Podcast 531: A Conversation with Daniel Freedman

The many musicians who are today identified as veterans of the “Smalls scene” of the 1990’s are truly coming of age. The influential Greenwich Village jazz club was the launching pad twenty plus years ago for some of the top improvisers and composers of today, including Jason Linder, Mark Turner, Avishai Cohen (both the trumpeter and the bassist), Kurt Rosenwinkel, Guillermo Klein, Omar Avital, Seamus Blake and Peter Bernstein. Daniel Freedman backed many of these players on drums and percussion, and with the release of Imagine That, he is firmly establishing himself as a leader and composer in his own right. Born and raised in New York City to a musical family, in high school he studied with master drummers Max Roach, Billy Higgins and Vernel Fournier. Later, he traveled to study drumming in West Africa, Cuba and the Middle East, forging his own unique approach to drumming.  Those who have enjoyed Freedman’s work as a member of Anat Cohen’s band or the collective Third World Love will find much to enjoy in his third CD under his own name. Working with a dream band of Lionel Loueke, Lindner, Avital, and Gilmar Gomes, the sound of Imagine That is a wonderful mix of electric jazz, world beat and dance music.  There is real joy in these tracks, whether from Linder’s shifting soundscapes, Loueke’s crying guitar or the percussive interplay of Avital, Freedman and Gomes. Add to it a guest vocal from Freedman’s former boss Angelique Kidjo, and Imagine That earns the wonder the encompasses its name in spades. Podcast 531 is my conversation with Daniel Freedman, as we discuss the making of the CD, and his adventures playing with Anat Cohen, Third World Love and other members of the burgeoning Anzic label. Music selections from Imagine That include "Determined Soul", "Eastern Elegy" and "The Sisters Dance" plus "Lilia“ from Anat Cohen’s Luminosa and “The Immigrant's Anthem (Sad Song)“ from Third World Love’s CD Songs and Portraits.