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Ron Friedman
Flattering Secret
Liner Notes
Music
Musicians
Credits
Reviews

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Liner Notes

It was 11:00 at night when I sneaked past my parents' bedroom on my way to the small television set my mom kept in the kitchen. I was 11 years old at the time, and had read that trumpeter Miles Davis was going to be on TV. Having taken trumpet lessons for just two years, I was curious about Miles Davis. I didn't want to get caught by my parents, so I put my ear next to the tiny television speaker and heard that soft, brooding, pure tone like no other sound I had ever heard before; a sound I knew I had to hear more... a lot more. I didn't just want to play like Miles Davis. I wanted to be Miles Davis. I studied every solo, read his interviews, examined his thoughts and concepts. But I realized that the only way to be like Miles Davis was for me to find my own voice... my own sound... like he did.

The first time I met Robert Irving was a little unusual. Robert produced, composed, arranged and played with Miles Davis in the late '80's and early '90's. I walked into his place on the beach overlooking Lake Michigan in Chicago. He was painting (acrylic on canvas) and had accidentally spilled white paint on his black stereo system. He was wearing a vest that had what looked like a round box that stuck out a good 5 inches from his back. The feathers on his fireplace, and the nighttime sky painted on the ceiling of a large closet, both let me know that this man wasn't afraid to express himself creatively. I told him about my concept for a song, then I played James Brown's 'Turn Me Loose' for him. A week later he came up with 'Thru the Gate'

From that point on, we discussed textures, colors, rhythms, sounds, concepts and feels for the music we were creating. When we got to the recording process, we were like two kids in a toy store. We tried ANYTHING! The end of 'Thru the Gate' sounds like the AM radio of an old Plymouth I once had. The beginning of 'Every Today' is a creaking door, a bell and a guitar note recorded backwards. A live Flamenco dancer, complete with castanets, is heard toward the end of 'All is Well.' We used unconventional methods to express our music.

Robert has been able to translate my concepts into compositions and arrangements. I told him I wanted our jazz recordings to have the same studio freedom of experimentation and creativity that have been on rock recordings for years. Probably not to much to ask from a guy who wears a box on his back and never says, 'No, that can't be done!'

-Ron Friedman

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Music


1. Flattering Secret
 2. Ambrosia
 3. All is Well
 4. Thru the Gate
 5. Jig-Jop
 6. Pretty Lady
 7. Every-Today
 8. Dana's Dance
 9. Living Life
 

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Musicians


Ron Friedman - flugelhorn, on all tracks
Jose Gregorio - conga and percussion, on all tracks
Jim Hines - drums, on tracks 2, 4, and 9
Robert Irving III - synthesizer and piano, on all tracks
Robert Lizak- bass, on all tracks except track 1
John McLean - guitar, on all tracks
Oscar Seaton - drums, on tracks 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8
Chris Murrell - vocal, on track 7
Dame Libby Komaiko - flamenco dancing, castanets and hand clapping, on track 2

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Credits

All tracks composed and arranged by Robert Irving III
© 1998 Vitasia Music Publishing Co./BMI

Except "All is Well" composed and arranged by Robert Irving III
© 1989 Published by Universal Songs of Polygram International / Melodies Por L'Enfant Publishing / BMI

"Pretty Lady", composed by Stephen Sondheim
published by Revelation Music Publishing Corp./Warner/Chappell/ASCAP.

"Pretty Lady"  arranged by Robert Irving III, Kevin Gainer and Ron Friedman
"Jig-Jop"  arranged by Robert Irving III and Francisco Sanchez
 

All tracks Produced by Robert "Baabe" Irving III, except "Jig-Jop", Produced by Robert Irving III with Associate Producer Francisco Sanchez and Executive Producer,  Ron Friedman

Recorded and mixed at Hinge Recording Studios, Chicago
Recording Engineer: Steve Weeder
Studio Tech Assistance: Steve Johnson and Rodney Amos
Mastered by Danny Leake

Front Cover Art : Greg Kreutz  (click here to see the full painting)
Design: Christopher Ness
Back Cover Art Direction: Baabe
Layout and Graphics: Lynn Winston/ Powell Graphics and Communication, Inc. -Chicago
Photography and Photo Inlay: Victor Powell - Chicago
Copy Editor: Linda Lerner

Special Thanks to: Burt Tobias, Kevin Gainer,  Joe Daley,  Mike Smith, Andy's Jazz Club, Frank Sinatra Jr., Roger Mills, Darlene Torzon, Dr. David Calderelli, and "That Rich, Good Lookin' Guy

Ron Friedman exclusively plays French Besson Trumpets

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Reviews

Neil Tesser of the Chicago Reader and jazz radio says,
"Ron Friedman has managed to make a pop/jazz CD that doesn't sacrifice the charm of either idiom. He makes it seem so easy, it's a wonder why no one else has ever done this."
"[Ron Friedman] is a useful reminder that New York doesn't have it all its own way as regards new American Talent."
Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP & Cassette
Richard Cook and Brian Morton

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