Jordan Glenn & Jason Hoopes talk Fred Frith Trio

are they becoming a power trio?

The Fred Frith Trio played the Ivy Room in Albany CA (near Berkeley) last week as the first show on their short tour of the west coast.  At that show I asked Jordan Glenn, the drummer, and Jason Hoopes, the bass player, if they’d join me for a Zoom chat.  We all agreed on a time the following morning.  All of us were hitting the road later that day.  They would be on to the next city in the tour. I would be headed in the same direction for a vacation with my wife and dog.  I left the club looking forward to preparing some questions for our morning meeting.  And then I got stuck in Bay Bridge traffic for 2 hours.  Ugh.

I love the smell of keyboard in the morning.  The guys joined my Zoom call right on time, but I was still feeling a bit hung-over from lack of sleep.  The Ivy Room is a great venue, but it’s a traffic gamble for me as I found out that night, and traffic is no longer good here since everyone thinks Covid is over.  And maybe it is.  Lots of people are getting it now, but few are ending up in the hospital.  Bands are touring again with less hiccups.  Let’s hope this trend can continue.

The Fred Frith Trio has been together since 2013, and I’ve seen them perform at least 2 or 3 times since then.  I’ve always enjoyed them, but what I was about to experience at the Ivy Room would blow me away.  

Their past gigs had always seemed improvised from start to finish, and indeed that was the case, as I confirmed in our talk.  This time, right from note one, it was clear they were using composition.  This would launch them into an improv and right away I couldn’t wait to hear what they would do next.  When they ended the first piece of the set that night, a friend of mine who has worked with the band turned to me and exclaimed “Wow”, taking the word right out of my mind.  

The rest of their set kept the “Wow” factor going.  Composition and improv would ebb and flow, build and peak, excite and kick-ass.  I spoke with several people after the performance, and all shared my feeling that we had just experience something very different from this trio.  And we liked it.

Getting to pick the brains of the performers after such an exhilarating event was a great opportunity for me.  How did this happen?  Did the long Covid layoff have anything to do with it?  In March the band toured Europe with the intent of incorporating and arranging their new compositional elements into their live set.  Not so fast.  Covid would have a say.  

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Fred Frith Interview

The impact of Covid on live music is obvious to those of us who live it, fan or musician.  But it’s not always a negative impact.  Fred Frith told me in our recent interview, “that it has meant we’ve all listened a lot more, and hopefully become better listeners, and learned how to look and see and listen and hear. This has been hugely inspiring. “  

Hopefully we can all be inspired in this way.  I can tell you the performance I saw last week from the Fred Frith Trio had exactly that effect on me.  Please enjoy this glimpse of inspiration from Jordan and Jason as they take us inside the evolution of the Fred Frith Trio.

Here are the remaining shows on their tour:

2022-06-24 Los Angeles, Zebulon FF Trio

2022-07-02 Portland, Kelly's Olympian FF Trio / TWANS

2022-07-03 Seattle, Royal Room FF Trio / Sheridan Riley-Wayne Horvitz-Neil Welch

Jordan and Jason talk about the Fred Frith Trio