I just want to be true to what I really hear and who I am. I don’t want to be an actress singing a song. I don’t want to be a singer trying to be a Jazz singer. I want to find myself in the songs that I sing and be musical first and foremost.”-- Janice Friedman

Janice Friedman

With her new release, Swingin’ for the Ride (Janika Muzik), pianist/vocalist Janice Friedman finds herself –first and foremost—as a jazz musician with plenty to say, both with the keyboard and now with her voice, as an interpreter and composer. Her third recording has been gathering accolades since its release, bringing Friedman some well-deserved attention beyond her usual New Jersey beat.

Meet Janice

But whatever she was playing, she always knew jazz was where she belonged. “All along, from the moment I started playing piano at around age 4, I fancied myself a jazz pianist,” she recalls. “When I was really young I didn’t quite know what that was, but I knew I was into something great and, while I still loved to play all the pop tunes of my day and worked hard on my classical stuff, I had this other thing that was different from what my friends knew. I was playing “Watermelon Man” and “The Shadow of Your Smile” before there were two numbers in my age and I don’t know how I got it in my head, but I knew I was a jazz pianist.”

After earning a degree in jazz studies at Indiana University, Janice moved to Brooklyn, played gigs at Arthur’s Tavern and then toured with the Woody Herman Orchestra for six months before relocating to Edgewater, NJ where she spent the late 80s and early 90s gigging around area clubs. Finally in 1995, Janice moved to Manhattan. Noting that she feels successful as “my bills are paid, I’m still passionate about music…”, Janice maintains a busy schedule with “solo and ensemble gigs, accompanying vocalists (and now being one myself), arranging for myself and others, doing copy work, composing and teaching.” Over her 30+-year career, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in New York as well as at a long list of Manhattan’s famed jazz clubs; at jazz festivals including JVC New York, Women’s Jazz in Portugal, and the recent International Women in Jazz Festival in Manhattan; she has performed or recorded with a Who’s Who in jazz, including Billy Higgins, Benny Golson, Joe Lovano, Milt Hinton, Marian McPartland, Kenny Burrell, Slide Hampton, Cab Calloway, Clark Terry and more; and has been on the music faculty of Rutgers University since 1991.

Janice was named New Artist to Watch on 72 Clear Channel websites and won an international song writing competition sponsored by the Salt Queen Foundation. Among her television and radio appearances, Janice performed solos and duets with Marian McPartland on NPR’s Piano Jazz. Praising Friedman’s keyboard prowess, NY Times jazz critic, John Wilson, wrote that her “explosive … piano playing carries the aura and variety of a big band.”

Swingin’—and Singin’ - for the Ride

Swingin’ for the Ride is Janice’s third recording, following Tryptych: A Trio of Trios (Janika Muzik) and Finger Paintings, her quartet with Claudio Roditi (Jazz Mania). But the new CD features Janice’s vocals as well as piano, the first time she has recorded as a singer. “I really started singing out regularly a few years ago,” she said, “and even then only on certain jobs. For the most part, I had been called as a side person to play the piano. On my solo jobs, I’d sneak it in.” Although she identifies her admiration for Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Dinah Washington, Mose Allison, Joni Mitchell and more, Janice notes that “I don’t think I have really tried to sound like anyone vocally because I wasn’t studying it seriously-- just playing around singing in my own living room for my own specific reasons of practicing music. Once I realized that I might actually do this for other people to hear, I think I just tried to make a pretty sound with my voice and be true to the kind of phrasing that I hear from my piano playing.”

Swingin’ for the Ride follows the great traditions of straight-ahead piano trios, the legacy of Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Marian McPartland, with the added (and well integrated) attraction of first-rate vocals, in much the manner of such pianist/vocalists as Nat King Cole, Shirley Horn, Diana Krall and Karrin Allyson. With talented cohorts Sean Conly on bass and Diego Voglino on drums (and with Daniel Sadownick guesting on percussion), Friedman presents five original compositions (one co-written with husband David Praeger) and seven evocative covers (all arranged by Janice), and it truly swings from first note to last. As with her keyboard improvisations, Janice knows how to sell a lyric through alterations in dynamics, rhythm, and phrasing; she proves to be adept at scat as well although she more often relies on more subtle experiments.

The handful of original compositions offer a musical playground for the trio and plenty of space for Janice to infuse an infectious swing regardless of mood. The title track gets things off to a joyful start, a funky groove tune that strangely evokes Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Bille Joe” while the lyrics tell a much more upbeat story. Friedman’s piano swings in support of her storytelling and on its own with an almost stride quality as the left hand chords rock between her single note, right-hand lines. “A Fairy Tale” features a soft samba beat from Voglino and Sadownick, while Conly offers a twangy bass solo. Here Janice’s piano solo uses selective pauses that give the track its rhythmic interest.

A bit of funky playfulness comes with the lyrics from husband David Praeger on “You ‘n Me,” their tale of new-found love. Janice’s vocals are supported by a bouncing vamp from Conly’s bass and her own basslines, the rhythm section adding considerable spice. The use of minor harmonies give it a bit of an edge, suggesting this ride may have some unpredictable turns, while the “I Do Song” provides “a brilliant burst of sunlight” to describe the composer’s joy in her new partnership with David.

Janice closes the set with her “Seems Like a Dream,” the tune written “back in 1996, during a snowstorm that closed Manhattan to traffic. It was a day unlike any other I’d ever experienced in our city - so absolutely quiet and beautiful. People were skiing down Broadway and having a ball. I was in my home watching the snow fall as I wrote this tune. When I sat down to write the lyric ten years later, it was just so easy to put myself back into that day.” The instrumental mesh features steady percussive patterns from Voglino, while Conly’s take on the tale is a bit wistful. “Got to keep the music flowin’,” sings Janice—and she does, ending it all on a minor note.

The seven cover tunes include two from the team of Fields and McHugh. “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” has a bouncing bass introduction from Sean Conly; and he continues to fill in-between the vocal phrases. With a unique approach to this familiar tune, Janice gives it swing with passion via her phrasing, tweaks of the melody, and choices for emphasis. Her piano too takes a more complex route, and when she scats a verse, it’s as if a third hand is on the keys. One advantage of comping for yourself—the timing is perfect! “Don’t Blame Me” is given a balladic reading rather than the more common midtempo approach. Janice’s phrasing is conversational, as if sitting across from you, talking over coffee or brandy. Over shimmering brushes from Voglino, Friedman’s piano recalls McPartland and Evans, with some blues licks as well. Vocally, her use of pauses and shortening and elongating her syllables builds intensity and passion.

Three tracks take the listener far south, although only two come by their Brazilian beats directly. On Bonfa’s “A Day in the Life of a Fool,” Friedman’s staccato phrasing and variations in dynamics gives the song a fresh feel. Particularly on this track, her phrasing reminds me of Diana Krall, who also approaches vocals from the mindset of a pianist. This is a swinging samba, more upbeat than its usual presentation. On Jobim’s “Meditation,” Friedman’s crystalline piano caresses the ear; her voice a soft breeze that brushes lightly and lingers, nearly a whisper at times. As much as Conly’s bass, Janice’s voice serves as the song’s pulse. Her beautiful piano interlude of cascading notes and swinging chords only adds to the mood of “meditation.” Gershwin’s “Summertime” has been subject to endless interpretations, and here, Janice fills the track with hope, using upbeat, Latin-tinged quirks in rhythm to make this one of the more interesting versions I’ve encountered.

Two familiar standards fill out the set. “Is You Is” (Austin/Jordan) is marked by Friedman’s creative timing—pauses followed by trilling chords that give it a feel of an old movie with the villain close at hand. It swings but with a playful touch of evil. Hart and Rodgers are represented by “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was.” With a lick of “Grandfather’s Clock,” Janice brings a breezy sassiness to the tune, aided and abetted by Conly’s quarter-note gallop. Here Friedman swings as confidently on keys as any of her idols (Peterson, McPartland, etc.).

It’s a little unnerving that this is only Janice Friedman’s third recording leading her own band and only her first significant statement as a vocalist. This is a musician with chops to burn on two instruments—piano and voice, with a deep well of compositional and well as improvisational ideas, many muses but a very individual style. Swingin’ for the Ride deserves wider distribution. On that issue, Janice notes that “This CD is the first CD where we are ‘pushing it’ to the public, even though I’ve been around playing professionally for a long time. So I want people to know the mountain of stuff that I’ve been working on pianistically that has been in the drawer, and kind of ‘defend’ my position as a serious pianist.” These skills should not require defending! Just listen.

What’s Next?

Janice has a number of projects in the works, including the release of a solo recording. “It shows a different side of me,” she says. “It is mostly piano with vocals on some things and features what I think are some of the best standards ever written, plus some of my own tunes (which I hope fit right in). The next group project that I will lead will probably feature some of my most favorite piano arrangements, more of my originals and have some horns on it. I will probably sing on a few of the tracks, but I don’t think on the majority of the CD.”

These are just her own projects. Janice is also involved in some diverse projects led by other musicians: “Within the next six months, I will have some projects coming out that are lead by other people - a CD of originals in a more funky/pop groove co-written by myself and a fellow named Mark Reilly; a CD where I will do most of the arranging and accompany a vocalist named Suede that I work with a lot. There will be a CD for a classical composer named Augusta Gross, where I will be playing her tunes and perhaps improvising on them. There’s a CD of a band of all women led by vocalist Judi Silvano, called Women’s Work, coming out in the fall.”

Janice adds, “In the not-too-distant future, I want to do another one that is in the same vein as Swingin’ for the Ride. I am proud of this project and, although I am kind of eclectic in what I like, I really want to keep a connection with this part of my creativity.”

Swingin' for the Ride should keep this connection going, and hopefully kick off a series of performances that will expand the audience for this creative musician.

More about Janice Friedman and CD ordering information is available at www.janicefriedman.com