Angel City Arts: Jazz Refractions

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith has been making noise of one kind or another for more than 50 years, starting with the rock collective Henry Cow, which he co-founded with Tim Hodgkinson in 1968. Frith is best known as a pioneering electric guitarist and improviser, songwriter, and composer for film, dance, and theater. Through bands like Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, Cosa Brava, and now Fremakajo he has stayed close to his roots in rock and folk music while branching out in many other directions. His compositions have been performed by ensembles ranging from Eclipse Quartet and the Bang on a Can All Stars to Concerto Köln and Galax Quartet, from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to the ROVA and Arte Sax Quartets, from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Ground Zero to the Glasgow Improvisers’ Orchestra. He is currently performing solo and with Normal (homemade instrument duo with Sudhu Tewari), Frelonia (with Lotte Anker and Núria Andorrà), Fremakajo (with Marie Abe, Kasey Knudsen and Jordan Glenn) as well as in countless combinations of his favorite co-conspirators. The recipient of Italy’s Demetrio Stratos Prize for his life’s work in experimental music and an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in his home county of Yorkshire, Frith taught for twenty years at Mills College in Oakland, California, as well as co-directing (with Alfred Zimmerlin) the improvisation master’s program at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland. 

DoYeon Kim is an internationally acclaimed artist known for her expansive and pioneering performances and compositions and for introducing the gayageum, an ancient Korean zither, into contemporary music. Trained extensively in jazz and improvisation as well as in the canon of classical Korean music including sanjo, jeongak, and modern gugak, DoYeon channels history, literature, and an ever-evolving sense of the human spirit in a musical language entirely her own through her original compositions, powerful solo performances, and collaborations with artists around the world. Recognized as one of 7 Musicians Pushing Ancient Asian Instruments Into The Future (Grammy.com, 2021), she has received the Van Lier Fellowship (2023) and been nominated for a Korean Grammy Award (crossover category, 2018). During her traditional Korean training, DoYeon won numerous international competitions (e.g. Dong-A Ilbo Traditional Music Competition; On-Nala Korean Music Competition), and later received graduate degrees from the New England Conservatory (contemporary improvisation department) and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute; in both programs, she was the first student ever admitted playing a Korean traditional instrument. DoYeon regularly leads her own music projects, working with ensembles of diverse size and composition, and she frequently collaborates with composers, performers, and artists of all disciplines. She served as an invited composer for the Delirium Musicum string orchestra (2025), Music Director for the ACCX Music Festival Gwangju (2025), and music director and conductor for the Gyeonggi Sinawi Orchestra (2023). She has performed and recorded alongside such notable musicians as Tyshawn Sorey, Mark Dresser, Kris Davis, Peter Evans, Matt Mitchell, Anna Webber, Joe Morris, Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, Cooper-Moore, and many others.

Photo by Jeong ki yun.

Fred Frith’s Fremakajo:

Marié Abe – accordion

Fred Frith – bass, viola

Jordan Glenn – drums, percussions

Kasey Knudsen – saxophones

DoYeon Kim’s Quartet: 

DoYeon Kim – gayageum

Lauren Baba – viola

Miller Wren – bass

Alex Cline – drums