Janice Friedman makes music with all that jazz

By Melora B. North

March 12, 2009

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PROVINCETOWN - Janice Friedman was on break in Manhattan when the Banner caught up with her on her cell phone. A jazz pianist first and foremost, Friedman is also a vocalist, composer, lyricist, arranger and teacher who will be performing a free concert at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14, at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum with bass player Laird Boles and drummer Bart Weisman for one in the series of Winter Jazz with Bart Weisman.

Born in the Bronx, Friedman grew up in New Jersey where she attended school in Livingston. She went off to college at Indiana University graduating with a degree in jazz studies. No stranger to music, Friedman says her mother was a pianist and her father a fan of jazz.

“As long as I can remember I have been into music,” says Friedman. “I used to sit under the piano when my mother played. I got into jazz when I was five, my dad had a good ear.”

Apparently, she inherited that ear.

“Music is kind of an ongoing college,” she says. “Every time you listen to something you have an opportunity to practice music, it’s in the screeches on the subway, in the intervals and the rhythms, the chugs and the click of the train on the tracks. It’s all around you. Hear the siren, I hope it didn’t hurt your ears, … there’s music everywhere.”

For the concert on Saturday, Friedman, Boles and Weisman will play some of her original songs, some of which are from her most recent CD, “Swingin’ for the Ride,” a recording of standards and her original works, of which she says she is very proud. She will also be trilling to “Danny Boy,” at Weisman’s request, in honor of the upcoming holiday.

“I usually like to open up and see what people want to hear,” says Friedman. “I know a lot of songs and like the challenge of playing what the audience wants. I think we’ll take some requests. We’ll almost certainly play some Porter and Gershwin. I like some show tunes, Brazilian, ’60s, The Beatles. … I will take the corniest tune you can imagine and make it special just for fun. I’ll just play along.”

Though Friedman has had extensive study on the piano and in jazz, it was only a few years ago that she began to sing during her gigs.

“I’d improvise and practice with the piano and sometimes sing,” she says. “I met my husband [David Prager] and when he moved in he would hear me sing, he asked me why I didn’t sing when performing. He encouraged me. I’m not a flashy singer but I tried it and got positive feedback.” The rest is history, as they say.

Over the years Friedman has performed throughout the States as well as Europe and Japan with concerts at Carnegie Hall and several jazz clubs in New York. She has worked and recorded with such names as Joe Lovano and Billy Higgins and has toured with the Woody Herman Band. Friedman has three solo CDs to her name, and says she has taken part in 35 or 40 others.

One she is particularly pleased about is the newest release by the gifted Wellfleet musician Suede, called “Dangerous Mood,” a 14-piece big band recording with all the bells and whistles. “I’m Suede’s musical director,” she says. “We met through a friend, we’re a really good match together and work together as often as we can. I arranged her CD and played on it. I directed the band at the Tony Bennett Studio, decided how to make the songs and her sound the best. I wanted to bring her personality to the recording, wanted the band to be supportive and not step on it.”