Josue Maldonado

Music 126
Prof. Myra Melford
11/19/19

Fred Frith, born Jeremy Webster Frith is a multi-instrumentalist, improviser,

songwriter, and composer for film, dance and theater.
He has received several distinctions, such as an honorary doctorate from the
University of Huddersfield.
He currently teaches in Mills College in Oakland, California, and in the
improvisation master’s program at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland.
During his long-lived career, he has experimented with several different sounds
and in different types of ensembles. He has played and recorded albums in
different configurations, solo, duo, trio and even quartet

He uses a wide variety of objects to create different sounds and textures: from
traditional guitar picks to violin bows, drum sticks, egg beaters, paint brushes,
lengths of metal chain, and other found objects paired with guitar pedals.
When he plays solo, he adds a headstock pickup to his guitar. In some occasions
he plays laying his guitar horizontally as a lap guitar. In the first video we can see
how he prepares his guitar with different objects like a brush or a metal plate, while
he makes the string vibrate with in different ways, like hitting them with a drumstick
or rubbing a metal plate containing some objects against them. Also pay attention
to the box at his side so you can have an idea of how many objects he uses.
When he plays with a band, like in the video where he is performing in a guitar trio,
he usually plays standing. In the excerpt he uses an ebow in different ways to
create different sounds. I really liked the sounds he made while he moved it
perpendicularly to the strings.
He also sometimes just inserts a drumstick between the fretboard and the strings
and slides it with complete disinterest for the well-being of his instrument.
I find his playing extremely compelling and unlike anything I had seen or heard
before. The sounds he produces are interesting and innovative. He has inspired
me to seek different approaches to play my instrument.
When I was doing my research, I found a comment in a Mary Halvorson’s video
that made me laugh. It said: ‘Finally somebody that does not have a cheesy jazz
guitar sound’. Well, Fred Frith definitely doesn’t have that sound.