Howard fishman
Encyclopedia
Howard Fishman is a singer, guitarist, bandleader and composer from New York
, NY. His music is inspired by a deep passion for New Orleans jazz, pop, gospel and country music, but is filtered through a contemporary aesthetic. Fishman began his musical career on the streets of New Orleans and in the subways of New York before making his debut at The Algonquin Oak Room in 1999.
Fishman began his musical career on the streets of New Orleans and in the subways of New York before making his debut at The Algonquin Oak Room at the famed Algonquin Hotel
in 1999. He has since headlined in major venues both in the States and abroad, including The Steppenwolf Theatre, The Blue Note
, NJPAC, The Pasadena Playhouse
, Joe's Pub
, The Bottom Line, and Le Petit Journal in Paris. He made his Lincoln Center debut in February, 2007, when he was presented as part of this season's American Songbook series. Fishman has also been a frequent NPR
guest, making feature-length appearances on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross
, "World Cafe
" with David Dye, "The Leonard Lopate Show" and "Soundcheck" with John Schaefer, among others.
Although primarily known as a songwriter, Fishman began his career immersed in early jazz, folk, blues, and country music, creating a bedrock of knowledge of American roots forms that, when applied to his pop, classical and experimental leanings, helped forge his distinctive style.
Howard Fishman currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and Chester, CT.
on cornet and Jason Sypher on bass. Fishman led the band on guitar, vocals and (occasionally) banjo through a unique exploration of the roots of American popular music—everything from early jazz to pop, blues, parlor songs and rural numbers. A few months after the release of their first CD, The Howard Fishman Quartet, Jason Sypher was replaced by Jon Flaugher on bass. A second CD, The Howard Fishman Quartet, Vol. 2, featuring additional material from the sessions that produced the first CD, was released in 2005.
The quartet toured Paris
in May 2000, and returned to become a fixture on the New York music scene, garnering favorable reviews from the likes of The New York Times
, The New Yorker
, Le Monde
, The International Herald Tribune
, and The Village Voice
. The band was awarded the BackStage Award for “Outstanding Musical Group.”
The second Howard Fishman Quartet album I Like You A Lot became a cult hit, and was included on some critics' top 10 lists of 2001, including Rolling Stone's
Andrew Dansby, and landing Fishman his first national exposure as a featured guest on NPR
's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross.
in New York City in 2006. Over the course of three evenings, Fishman and members of his band presented most of the over 70 songs, both officially released and bootlegged, that have come to be known as Bob Dylan
and The Band’s Basement Tapes. The first night, "The Old, Weird America," inspired by Greil Marcus's
book of the same name
, featured the traditional songs and covers recorded during the original sessions.
Night two, "Erase That, Garth" featured the still-unreleased originals from those sessions, including Dylan cult favorites like "I'm Not There
(1956)," "All You Have to Do Is Dream" and "Sign On The Cross." The final concert, "This Wheel Shall Explode!" included all the material from the official Columbia Records release "The Basement Tapes."
A CD/DVD featuring highlights from these shows, Howard Fishman Performs Bob Dylan & The Band’s ‘Basement Tapes’ Live At Joe’s Pub was released in 2007. The project was subsequently presented as part of Lincoln Center's “American Songbook” series, at The Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and at Duke University
. Greil Marcus has written of Fishman's interpretations: "Remarkable...I'm stunned."
A former New Orleans resident, Fishman brings his deep affection for Louisiana music to bear, with references to classic R&B stylists Smiley Lewis
and Professor Longhair
, jazz legends Danny Barker
and Jelly Roll Morton
, and explores some of the region's rural Cajun
repertoire. The band features: Andrae Murchison and Roland Barber on trombones, Etienne Charles on trumpet, Jose Davila on sousaphone and Jordan Perlson and Mark McLean on drums.
Excerpts from "we are destroyed" were first performed as part of the New Works Now! Festival at The Public Theater. Expanded versions and excerpts have subsequently been presented at Joe’s Pub in New York City, The Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, The Pasadena Playhouse in California, as part of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab West and, most recently, at The Abrons Arts Center in NYC in its first semi-staged production, directed by Ed Schmidt. A number of songs from the score of "we are destroyed" have been recorded by Fishman on his various albums, including "In Another Life," "Do What I Want," and "A New Life" on Do What I Want. The complete score has not yet been recorded, and the project awaits its first fully staged production.
The first CD, Better Get Right features the Biting Fish Brass Band on a set of material that pays homage to Fishman's musical roots in New Orleans. No Further Instructions is a concept album about traveling through Romania and Eastern Europe and features Fishman backed by a string quartet. The World Will Be Different is Fishman’s most personal album to date, concerned mainly with a turbulent, passionate love affair. A fourth new CD, Moon Country, features Fishman's original quartet performing the music of Hoagy Carmichael
, has been recorded and awaits release.
http://www.myspace.com/howardfishman
http://www.reverbnation.com/howardfishman
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Howard-Fishman/14331012558
http://www.youtube.com/user/monkeyfarmrecords
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, NY. His music is inspired by a deep passion for New Orleans jazz, pop, gospel and country music, but is filtered through a contemporary aesthetic. Fishman began his musical career on the streets of New Orleans and in the subways of New York before making his debut at The Algonquin Oak Room in 1999.
Biography
Singer, guitarist, composer and bandleader Howard Fishman's music has made him a favorite of audiences and critics alike. Ever-evolving and increasingly difficult to pin down, Fishman filters a deep passion for New Orleans jazz, gritty pop, fervent gospel and open-hearted country music through a completely original aesthetic to create a sound entirely his own.Fishman began his musical career on the streets of New Orleans and in the subways of New York before making his debut at The Algonquin Oak Room at the famed Algonquin Hotel
Algonquin Hotel
The Algonquin Hotel is a historic hotel located at 59 West 44th Street in Manhattan . The hotel has been designated as a New York City Historic Landmark....
in 1999. He has since headlined in major venues both in the States and abroad, including The Steppenwolf Theatre, The Blue Note
Blue Note (jazz clubs)
The Blue Note is a jazz club and restaurant located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. Opened in 1981 by owner and founder Danny Bensusan, the club is now considered one of the world's most famous jazz venues...
, NJPAC, The Pasadena Playhouse
Pasadena Playhouse
The Pasadena Playhouse is a historic performing arts venue located 39 S El Molino Avenue in Pasadena, California. The 686-seat auditorium produces a variety of cultural and artistic events, professional shows, and community engagements each year.-History:...
, Joe's Pub
Joe's Pub
Joe's Pub at Public Theater is a nightclub that hosts live performances regularly. The venue, which is a non-profit operation, is located at 425 Lafayette Street near Astor Place in Manhattan, New York City...
, The Bottom Line, and Le Petit Journal in Paris. He made his Lincoln Center debut in February, 2007, when he was presented as part of this season's American Songbook series. Fishman has also been a frequent NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
guest, making feature-length appearances on "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross
Terry Gross
Terry Gross is the host and co-executive producer of Fresh Air, an interview format radio show produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and distributed throughout the United States by National Public Radio....
, "World Cafe
World Cafe
World Cafe is a two-hour long, nationally syndicated music radio program that originates from WXPN, a non-commercial station licensed to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The program began in 1991 and was originally distributed by Public Radio...
" with David Dye, "The Leonard Lopate Show" and "Soundcheck" with John Schaefer, among others.
Although primarily known as a songwriter, Fishman began his career immersed in early jazz, folk, blues, and country music, creating a bedrock of knowledge of American roots forms that, when applied to his pop, classical and experimental leanings, helped forge his distinctive style.
Howard Fishman currently resides in Brooklyn, NY and Chester, CT.
The Howard Fishman Quartet
Fishman’s first project was The Howard Fishman Quartet, a band that burst on the NYC scene in 1999, when the group went overnight from performing on Brooklyn subway platforms to delighting packed crowds at an unprecedented nine-month residency at the Algonquin Oak Room. The original group featured Russell Farhang on violin, Peter EcklundPeter Ecklund
Peter Ecklund is an American jazz cornetist.Ecklund graduated from Yale University in 1967, then played with Gregg Allman, Maria Muldaur, Leon Redbone, and Paul Butterfield. He formed the Galvanized Jazz Band in the late 1960s and toured with Paula Lockheart, in addition to working with many pop...
on cornet and Jason Sypher on bass. Fishman led the band on guitar, vocals and (occasionally) banjo through a unique exploration of the roots of American popular music—everything from early jazz to pop, blues, parlor songs and rural numbers. A few months after the release of their first CD, The Howard Fishman Quartet, Jason Sypher was replaced by Jon Flaugher on bass. A second CD, The Howard Fishman Quartet, Vol. 2, featuring additional material from the sessions that produced the first CD, was released in 2005.
The quartet toured Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in May 2000, and returned to become a fixture on the New York music scene, garnering favorable reviews from the likes of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, Le Monde
Le Monde
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
, The International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, and The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
. The band was awarded the BackStage Award for “Outstanding Musical Group.”
Second Quartet
Trumpeter Erik Jekabson joined the Howard Fishman Quartet in the summer of 2000 (replacing cornetist Peter Ecklund). With two of the four original members now gone, and Fishman writing more original material, the new HFQ began to pursue a markedly different musical path. Trading their suits and ties in for t-shirts and jeans, the band took up regular residencies at downtown hotspots like Joe's Pub at the Public Theater and hipster venues in Brooklyn like Pete's Candy Store and Galapagos, where they helped pioneer the burgeoning Williamsburg music scene. The shows became more experimental and wild, and Fishman's original material took center stage.The second Howard Fishman Quartet album I Like You A Lot became a cult hit, and was included on some critics' top 10 lists of 2001, including Rolling Stone's
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
Andrew Dansby, and landing Fishman his first national exposure as a featured guest on NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross.
The "Basement Tapes" Project
Fishman's Basement Tapes Project had its debut at Joe’s Pub at The Public TheaterPublic Theater
The Public Theater is a New York City arts organization founded as The Shakespeare Workshop in 1954 by Joseph Papp, with the intention of showcasing the works of up-and-coming playwrights and performers. It is headquartered at 425 Lafayette Street in the former Astor Library in the East Village...
in New York City in 2006. Over the course of three evenings, Fishman and members of his band presented most of the over 70 songs, both officially released and bootlegged, that have come to be known as Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and The Band’s Basement Tapes. The first night, "The Old, Weird America," inspired by Greil Marcus's
Greil Marcus
Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
book of the same name
Invisible Republic
Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes is a book by music critic Greil Marcus about the creation and cultural importance of The Basement Tapes, a series of recordings made by Bob Dylan in 1967 in collaboration with The Hawks, who would subsequently become known as The Band...
, featured the traditional songs and covers recorded during the original sessions.
Night two, "Erase That, Garth" featured the still-unreleased originals from those sessions, including Dylan cult favorites like "I'm Not There
I'm Not There
I'm Not There is a 2007 biographical musical film directed by Todd Haynes, inspired by iconic American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Six actors depict different facets of Dylan's life and public persona: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, and Ben Whishaw...
(1956)," "All You Have to Do Is Dream" and "Sign On The Cross." The final concert, "This Wheel Shall Explode!" included all the material from the official Columbia Records release "The Basement Tapes."
A CD/DVD featuring highlights from these shows, Howard Fishman Performs Bob Dylan & The Band’s ‘Basement Tapes’ Live At Joe’s Pub was released in 2007. The project was subsequently presented as part of Lincoln Center's “American Songbook” series, at The Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
. Greil Marcus has written of Fishman's interpretations: "Remarkable...I'm stunned."
The Biting Fish Brass Band
Fishman's Biting Fish Brass Band, formed in 2008, features Fishman fronting a New Orleans-style brass band and performing an eclectic, funky repertoire that careens from street-beat style traditional gospel to surprising covers to Fishman's originals.A former New Orleans resident, Fishman brings his deep affection for Louisiana music to bear, with references to classic R&B stylists Smiley Lewis
Smiley Lewis
Smiley Lewis was an American New Orleans rhythm and blues musician. The journalist, Tony Russell, in his book The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray, stated "Lewis was the unluckiest man in New Orleans...
and Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair
Professor Longhair was a New Orleans blues singer and pianist...
, jazz legends Danny Barker
Danny Barker
Danny Barker , born Daniel Moses Barker, was a jazz banjoist, singer, guitarist, songwriter, ukelele player and author from New Orleans, founder of the locally famous Fairview Baptist Church Marching Band...
and Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
, and explores some of the region's rural Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
repertoire. The band features: Andrae Murchison and Roland Barber on trombones, Etienne Charles on trumpet, Jose Davila on sousaphone and Jordan Perlson and Mark McLean on drums.
We Are Destroyed
"We are destroyed” is an original theater work created by Howard Fishman that incorporates original music, songs, text, and dialogue to explore an archetypal chapter in the American Story, the Donner Party tragedy. It has been described by Fishman as "a tone poem, a jazz opera, a musical inquiry."Excerpts from "we are destroyed" were first performed as part of the New Works Now! Festival at The Public Theater. Expanded versions and excerpts have subsequently been presented at Joe’s Pub in New York City, The Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, The Pasadena Playhouse in California, as part of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab West and, most recently, at The Abrons Arts Center in NYC in its first semi-staged production, directed by Ed Schmidt. A number of songs from the score of "we are destroyed" have been recorded by Fishman on his various albums, including "In Another Life," "Do What I Want," and "A New Life" on Do What I Want. The complete score has not yet been recorded, and the project awaits its first fully staged production.
Current Projects
In January 2009, Fishman entered the recording studio to record three CDs of all-new material—each with a different theme and group of musicians. All three CDs were released in 2010.The first CD, Better Get Right features the Biting Fish Brass Band on a set of material that pays homage to Fishman's musical roots in New Orleans. No Further Instructions is a concept album about traveling through Romania and Eastern Europe and features Fishman backed by a string quartet. The World Will Be Different is Fishman’s most personal album to date, concerned mainly with a turbulent, passionate love affair. A fourth new CD, Moon Country, features Fishman's original quartet performing the music of Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
, has been recorded and awaits release.
Discography
- The Howard Fishman Quartet (1999)
- I Like You A Lot (2001)
- Do What I Want (2002)
- Look At All This! (2005)
- The Howard Fishman Quartet Vol. II (1999/2005)
- Performs Bob Dylan & The Band's 'Basement Tapes' Live At Joe's Pub (2007)
- Better Get Right (2010)
- No Further Instructions (2010)
- The World Will Be Different (2010)
- Moon Country (2010)
Websites
http://www.howardfishman.comhttp://www.myspace.com/howardfishman
http://www.reverbnation.com/howardfishman
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Howard-Fishman/14331012558
http://www.youtube.com/user/monkeyfarmrecords