group Black Sugar. He also performed with the Spanish Harlem Orchestra (directed by Oscar Hernandez) at Madison Square Garden and with Willie Villegas's Joe Cuba Sextet both with legendary sonero Cheo Feliciano. [20]
André George Previn was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved success, and the latter two were part of his life until the end. In movies, he arranged and composed music. In jazz, he was a celebrated trio pianist, a piano-accompanist to singers of standards, and pianist-interpreter of songs from the "Great American Songbook". In classical music, he also performed as a pianist but gained television fame as a conductor, and during his last thirty years created his legacy as a composer of art music.
The 4th Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 29, 1962, at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. They recognized accomplishments by musicians from the year 1961. Henry Mancini won 5 awards.
The 9th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 2, 1967, at Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1966. The 9th Grammy Awards is notable for not presenting the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Frank Sinatra won 5 awards.
The 24th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1982, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and were broadcast live on American television. The event recognized the accomplishments of musicians during the year 1981. Quincy Jones was the major recipient of awards with a total of five Grammys.
Callen Radcliffe Tjader Jr. was an American Latin Jazz musician, often described as the most successful non-Latino Latin musician. He explored other jazz idioms, especially small group modern jazz, even as he continued to perform music of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Nathan Harrell East is an American jazz, R&B, and rock bass guitarist and vocalist. With more than 2,000 recordings, East is one of the most recorded bass players in the history of music. East holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of California, San Diego (1978). He is a founding member of contemporary jazz quartet Fourplay and has recorded, performed, and co-written songs with performers such as Bobby Womack, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Joe Satriani, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, Toto, Kenny Loggins, Daft Punk, Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock.
Mike Holober is an American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and educator.
Machito was a Latin jazz musician who helped refine Afro-Cuban jazz and create both Cubop and salsa music. He was raised in Havana with the singer Graciela, his foster sister.
Michael Mantler is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music.
Michael Arthur LeDonne is a jazz pianist and organist known for post-bop and hard bop. He has worked with Benny Golson since 1996 and performs under his own name all over the world.
Donald Moye, Jr., known as Famoudou Don Moye, is an American jazz percussionist and drummer. He is most known for his involvement with the Art Ensemble of Chicago and is noted for his mastery of African and Caribbean percussion instruments and rhythmic techniques.
Joe Chambers is an American jazz drummer, pianist, vibraphonist and composer. He attended the Philadelphia Conservatory for one year. In the 1960s and 1970s, Chambers gigged with many high-profile artists such as Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, and Chick Corea. During this period, his compositions were featured on some of the albums on which he appeared, such as those with Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson. He has released fifteen albums as a bandleader and been a member of several incarnations of Max Roach's M'Boom percussion ensemble.
Raymond Mantilla was an American percussionist.
Jimmy Sabater was an American musician of Puerto Rican ancestry. A three-time winner of the ACE Awards, he was a singer and timbales player. He gained international fame thanks to his work with the Joe Cuba Sextet in the 1960s and '70s, and later became the lead singer of various groups including Charlie Palmieri's Combo Gigante. His son, Jimmy Sabater Jr., is a trumpeter and bandleader.
Tommy Vig is a percussionist, arranger, bandleader, and composer.
Son Boricua is a Latin dance music orchestra based in New York City, founded by Jose Mangual Junior. Lead singer was Jimmy Sabater until his death in 2012.
Fusion Jonda is a Puerto Rican band that blends Caribbean music with gypsy-flamenco sounds, melodies, and rhythms. The band has centered its music around Afrobeat, jazz, Arabic, and Indian music and has a contemporary approach.
Jim Gailloreto is an American saxophonist, composer, and group leader from Chicago whose string arrangements were heard on Kurt Elling's Grammy Award–winning CD Dedicated To You.
José Mangual Jr. is an American Salsa percussionist of Puerto Rican Descent, singer and composer best known for his recordings with Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe during the 1960s and 1970s salsa boom in New York.
Jose Mangual, Sr. was a Puerto Rican percussionist world renowned for his bongo drum performances and recordings during the 1940s and 1950s with groups such as Machito Orchestra, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, Flip Philips, Abbie Lane and Nancy Ames. "He set a standard in bongo playing and was considered by many to have the greatest sound on the instrument." He is the father of Jose Mangual, Jr. and Luis Mangaul who are both well-known Salsa singers and percussionists. Both were born and raised in East Harlem.
