Matthew Fries

Matthew Fries (born September 24, 1968 in Selinsgrove , Snyder County , Pennsylvania ) is an American jazz musician ( piano , composition ) of modern jazz and a university teacher.

Live and act

Fries grew up in a musical family; his mother was a classical music singer, his father was a professor of piano at Susquehanna University , where he also received his first lessons. After a course on the history of jazz , he turned to the jazz piano . After receiving his bachelor's degree from Ithaca College in Ithaca , he studied at the University of Tennessee ; after completing his master's degree, he taught there and also had lessons from Donald Brown .

In the following years Fries lived in New York City; first recordings were made in 1996, when he was in the big band of Bill Mobley played ( Live at Smalls ). He worked with his own trio TRI-FI , with whom he also accompanied the singer Curtis Stigers , as well as with Stacey Kent , Ann Hampton Callaway , Dee Dee Bridgewater , Vincent Herring , Steve Wilson , Joel Frahm , Steve LaSpina , Dave Samuels , Claudio Roditi , Bob Merrill , Vinson Valega and Terell Stafford . In the field of jazz, he was involved in 39 recording sessions between 1996 and 2018, according to Tom Lord .

Fries is Professor of Jazz Piano at Western Michigan University .

Discographic notes

• Matthew Fries / Gregory Ryan / Vinson Valega: Live @ 147 (Just Jazz, 2000)
• Song for Today (TCB, 2001), with Bill Mobley, Vincent Herring, Gregory Ryan, Vinson Valega
• Tri-Fi: Postcards (2007), with Steve Wilson, Phil Palombi, Keith Hall
• Parallel States (Xcappa, 2016) solo

Web links

• Web presence
• Matthew Fries at Allmusic (English)
• Matthew Fries at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed October 11, 2019)
2. ↑ Matthew Fries, Piano. Smalls, October 1, 2019, accessed October 1, 2019 .