NEWS updated November 2011

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COMING SOON: "SWING OF MANY COLORS"

Fred is delighted to announce the upcoming release of the Jazz Arts Trio's second CD: “Swing of Many Colors.” Where “Tribute” was an introduction to the idea of reinterpreting great jazz trios of the past, “Swing of Many Colors” is total immersion!

Here the trio tackles even more challenging repertoire, most notably a “reperformance” of the entire 1958 Ahmad Jamal Trio LP “But Not For Me: Live at the Pershing.” This was one of the most influential jazz recordings of all time, inspiring Miles Davis and other exponents of the Cool Jazz movement with its use of space and democratic focus on all three instruments. Pete, Pete and Fred felt the entire LP was so miraculously constructed that they couldn’t just pick one tune, but needed to play the entire album as a kind of classical suite.

Hugely challenging for Fred was taking on the idiosyncratic but virtuosic styles of Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea. The trio is also delighted to include a ravishing improvisation by Marian McPartland, one of great ladies of music. The CD features some incredible playing by bassist Peter Tillotson and drummer Peter Fraenkel, who sail through the work of (among others) bassists Ray Brown and Paul Chambers and drummers Ed Thigpen and Philly Joe Jones. And of course they had to include Oscar Peterson! If he has a signature piece, it is “Night Train.” And “Fly Me To the Moon” is one long perfectly crafted crescendo -- Oscar in the mid-1970’s at the top of his game.

The CD is packaged as one of JRI Recordings' elegant “CDBooks” with extensive notes by noted jazz author Scott Yanow and original drawings by Manny Wise.

UPCOMING RECITALS:

During fall 2011, Fred will be performing a recital of music from the time of the several unknown works of Schumann that Fred and Dr. Paul E. Green have published for the first time. Included on the program besides the Schumann are a Prelude and Fugue by Mendelssohn, who at this time had just brought to the attention of the music world the greatness of Bach, Etudes by Liszt based on the violin caprices of Paganini (Europe was under the spell of Paganini's violinistic wizardry at the time,) and some mature works of Chopin.

Also during the fall, Fred has the great pleasure of performing with Ronald Knudsen whom he has known since early childhood. Since 1965, Maestro Knudsen has been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra violin section. Fred's father William Moyer also was with the orchestra for many years, first as trombonist and then as personnel manager. Both family's have been close friends for many years. The work will be MacDowell Piano Concerto No. 2, a work that Fred recorded (JRI122).

REPEAT NEWPORT CONCERT

The Newport Music Festival marked it's 43rd season this summer July 7 - 24 with no less than 57 concerts taking place in the famed mansions and halls of Newport, RI. Fred and his Jazz Arts Trio performed there in 2010, to a wildly enthusiastic audience, and they were invited to return -- an especial honor since they were featured performers, this time at the Festival's Gala on Wednesday July 20. The performance included solo piano works by Chopin and Gershwin, and works with the trio by Oscar Peterson, Red Garland, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett and others.

A second program by Fred and the Trio took place at the Elms on Thursday, July 21, at 11 a.m. which featured solo works by Jan Ladislav Dussek and Anton Arensky (who was born almost to the day 150 years earlier) and a trio performance of the entire Ahmad Jamal Trio album "At the Pershing: But Not for Me." Recorded live at the Pershing Lounge in Chicago in 1958, and featuring pianist Ahmad Jamal, bassist Israel Crosby, and drummer Vernel Fournier, this is one of jazz's seminal trio recordings and became a model for the cool jazz movement.

WARSAW CONCERTO

Fred has just recorded Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto for Music Minus One. The CD is now available for purchase at www.musicminusone.com.

HAITI CONCERT

In November, 2012 Fred will be performing and teaching at the Holy Trinity Music School in Port-au-Prince with which he has a long relationship going back more than 35 years. This will be his first visit since the earthquake which destroyed all of the infrastructure of the school. Fred will perform with the orchestra, play a recital and give master classes.

SCHUMANN LECTURES

Fred has begun lecturing on his Schumann research at colleges throughout the US including
Edison College in Fort Myers, FL, University of Arizona in Tucson and will be speaking and performing at Williams College in October.

RECENT REVIEWS

Moyer Library Concert Reviewed

Rave Review for Green/Moyer Duo Recital

THE ORIGINAL FINALE MOVEMENT TO SCHUMANN'S SONATA NO. 3 PRESENTED TO THE PUBLIC FOR THE FIRST TIME

On July 20, 2010, at the Newport Music Festival, Fred performed Schumann's Third Sonata, along with the "outtakes", music that didn't make it into the final version. One of the works performed was an alternate Finale movement that had never been played in North America, and now is available for the public to view for the first time on this website! Moyer, his uncle Paul E. Green, Jr., and nephew Rafael Green spent several months deciphering the manuscript which is located in a library in Stockholm. The piece lasts over five minutes and is complete except for a coda which Fred has added. The work is dramatic, explosive and even bizarre. In one place, it unmistakably quotes the opening phrase to Mozart's famous aria "La ci darem la mano". In another, it references a theme by Clara that Schumann uses in the slow movement of the Sonata No. 3. But where the theme, as Clara wrote it and as stated it in the slow movement, is quietly dignified and expressive in F Minor, in this Presto Possibile, it is introduced fortississimo in F Major.

This project follows on the heels of another by Paul Green and Fred which resulted in 2009 in their unveiling a fragmentary fourth piano sonata by Schumann, an event which was widely reported in the national and international news media. [More Information]

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“A first-class young pianist. His playing is clean, unmannered and full of ideas and intelligence.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES