Notes
Fred Kaz spent a lifetime in improvisation. He performed with many of the jazz greats in Chicago, including Miles Davis, Harry 'Sweets' Edison, Louis Bellson and Pearl Bailey. He met the late Paul Sills in the late 1950's, who introduced him to a new improvised theatrical form based upon the works of Paul's mother Viola Spolin and sociologist Neva Boyd. Fred was instantly drawn to the parallel to jazz that he observed, and from the early 1960's until 1989 was the musical director of Chicago's now famous theater, The Second City, seamlessly weaving together and guiding improvised scenes with his musical genius, working with such notables as Alan Arkin, Bill Murray, Betty Thomas, John Candy, Harold Ramis, Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. After his retirement from The Second City, Fred continued to write and perform, his creative inspiration drawn largely from his blues and jazz roots. A catalog of these later works is currently being compiled. 'Free For Two' was to become Fred Kaz' magnum opus. Production of the CD was finalized just a short time before he died in March 2014, and he was able to hold in his hands the tangible, physical and lasting culmination of what he had come to regard as his finest and clearest work. Fred was proud of many of his creations, but 'Free For Two' was - in the words of lifelong friend William Allaudin Mathieu - his Truth. The album is a masterpiece of synchronicity and virtuosity, an intense and profound, sometimes playful and humorous dialogue between piano and drums that conveys the absolute soul connection of the human artists who channel the music and the magic that ensues. 'Free For Two' exemplifies jazz improvisation and is the ultimate illustration of the pure connection and brotherhood that can only exist between musicians of this caliber. 'Freedom, never an absolute, is defined by it's limitations. In jazz improvisation, the more limitations, the easier the players can share the freedom. Limits, like harmonic structure, delegated solo time, tempo, and mood, make viable mutual expression more likely. As such preconceptions decrease, agreement depends increasingly in two things: the trust between each virtuoso and his instrument, and the players' sensitivity to each other. The music on this album is me completely liberated, moving through time and space, observing and reacting without preconception, exploring with George the rare spaces where even our most subtle defenses are nonexistent. It is the most intimately shared musical adventure I've ever experienced. George Marsh is the only musician I know whose virtuosity can transmit to me so directly his own availability. When we began these recordings I had no idea it would be so illuminating to freely express the commingled stimuli of musical painting. The colors and moods came from a unified feeling and just led us, joyously, through multidimensional exploration.' FRED KAZ.
