- Keep the Dog
Infobox musical artist |
Name = Keep the Dog
Img_capt =
Background = group_or_band
Alias =
Origin =New York City ,United States
Genre =Avant-progressive rock ,
Experimental,Free improvisation
Years_active =1989 –1991
Label = Fred
Associated_acts =
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =Jean Derome Fred Frith René Lussier Kevin Norton Bob Ostertag Zeena Parkins
Charles HaywardKeep the Dog was a
United States -basedexperimental rock touring band fromNew York City formed in 1989 by Englishmulti-instrumentalist ,composer and improvisorFred Frith . Thesextet was conceived as a review band for performing selections of Frith's extensive repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years.The band lineup was Frith,
René Lussier ,Jean Derome ,Zeena Parkins ,Bob Ostertag andKevin Norton . Later Charles Hayward replaced Norton. The group existed until mid-1991, performing live inEurope ,North America and the formerSoviet Union . A double CD, "That House We Lived In ", from their final 1991 European tour, was released in 2003.Background
Keep the Dog began purely as a review band, performing Fred Frith compositions from his solo albums, from some of the groups he belonged to (
Henry Cow , Massacre, Skeleton Crew andFrench Frith Kaiser Thompson ), and from his many collaborations with other musicians. But as the group grew in stature it started extending itself. Instead of simply covering Frith's compositions, they began to adapt them and improvise around them. Frith remarked in an interview at the time: "The group is constantly evolving into things we don't expect." [ [http://home.earthlink.net/~srwolff/Fred_Frith_Story.html Defining The Edge: The Musical World Of Fred Frith] "Fred Frith interview by Sander R. Wolff". ] By 1991, Keep the Dog had become largely an improvising band, very different from what they started out as in 1989.During the band's three year existence they toured extensively, performing in the
United States ,Canada , mainlandEurope and the formerSoviet Union . They also played at a number of festivals, including the 7thFestival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville inVictoriaville, Quebec , Canada in October 1989. [ cite web |url=http://www.fimav.qc.ca/en/1989/ |title=7th Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville |work=International Festival Musique Actuelle Victoriaville |accessdate=2007-11-08 ] Every concert was different: Frith often juggled the material around and in some cases re-arranged it, for example if a venue provided a piano. While remaining a sextet throughout, they were occasionally joined on stage by guest musicians, includingTom Cora ,John Zorn andTenko Ueno .Being a touring band, Keep the Dog never went to the studio, but every concert they performed was recorded on DAT. While
bootleg recording s of some of the concerts soon began circulating, Frith never considered officially releasing their work until a decade after the band stopped performing. In a 2003 interview, Frith said: [ [http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/interviews/001122.html Bagatellen.com] "Fred Frith interview by Tom Sękowski, October 2003". ] Leidecker sifted though about 20 DAT recordings from the band's final performances inAustria ,Germany andItaly in May and June 1991, and built a montage which he passed on to Frith for further editing. [ [http://detritus.net/wobbly/newsarchive01.html Jon Leidecker homepage] "News archive". ] The result was a double CD, "That House We Lived In ", which was released on Frith's ownFred Records in 2003. Frith remarked in the album's liner notes:Members
*
Fred Frith – guitar, bass guitar, violin, voice
*René Lussier – guitar, bass guitar
*Jean Derome – alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, voice
*Zeena Parkins – accordion, electric harp, piano, synthesizer, voice
*Bob Ostertag – sampling keyboard
*Kevin Norton – drums, percussion, voice
*Charles Hayward – drums, percussion, voiceDiscography
;Live albums
*2003 "That House We Lived In " (2xCD,Fred Records , U.K.);Other album appearances
*1992 Various artists: "Angelica 91" (CD CAICAI MusicItaly ) – Includes two Keep the Dog tracks recorded live at the Angelica Italian jazz festival,12 May ,1991 .References
External links
* [http://www.fredfrith.com FredFrith.com] . "Official homepage".
*amg | id = 10:5ph9kettdq7q | label = Keep the Dog.
* [http://home.arcor.de/nyds-exp-discogs/frith.htm Fred Frith discography]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.