Fred Randolph Song Without Singing One of the
busiest bassists on the rich San Francisco Bay Area music scene for more than
15 years, in demand for his work on acoustic, electric, and fretless bass, Fred
Randolph has been an integral part of bands led by artists from Ian Carey and
Akira Tana to Dan Hicks and Maria Muldaur. For his third CD as a leader, Song
Without Singing, Randolph highlights his vibrant original music performed by
his own fine quintet and other longtime colleagues. His Creative Spirit imprint
will release the new disc, his first since 2006's New Day, on August 28.
Most of the
11 tracks feature the Honolulu native's working band of trumpeter Erik
Jekabson, tenor saxophonist Rob Roth, pianist Matt Clark, and drummer Greg
Wyser-Pratte. "These are some of my best musical friends who always bring
their 'A' game to a project," says Randolph. "Their individual and
collective talent and creativity are indispensable factors in making the music
come alive."
Among the
guests contributing to Song Without Singing are percussionist Brian Rice,
guitarist Matthew Heulitt, and pianist Marcos Silva. Vocalist Sandy Cressman,
in whose band Homenagem Brasileira Randolph often performs, sings wordlessly on
the samba "Pelo Mar"; accordionist Rob Reich stars on the set-closer
"La Ultima Vez," a melancholy tango.
The title
track was inspired by the music of Malian singer-songwriter Salif Keita and
rendered by the band in 6/4 time. Highly syncopated Venezuelan 5/4 time,
expertly anchored by the leader's acoustic bass, Wyser-Pratte's trap drums, and
Rice's hand percussion, propels "Story." South African melodies and
West African highlife rhythms infuse the lyrical and lively "How We
See." "I'm not trying to be authentic when I'm writing ethnic
music," he says. "I'm just influenced by it."
Like many
young Hawaiians of his generation, Fred Randolph (b. 1956) took up ukulele as a
kid, but didn't get serious about music until hearing Jimi Hendrix's album Are
You Experienced? at age 11, when he switched to guitar. His guitar teacher soon
turned him on to jazz guitarists Howard Roberts and George Benson. Moving to
the mainland to attend UC San Diego, he checked out John Coltrane at the
recommendation of another teacher. By the time he'd transferred to UC Berkeley
to study political science, he was playing tenor saxophone for spare change on
street corners near the campus.
Eventually
he went on to work with San Francisco bebop saxophone legend Bishop Norman
Williams and to study with the great Joe Henderson. He also studied arranging
and trumpet with onetime Woody Herman trumpeter Jerry Cournoyer.
Fred Randolph Randolph continued his trumpet
studies at Cal State Hayward (now Cal State East Bay) with Jay Rizzetto while
working on his master's degree in composition. For his master's thesis Randolph
composed a piece for string quartet plus bass. Hearing Cal State instructor
Carl Stanley play the bass part he'd written prompted Randolph to fall in love
with the instrument. Although he had an upright bass in his closet and was
proficient enough to get an occasional gig on it, suddenly he was dead serious.
He studied classical bass with Stanley, jazz bass with Frank Tusa, and electric
bass with Kai Eckhardt, among other instructors. Randolph was soon a first-call
bassist in Northern California and since 1999 has recorded with such artists as
the Full Spectrum Jazz Orchestra, the Collective West Jazz Orchestra, Jim
Grantham, Ian Carey Quintet+1, Melanie O'Reilly, Ian Dogole, and Orquesta
Dharma, as well as with The Zone, a combo he co-led with trumpeter Graham
Bruce.
Being able
to play so many different instruments has greatly helped Randolph in his day
job at Oakland's Bishop O'Dowd High School, which he's held down for the past
seven years. "That's where my background comes in," he says.
"Picking up a trumpet, a sax, a flute, or a clarinet and being able to
play those parts is really nice. At Hayward State, I took every conducting
class I could get my hands on, so when I teach symphonic band or string
orchestra, I know what I'm doing, thank God."
Randolph's
mastery of a variety of instruments, his studies of arranging and composing,
his globe-spanning tastes in music, and his extensive on-the-job training in
jazz, blues, Latin, and Americana groups, as well as with European classical
ensembles, are evident in the boldly eclectic body of music he has composed for
and performed with his own quintet over the past dozen years. Song Without
Singing stands as the latest shining light in Randolph's brilliant musical
journey.
The Fred
Randolph Quintet will appear in support of Song Without Singing on Saturday
1/15/16 at the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley.
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