Jeremy Webster “Fred” Frith was born on February 17, 1949 in the small town of Heathfield in East Sussex, England. Frith describes himself as a songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and improviser. He creates primarily experimental and avant-rock music and performs with various kinds of instruments, such as the guitar, bass, keyboards, and the violin.
Frith moved to Oakland in 1997 to begin work as a composer-in-residence at Mills College, where he would teach improvisation as a professor. He was excited to come to Mills because of its history as a haven for experimental music. According to his personal website, Frith “was deeply honored to be invited to a place where so many iconic musicians had either studied or taught, and my almost twenty years in Oakland have been invigorating and inspiring.” Frith retired from Mills in 2018 and has been teaching improvisation at the Musik Akademie in Switzerland and advising in the creation of a sound art school in Valdivia, Chile.
Coming from a musical family, Frith began taking violin lessons at age five and learned how to play piano soon after. He taught himself guitar at thirteen and formed a blues and rock band in high school, graduating from Cambridge in 1970. Frith also did a six-month artist residency in Marseille, France in 1990.
Frith began forming bands in high school, creating the band The Chaperones, which covered songs by the Shadows and eventually began producing blues music. His first public performances were in 1967 at folk clubs in northern England. Frith met Tom Hodgkinson in 1968 at Cambridge University, where they formed the avant-rock band Henry Cow based on their mutual love for experimental music.
Henry Cow gained international recognition for its cutting-edge music and performances and was signed by Virgin Records in 1973, remaining together until 1978. Frith also released his first solo album, Guitar Solos, in 1974, which was composed of improvised and unaccompanied guitar songs.
Album cover of Guitar Solos, 1974.
Haunts:
- Mills College, 5000 MacArthur Boulevard, Oakland, CA 94613. Frith moved to Oakland to work as a composer-in-residence at Mills College in 1997 and remained until his retirement from Mills in 2018. Frith was passionate about the school’s history of supporting experimental music and even recorded an improvisational album, Cutter Heads, live at Mills in 2002 and 2004.
- Sharkbite Studios, 634 2nd Street, Oakland, CA 94607. Another haunt of Frith is Sharkbite Studios in Jack London Square. Frith formed the experimental, free improvising music group, the Fred Frith Trio, in 2012. The Fred Frith Trio is signed by Intakt Records and recorded its albums, Another Day in Fucking Paradise (2016) and Closer to the Ground (2018), at Sharkbite.
- Starline Social Club, 2236 Martin Luther King Way, Oakland, CA 94612. Frith has performed at venues around Oakland, including the Starry Plough and Studio Grand. Starline Social Club has been the location of several shows by the Fred Frith Trio in recent years.
~ by Amanda Wheelock ~
External Links:
Frith, Fred. “This and that.” http://www.fredfrith.com/this-and-that/.
http://www.fredfrith.com/
http://www.fredfrith.com/some-interviews/
http://www.fredfrith.com/ueber-mich/
Fred Frith’s personal website is a great source of information about his music and life.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/fred-frith-mn0000178916/biography
This website includes a biography and Frith’s discography along with other information about his work and music.
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/01/fred-frith-interview-about-henry-cow.html
This page is a link to a pretty extensive interview with Frith covering various topics, including his musical upbringing and time in Henry Cow.
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/fred-frith/Content?oid=1084235
https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2012/01/fred-frith-interview-about-henry-cow.html
