You’d think that an acoustic jazz trio with an acoustic guitar would be done a lot more often than it is, but no, most jazz guitarists like to plug in. Not Fred Fried, though, and we found out with last year’s Core 3.0, his rich lyricism and incisive playing makes a relatively unusual combination seem natural. That’s the success of Fried and his Core bandmates (Michael Lavoie, bass; Miki Matsuki, drums), who have good chemistry and put Core’s deep harmonics at the center, even when he’s comping and Lavoie is soling, as on “The Gathering Stone.” Fried doesn’t just play an 8-string guitar for looks, he puts those extra strings to good use; the expanded tonal palette it provides adds harmonic details to simple melodies like “Three Fall” and “Sing Me A Puzzle.” All originals this time, EnCore, these eleven tracks make EnCore a suitably titled followup to the consistent quality of that prior record.
EnCore went on sale July 12, by Ballet Tree Jazz Productions. ‘Half Notes’ are quick-take thoughts on music from Something Else! Reviews, presented whenever the mood strikes us.
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- Ivo Perelman + Matthew Shipp – ‘Magical Incantation’ (2024) - May 4, 2024
- Tomeka Reid Quartet – ‘3+3’ (2024) - April 30, 2024
- Claudio Scolari Project – ‘Opera 8’ (2024) - April 25, 2024
