Freedman, who has collaborated with a who’s who of free improvisation, from trombonist George Lewis to bassist Joëlle Léandre, focuses here on the singular essence of sound, exploring a wide variety of strategies to transform the rawness of being into a glorious tribute to the limits of musical experience while expressing primordial emotions. — The New York City Jazz Record, USA

… what really shines through is the humanness behind the sounds as the full range of possible emotions pour out. — Musicworks, Canada

In 2016 I made an 11-city North American solo tour called The Virtuosity of Excess, the programme for which was a collection of five scores, two of which were written for the tour: this was music whose scores contained (and still do) the most detailed notation and performance instruction I have ever played. The sixth part of that “monster” was my own composition influenced by and in reaction to such an extreme performance aesthetic. This programme is now available on the cd recording Excess (Collection QB). My main post-tour desire was then to expand on my own creative work, much of which had been already evolving in direct relation to the excess programme, either with it or against it. I spent the next chunk of time developing both on paper and in playing, my own ideas that were born primarily from that all-consuming period of interpretive work.

Solor is a recording of some of my past and current creative work. Heard here are my performances of 5 of my solo compositions, 3 of which were written for the album, plus two improvisations.