Earl “Chico” Freeman
Earl “Chico” Freeman is heralded as one of the most important saxophonists of our time, composer, and producer. Freeman has perfected an immediately recognizable approach to music and composition, blending what he has experienced from his past and providing fluidity into a future of infinite musical possibilities.
As part of the Freeman family legacy of Chicago, his father, legendary NEA Jazz Master and a Northwestern honorary Ph.D. recipient, saxophonist Von Freeman, Chico has amassed a diverse résumé of performing. His collegiate studies in Advanced Composition and Theory at Northwestern University led him to teach composition at the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) Music School, and while attaining his master’s in composition and theory at Governor State University. He studied composition with NEA Jazz Master Muhal Richard Abrams.
Spoken Into Existence is Freeman’s third release on the Austrian imprint Jive Music, and the first to be released in the U.S. It follows The Essence of Silence, from 2010, and Elvin: The Elvin Jones Project, from 2012, on which Freeman, joined by an A-list American rhythm section (George Cables, piano; Lonnie Plaxico, bass; Winard Harper, drums) and, on two selections, Joe Lovano. The group plays repertoire associated with Elvin Jones, the iconic drummer, who hired Freeman in 1976, soon after he moved from his hometown Chicago to New York, and sponsored Freeman’s second leader recording, Beyond The Rain, on Contemporary Records.