Fritz Renold
Encyclopedia
Fritz Renold is a saxophonist, composer, bandleader, teacher and festival director based in Aarau
, Switzerland.
and Dixieland
. As a boy clarinetist, Renold played Mozart's Concerto, "Saints," gospel
, and Beatles songs. He joined the school band at 14 in order to get an alto sax, even though he hated marches. He heard Charlie Parker
then, but remained unimpressed until, at 18, he joined a big band and played Sammy Nestico's Basie Book. When he discovered Miles Davis
' Funny Valentine and Kinda Blue in the LP bins at Montreux, he was converted to jazz
.
Renold flew to Boston
and thrived in Berklee College of Music
’s international music community. Three ‘audition’ big band scores—Take The A Train
, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
and Blues For Susy—earned him the Quincy Jones Award and a full scholarship with advanced placement. Since Berklee recommended that he compose, he took every composition course he could, including tuition by Herb Pomeroy
, Bob Freedman, Greg Hopkins
and Corey Allen. He had Joe Viola and Bill Pierce
as his saxophone teachers, and was taught improvisation
by Gary Burton
and John LaPorta
among others. Renold graduated in 1987; through 1990 he served as Berklee's first Swiss faculty member.
In Boston, Renold co-founded a band called Bostonian Friends with Christian Jacob
, the world-class French pianist. They debuted at Berklee's Performance Center, featuring guest percussionist Greg McPherson, sax legend Jerry Bergonzi
, bassist Bruce Gertz, and drummer Ian Froman. When manager Ed Keane sent a tape to WCNY-TV
's All American Jazz, it made their Top Ten.
[France]. In 1991, EPM signed Bostonian Friends to its first CD, Peace For Africa. "I was glad to have as guests," says Fritz, "two of my most influential teachers, Jerry Bergonzi
and Herb Pomeroy."
In 1993 Renold toured Switzerland and recorded another CD for EPM with bassist Gildas Boclé, drummer Tommy Campbell, and Bergonzi. On this three-week tour, his Aarau school ensemble played with these American jazz masters. Renold helped form the Jazz Orchestra of Canton Aargau and sent the project band overseas, for learning on the bandstand with “real heavy cats.” This concept blossomed into one of Europe’s biggest and best education camps, Jazzaar Concerts Aarau.
The 1994 Bern Jazz Festival invited Renold to host an international band with Randy Brecker
, Miroslav Vitous
, Jacob, and Nussbaum, a Bostonian Friends edition that returned annually thereafter. Also in 1994, Swiss National TV produced JazzIn hosted by Peter Jaques, with New York based pianist Mark Soskin. Renold led the show’s band, The Empire State Group, which featured Randy Brecker
, Victor Lewis
, saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, bassist Harvie S. and others. Renold toured often with top players like Bob Berg
, Benny Golson
, Randy Brecker
, Cecil Bridgewater
and Buster Williams
, and recorded two albums for Sony Columbia
. After many festivals and well-received recordings, Renold marveled "Here we are, twenty years later, with the same rhythm section: Adam, Miroslav, and Christian!" When Renold signed with Sony Music in 1997 as the first Swiss jazz musician on Columbia Records, the Friends made European tours to Glasgow, London, Paris, Bordeaux, Krefeld, Kaiserslautern, Basel, Milano, Vienne, Lustenau and Stuttgart.
The Friends’ second album is about to come out again on Sony/BMG – Columbia Records containing the second 1998 session, with Cecil Bridgewater, Golson, Jacob, Williams, and Jackson.
His writing harks back to his classical influences. Bostonian Friends and the Aargauer Symphonie Orchestra premiered in 1998 the Jacob/Renold collaboration, Helvetic Suite for Jazz Quintet and Symphony at the newly formed Jazzaar festival. Commissioned by Möbel Pfister Stiftung, the 50-minute suite re-enacts scenes from Swiss history. The work caught the ear of Sony Classical’s European CEO Norman Block, who was in the audience.
In 1999 Renold united all the living Ellington band alumni with alto saxophonist Bobby Watson
, cast as Johnny Hodges
, at Jazzaar. It was the largest assemblage of Ellingtonians during Duke Ellington
’s centennial year. The band performed classic Ducal suites: "The Queen’s Suite", "Far East Suite" and "Such Sweet Thunder". Eight Ellington alumni filled the brass and rhythm chairs: trumpeters Benny Bailey
, Bill Berry
(also conductor), Barrie Lee Hall; trombonists Buster Cooper
, Art Barron, Britt Woodman
; Aaron Bell
(as ‘boy pianist’), John Lamb on bass and Charlie Persip
on drums. Touring Switzerland, Bill Berry recalled, “The band got back the old spirit of hangin’ in hotel lounges, playin’ til 4 a.m. and almost missing planes. The last time this happened was at the White House in 1968.”
A 1999 CD featuring Brecker, Berg, Nussbaum, and bassist Mike Richmond
helped Renold discover the creative joys of record production and finding the right chemistry for musicians working together. He has produced over a dozen CDs for his bands, and those of Christian Jacob, Herb Pomeroy, Markus Hauser, and Ruth Juon. Included in the recording were tracks of the Friends’ tour of Europe with Golson, Bridgewater, Williams, and Ali Jackson.
1999 was a turning point when Renold quit touring to stay with his family, with one noteworthy exception. The Swiss Embassy in Thailand commissioned Renold and Jacob to collaborate on "The 6th Cycle", a composition for jazz quintet and symphony dedicated to King Bhumibol of Thailand, a well-known amateur clarinetist. Thai Kings are celebrated as having 12-year life-cycles; when Bhumibol turned 72 he made it to his sixth cycle. Each 12-year period was depicted as a movement. The recorded performance sold out a pressing of 5,000 CDs.
In 2000, Renold organized and produced and featured in the Saalbau Jazzorchestra’s performance of Jacob’s jazz adaptation of Kurt Weill
’s Three Penny Opera. Saxophonists Bobby Watson, Renold, Shelley Carroll
, Walt Weiskopf, Bernd Konrad, trombonists Bergeron, Gardner, Cooper; trumpeters Hall and Brecker, Chris Albert, Tom Garling, Vitous, Lewis and Jacob played the keystone piece commemorating Weill’s centennial in which Aarau Youth Orchestra played Weill classics ("Speak Low
", "Mack the Knife
").
In 2001, Renold brought Benny Golson’s All-Star Big Band and performed with them; this was an all time dream come true to play with one of Renold’s most influential composers/players. His first Gospel work, "Ecclesiastes", an oratorio with wife Helen Renold as librettist, premiered at the same festival that year. The band featured a Baptist church choir from Houston, Texas and a line-up, including Soskin, Lewis, Valery Ponomarev
, Brecker, Dave Taylor, Buster Cooper, Buster Williams, Vincent Gardner, Wayne Bergeron, Vincent Herring
and Dennis Montgomery III
. The piece was aired on Swiss television, and released on DVD in 2007.
In 2002 another Biblical oratorio, "Proverbs", was premiered. Dennis Montgomery's performance on Hammond organ
once again drew praise. The context of this work was derived from the texts of King Solomon
and wise men of Israel for coping with world affairs post - 9/11. The score’s free vocal and instrumental improvisation urge mankind to seek wisdom for practical living and to tap the source of creativity — the Creator.
Fritz and Helen Renold wrote another musical work with narration in the 2003 commissioned work, "The Euphrates & Tigris Suite". The 4-hour work — featuring Jim Snidero
, Frank Green
, Steven Bernstein, Amir Elsaffar
, Julian Joseph
, Wayne Bergeron, Charlie Young
, Tommy Smith
, Walt Weiskopf and others – drew on themes of the tree in Mesopotamia
and The Fall of Babylon (from the universal Judaic, Muslim, and Christian roots of Abraham
from Ur of the Chaldeans), drawing a thread from history to the present day in describing the power struggles of the powers that be. The piece was recorded on 48-track digital and DVD.
Airto Moreira
and Flora Purim
performed with the Aarau Youth Orchestra – "A Night Of Jobim" in 2004. Guests included Donny McCaslin
, Oscar Castro Neves, Cooper, and Christian Jacob
, who also wrote string arrangements for this Brazilian project.
2005’s African Heritage program brought back to Aarau old friends from Boston Jamshied Sharifi
and Werner “Vana” Gierig. Following the festival Renold went back into the studio and recorded his first big band CD project, The Cube. The work, with texts by Helen Renold, was released on CD in 2008.
Jazzaar 2006 saw a full-scale Beatles Revival. The performance on Friday night was "The Beatles in Symphony" and featured a ‘Fab Four’ tribute band from Colorado with the Aargauer Jugend Pops Symphony Orchestra conducted by Renold himself. Ian Darrington, Wigan Festival Director and IAJE representative, wrote: “This concert truly represented what musical performance is all about. It had… every emotion from laughter to tears and everything in between. It had people tapping their feet to the faster tunes and swaying to the slower tunes. It featured outstanding musical arrangements performed to an extremely high level...[and] great rapport with the capacity audience, every one of whom must have gone home that evening knowing they had been a part of such a special evening.”
Fritz Renold has continued to write and produce for Jazzaar concerts from 2007 to 2010 with increasing focus on youth development and cultural exchange.
Over this decade, Renold wrote over 300 compositions, most of which he orchestrated himself. The compositions were commissioned by educational institutions, local and international big bands and orchestras, and various foundations. The works include saxophone quartets, orchestral pieces, saxophone and bass trombone concerti. Renold’s first saxophone book, published by Zimmermann
, includes 16 transcriptions from duets played by Renold and Jacob.
Aarau
Aarau is the capital of the northern Swiss canton of Aargau. The city is also the capital of the district of Aarau. It is German-speaking and predominantly Protestant. Aarau is situated on the Swiss plateau, in the valley of the Aar, on the river's right bank, and at the southern foot of the Jura...
, Switzerland.
Early years
Fritz Renold was born in Wettingen, Switzerland. His father played accordion and introduced him to tangoTango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
and Dixieland
Dixieland
Dixieland music, sometimes referred to as Hot jazz, Early Jazz or New Orleans jazz, is a style of jazz music which developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century, and was spread to Chicago and New York City by New Orleans bands in the 1910s.Well-known jazz standard songs from the...
. As a boy clarinetist, Renold played Mozart's Concerto, "Saints," gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, and Beatles songs. He joined the school band at 14 in order to get an alto sax, even though he hated marches. He heard Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
then, but remained unimpressed until, at 18, he joined a big band and played Sammy Nestico's Basie Book. When he discovered Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
' Funny Valentine and Kinda Blue in the LP bins at Montreux, he was converted to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
.
Renold flew to Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and thrived in Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...
’s international music community. Three ‘audition’ big band scores—Take The A Train
Take the A Train
"Take the 'A' Train" is a jazz standard by Billy Strayhorn that was the signature tune of the Duke Ellington orchestra. It is arguably the most famous of the many compositions to emerge from the collaboration of Ellington and Strayhorn.-History:...
, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885...
and Blues For Susy—earned him the Quincy Jones Award and a full scholarship with advanced placement. Since Berklee recommended that he compose, he took every composition course he could, including tuition by Herb Pomeroy
Herb Pomeroy
Irving Herbert "Herb" Pomeroy, III was an influential swing and bebop jazz trumpeter and educator...
, Bob Freedman, Greg Hopkins
Greg Hopkins
Greg Hopkins is a former Arena Football League wide receiver/linebacker with the Albany Firebirds and the Los Angeles Avengers.-High school career:Greg Hopkins was born in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, United States...
and Corey Allen. He had Joe Viola and Bill Pierce
Bill Pierce
Bill Pierce is an American jazz saxophonist.He played with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in the early 1980s and in Tony Williams's quintet in the mid-1980s to early 1990s...
as his saxophone teachers, and was taught improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
by Gary Burton
Gary Burton
Gary Burton is an American jazz vibraphonist.A true original on the vibraphone, Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the usual two-mallets. This approach caused Burton to be heralded as an innovator and his sound and technique are widely imitated...
and John LaPorta
John LaPorta
John LaPorta was a Philadelphia-born jazz clarinetist and saxophonist. LaPorta's sound has been compared to that of fellow jazz experimenter Jimmy Giuffre...
among others. Renold graduated in 1987; through 1990 he served as Berklee's first Swiss faculty member.
In Boston, Renold co-founded a band called Bostonian Friends with Christian Jacob
Christian Jacob
Christian Jacob is a lyrical jazz pianist who ranks among the top piano improvisers and accompanists working today. He has gained widespread exposure as musical director and performer with vocalist Tierney Sutton, although he has also maintained a substantial career as a solo artist and...
, the world-class French pianist. They debuted at Berklee's Performance Center, featuring guest percussionist Greg McPherson, sax legend Jerry Bergonzi
Jerry Bergonzi
Jerry Bergonzi is a jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator. Bergonzi received a B.A. Degree in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is the founder of Not Fat Records....
, bassist Bruce Gertz, and drummer Ian Froman. When manager Ed Keane sent a tape to WCNY-TV
WCNY-TV
WCNY-TV is Syracuse, New York's public television station and PBS member station. WCNY-TV's programming is also seen in Utica on low-powered repeater W22DO-D channel 24 Digital...
's All American Jazz, it made their Top Ten.
Touring years
The Bostonian Friends' first European tour in 1989 led them through Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland. After a 1992 tour brought the Friends back to New York, Washington, and Boston, they cut their first album for EPMEPM
- Science and technology :* Electronic protective measures; see Electronic counter-countermeasures* Electropositive metal; see Electropositive shark repellent* Elevated plus maze, a rodent model of anxiety...
[France]. In 1991, EPM signed Bostonian Friends to its first CD, Peace For Africa. "I was glad to have as guests," says Fritz, "two of my most influential teachers, Jerry Bergonzi
Jerry Bergonzi
Jerry Bergonzi is a jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and educator. Bergonzi received a B.A. Degree in Music Education from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and is the founder of Not Fat Records....
and Herb Pomeroy."
In 1993 Renold toured Switzerland and recorded another CD for EPM with bassist Gildas Boclé, drummer Tommy Campbell, and Bergonzi. On this three-week tour, his Aarau school ensemble played with these American jazz masters. Renold helped form the Jazz Orchestra of Canton Aargau and sent the project band overseas, for learning on the bandstand with “real heavy cats.” This concept blossomed into one of Europe’s biggest and best education camps, Jazzaar Concerts Aarau.
The 1994 Bern Jazz Festival invited Renold to host an international band with Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
, Miroslav Vitous
Miroslav Vitouš
Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš , is a Czech jazz bassist.-Biography:Born in Prague, he began the violin at age six, and started playing the piano at age ten, and bass at fourteen. As a young man in Europe, Vitouš was a competitive swimmer. One of his early music groups was the Junior Trio with his...
, Jacob, and Nussbaum, a Bostonian Friends edition that returned annually thereafter. Also in 1994, Swiss National TV produced JazzIn hosted by Peter Jaques, with New York based pianist Mark Soskin. Renold led the show’s band, The Empire State Group, which featured Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
, Victor Lewis
Victor Lewis
Victor Lewis is an American jazz drummer, a major force in the genre since the 1980s.-As leader:*1992: Family Portrait - with John Stubblefield, Edward Simon, Cecil McBee, Don Alias, Jumma Santos...
, saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, bassist Harvie S. and others. Renold toured often with top players like Bob Berg
Bob Berg
Bob Berg was a jazz saxophonist originally from Brooklyn, New York City. He started his musical education at the age of six when he began studying classical piano. He began playing the saxophone at the age of thirteen. Bob Berg was a Juilliard graduate influenced heavily by the late 1964–67 period...
, Benny Golson
Benny Golson
Benny Golson is an American bebop/hard bop jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and arranger.-Biography:While in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Golson played with several other promising young musicians, including John Coltrane, Red Garland, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Philly Joe Jones, and...
, Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker
Randal "Randy" Brecker is an American trumpeter and flugelhornist. He is a highly sought after performer in the genres of jazz, rock, and R&B, and has performed or recorded with Stanley Turrentine, Billy Cobham, Bruce Springsteen, Lou Reed, Sandip Burman, Charles Mingus, Blood, Sweat & Tears,...
, Cecil Bridgewater
Cecil Bridgewater
-Biography:Bridgewater was born in Urbana, Illinois and studied at the University of Illinois. He and brother Ron formed the Bridgewater Brothers Band in 1969, and in the 1970s he was married to Dee Dee Bridgewater. In 1970 he played with Horace Silver, and following this with Thad Jones and Mel...
and Buster Williams
Buster Williams
Charles Anthony Williams is an American jazz bassist.-Biography:Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing...
, and recorded two albums for Sony Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
. After many festivals and well-received recordings, Renold marveled "Here we are, twenty years later, with the same rhythm section: Adam, Miroslav, and Christian!" When Renold signed with Sony Music in 1997 as the first Swiss jazz musician on Columbia Records, the Friends made European tours to Glasgow, London, Paris, Bordeaux, Krefeld, Kaiserslautern, Basel, Milano, Vienne, Lustenau and Stuttgart.
The Friends’ second album is about to come out again on Sony/BMG – Columbia Records containing the second 1998 session, with Cecil Bridgewater, Golson, Jacob, Williams, and Jackson.
His writing harks back to his classical influences. Bostonian Friends and the Aargauer Symphonie Orchestra premiered in 1998 the Jacob/Renold collaboration, Helvetic Suite for Jazz Quintet and Symphony at the newly formed Jazzaar festival. Commissioned by Möbel Pfister Stiftung, the 50-minute suite re-enacts scenes from Swiss history. The work caught the ear of Sony Classical’s European CEO Norman Block, who was in the audience.
In 1999 Renold united all the living Ellington band alumni with alto saxophonist Bobby Watson
Bobby Watson
Bobby Watson is an American post-bop jazz alto saxophonist, composer, producer, and educator. Watson now has 26 recordings as a leader. He appears on nearly 100 other recordings as either co-leader or in a supporting role...
, cast as Johnny Hodges
Johnny Hodges
John Cornelius "Johnny" Hodges was an American alto saxophonist, best known for his solo work with Duke Ellington's big band. He played lead alto in the saxophone section for many years, except the period between 1932–1946 when Otto Hardwick generally played first chair...
, at Jazzaar. It was the largest assemblage of Ellingtonians during Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
’s centennial year. The band performed classic Ducal suites: "The Queen’s Suite", "Far East Suite" and "Such Sweet Thunder". Eight Ellington alumni filled the brass and rhythm chairs: trumpeters Benny Bailey
Benny Bailey
Benny Bailey, born Ernest Harold Bailey , was an American bebop and hard-bop jazz trumpeter.-Biography:...
, Bill Berry
Bill Berry
William "Bill" Thomas Berry is a retired American musician, multi-instrumentalist, best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. In addition to his drumming duties, Berry played many other instruments including guitar, bass guitar, and piano, both for songwriting and on R.E.M....
(also conductor), Barrie Lee Hall; trombonists Buster Cooper
Buster Cooper
George "Buster" Cooper is an American jazz trombonist.Cooper was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. He played in a territory band with Nat Towles in Texas in the late 1940s, and gigged with Lionel Hampton in 1953. He played in the house band at the Apollo Theater in New York City in the mid-1950s,...
, Art Barron, Britt Woodman
Britt Woodman
Britt Woodman was a jazz trombonist. He is perhaps best known for his work with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus....
; Aaron Bell
Aaron Bell
Samuel Aaron Bell was an American jazz double-bassist.As a child, Bell played piano, and learned brass instruments in high school. He attended Xavier University, where he began playing bass, and graduated in 1942; following this he joined the Navy, completing his service in 1946...
(as ‘boy pianist’), John Lamb on bass and Charlie Persip
Charlie Persip
Charli Persip , is an American jazz drummer. Born in Morristown, New Jersey as Charles Lawrence Persip, he changed his name to Charli Persip in the early 1980s.-Biography:...
on drums. Touring Switzerland, Bill Berry recalled, “The band got back the old spirit of hangin’ in hotel lounges, playin’ til 4 a.m. and almost missing planes. The last time this happened was at the White House in 1968.”
A 1999 CD featuring Brecker, Berg, Nussbaum, and bassist Mike Richmond
Mike Richmond (musician)
Mike Richmond is an American jazz bassist.Richmond played guitar as a youth but picked up bass during high school. He attended Temple University and taught and played locally in the late 1960s...
helped Renold discover the creative joys of record production and finding the right chemistry for musicians working together. He has produced over a dozen CDs for his bands, and those of Christian Jacob, Herb Pomeroy, Markus Hauser, and Ruth Juon. Included in the recording were tracks of the Friends’ tour of Europe with Golson, Bridgewater, Williams, and Ali Jackson.
Years in Switzerland and "Jazzaar concerts"
In 2000, Renold organized and produced and featured in the Saalbau Jazzorchestra’s performance of Jacob’s jazz adaptation of Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
’s Three Penny Opera. Saxophonists Bobby Watson, Renold, Shelley Carroll
Shelley Carroll
Shelley Carroll is a city councillor in Toronto, Canada. She represents Ward 33 Don Valley East, one of the two Don Valley East municipal wards. She was formerly the Chair of the City's Budget Committee.-Background:...
, Walt Weiskopf, Bernd Konrad, trombonists Bergeron, Gardner, Cooper; trumpeters Hall and Brecker, Chris Albert, Tom Garling, Vitous, Lewis and Jacob played the keystone piece commemorating Weill’s centennial in which Aarau Youth Orchestra played Weill classics ("Speak Low
Speak Low
"Speak Low" is a popular song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus . The 1944 hit single was by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, with vocal by Billy Leach...
", "Mack the Knife
Mack the Knife
"Mack the Knife" or "The Ballad of Mack the Knife", originally "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer", is a song composed by Kurt Weill with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht for their music drama Die Dreigroschenoper, or, as it is known in English, The Threepenny Opera. It premiered in Berlin in 1928 at the...
").
In 2001, Renold brought Benny Golson’s All-Star Big Band and performed with them; this was an all time dream come true to play with one of Renold’s most influential composers/players. His first Gospel work, "Ecclesiastes", an oratorio with wife Helen Renold as librettist, premiered at the same festival that year. The band featured a Baptist church choir from Houston, Texas and a line-up, including Soskin, Lewis, Valery Ponomarev
Valery Ponomarev
Valery Ponomarev, Russian: Вале́рий Миха́йлович Пономарёв, Valery Mikhaylovich Ponomaryov, is a Russian born jazz trumpeter. He has lived in the United States since 1973.-Career:...
, Brecker, Dave Taylor, Buster Cooper, Buster Williams, Vincent Gardner, Wayne Bergeron, Vincent Herring
Vincent Herring
Vincent Herring is an American jazz hard bop and post-bop saxophonist and flautist.-Biography:Herring's formal musical education began at age 11, when he started playing saxophone in school bands and studying privately at Dean Frederick's School Of Music in Vallejo, California...
and Dennis Montgomery III
Dennis Montgomery III
Dennis Montgomery III is an African American pianist, organist, and professor. Montgomery has been the director for the noted Berklee College of Music Reverence Gospel Ensemble for nearly 30 years.-Childhood:...
. The piece was aired on Swiss television, and released on DVD in 2007.
In 2002 another Biblical oratorio, "Proverbs", was premiered. Dennis Montgomery's performance on Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
once again drew praise. The context of this work was derived from the texts of King Solomon
Solomon
Solomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
and wise men of Israel for coping with world affairs post - 9/11. The score’s free vocal and instrumental improvisation urge mankind to seek wisdom for practical living and to tap the source of creativity — the Creator.
Fritz and Helen Renold wrote another musical work with narration in the 2003 commissioned work, "The Euphrates & Tigris Suite". The 4-hour work — featuring Jim Snidero
Jim Snidero
Jim Snidero is an American jazz saxophonist.Snidero studied at the University of North Texas before moving to New York City in 1981. After touring with Jack McDuff, he joined Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra in the early 1980s in New York, working in the group for twenty years...
, Frank Green
Frank Green
Frank Green , son of Sir Edward Green, 1st Baronet, a Yorkshire ironmaster and Mary Lycett, was a British industrialist. His father, Edward Green was a Conservative politician and wealthy industrialist....
, Steven Bernstein, Amir Elsaffar
Amir ElSaffar
Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American trumpeter and vocalist.In addition to being a classical and jazz trumpeter, he is also a skilled interpreter of Iraqi maqam, which he sings and plays on santur...
, Julian Joseph
Julian Joseph
Julian Joseph is a jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger and broadcaster. Joseph has worked solo, in his all-star big band, trio, quartet, forum project band or electric band....
, Wayne Bergeron, Charlie Young
Charlie Young
Charles 'Charlie' Young is a fictional character played by Dulé Hill on the television serial drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he is the Personal Aide to President Josiah Bartlet.-Creation and development:...
, Tommy Smith
Tommy Smith (saxophonist)
Tommy Smith is a jazz saxophonist, composer and educator. The late jazz critic Richard Cook said of him, 'Of the generation which emerged in the mid-80s, he might be the most outstandingly talented'.-Biography:...
, Walt Weiskopf and others – drew on themes of the tree in Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
and The Fall of Babylon (from the universal Judaic, Muslim, and Christian roots of Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
from Ur of the Chaldeans), drawing a thread from history to the present day in describing the power struggles of the powers that be. The piece was recorded on 48-track digital and DVD.
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
and Flora Purim
Flora Purim
Flora Purim is a Brazilian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion style. She became prominent for her part in Chick Corea's landmark album Return to Forever...
performed with the Aarau Youth Orchestra – "A Night Of Jobim" in 2004. Guests included Donny McCaslin
Donny McCaslin
Donny McCaslin is an American jazz saxophonist.McCaslin's father was a vibraphonist, and he played in his father's ensemble at the age of twelve. He had his own group in high school which played three years at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He studied under Paul Contos and Brad Hecht, both of whom...
, Oscar Castro Neves, Cooper, and Christian Jacob
Christian Jacob
Christian Jacob is a lyrical jazz pianist who ranks among the top piano improvisers and accompanists working today. He has gained widespread exposure as musical director and performer with vocalist Tierney Sutton, although he has also maintained a substantial career as a solo artist and...
, who also wrote string arrangements for this Brazilian project.
2005’s African Heritage program brought back to Aarau old friends from Boston Jamshied Sharifi
Jamshied Sharifi
Jamshied Sharifi was born October 17, 1960 in Topeka, Kansas to an Iranian father and an American mother. At an early age, Sharifi was exposed to Jazz and Middle Eastern music by his father and to European classical and church music by his mother. He began to study classical piano at age five and...
and Werner “Vana” Gierig. Following the festival Renold went back into the studio and recorded his first big band CD project, The Cube. The work, with texts by Helen Renold, was released on CD in 2008.
Jazzaar 2006 saw a full-scale Beatles Revival. The performance on Friday night was "The Beatles in Symphony" and featured a ‘Fab Four’ tribute band from Colorado with the Aargauer Jugend Pops Symphony Orchestra conducted by Renold himself. Ian Darrington, Wigan Festival Director and IAJE representative, wrote: “This concert truly represented what musical performance is all about. It had… every emotion from laughter to tears and everything in between. It had people tapping their feet to the faster tunes and swaying to the slower tunes. It featured outstanding musical arrangements performed to an extremely high level...[and] great rapport with the capacity audience, every one of whom must have gone home that evening knowing they had been a part of such a special evening.”
Fritz Renold has continued to write and produce for Jazzaar concerts from 2007 to 2010 with increasing focus on youth development and cultural exchange.
Over this decade, Renold wrote over 300 compositions, most of which he orchestrated himself. The compositions were commissioned by educational institutions, local and international big bands and orchestras, and various foundations. The works include saxophone quartets, orchestral pieces, saxophone and bass trombone concerti. Renold’s first saxophone book, published by Zimmermann
Zimmermann (publisher)
Musikverlag Zimmermann is a German music publisher that claims to be the first specialized publisher for instrumental methods. Until 1933, it was also a manufacturer of brass, string, wind musical instruments as well as mechanical musical instruments....
, includes 16 transcriptions from duets played by Renold and Jacob.
Private life
He married Helen Savari in 1990. They have three children, Lydia, Benjamin and Sharon, who respectively play guitar, drums and bass.External links
- Shanti-music.com, official website
- Jazzaar
- List of Works