Joel Frahm - The Bright Side

2021 release

Joel Frahm, a perennially in-demand tenor saxophonist, appeared on over 100 recordings as a side-person. He isknown for his collaborations with Brad Mehldau, Maynard Ferguson, Betty Carter and Dewey Redman as well as Lee Konitz, Pat Martino and Andrew Hill. He also worked with contemporaries Matt Wilson, Larry Goldings, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Allison, Ingrid Jensen, Dena Derose and Kyle Eastwood. In 2018, Joel was a part of two Grammy-nominated CDs, Freddy Cole’s My Mood Is You, and Dafnis Prieto’s Back To The Sunset, which won the Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Ensemble recording.

The Bright Side, recorded in 2019, is the trio’s debut recording for Anzic Records and is the culmination of a musical partnership that has developed through many tours and recordings spanning the last decade.

The trio was born at a masterclass at the University of Toronto as an offshoot of Ernesto’s band Turboprop. In the ensuing years, Dan and Ernesto took the reins and began to book performances for the ensemble. The repertoire began to take shape on their first European tour almost completely comprised of recently penned original songs by each member of the band.

The music runs the gamut from “X-Friends,” Dan Loomis’ knotty, challenging re-imagining of the Klenner/Lewis standard “Just Friends,” to Joel’s title tune “The Bright Side,” which was inspired by the
opening riff of Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side.” Ernesto contributes “The Beautiful Mystery,” a pensive and emotional tone poem that contrasts beautifully with upbeat tracks like Frahm’s “Beeline,” a new melody written on the chord changes of “My Shining Hour.”

Joel recently referred to his two band-mates as “Allowers. They allow enough space in the music for surprise and natural development to occur. They bring a buoyancy and joyful spirit to my compositions as well as their own.

They groove hard and listen. This trio recording is special to me not just because it documents many of our new songs, but also because it is the debut of a band of true friends and accomplished improvisers.”