''Topaz'' is a 1999 album by cellist
Erik Friedlander
Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.
A veteran of New York City's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with sax ...
which was released on the Siam label and features the quartet that became known as Topaz.
Eric Friedlander discography
accessed January 7, 2014
Reception
The Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
review by Alex Henderson awarded the album 4 stars stating "Topaz, like a lot of avant-garde jazz, isn't easy to absorb on the first listen. But the more times you listen, the more you realize how much this left-of-center CD has going for it".[Henderson, A]
Allmusic Review
accessed January 7, 2014
Track listing
''All compositions by Erik Friedlander except as indicated''
# "Verdine" - 5:37
# "November" - 4:20
# "Shining" - 6:10
# "Straw Dogs" - 7:29
# "Topaz" - 2:49
# "Three Desperate Men" - 3:31
# "Tout de Suite" (Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
) - 8:29
# "Hat and Beard" ( Eric Dolphy) - 4:45
# "Something Sweet, Something Tender / Cienega" (Dolphy / Friedlander) - 6:59
# "Agon" - 5:56
Personnel
*Erik Friedlander
Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City.
A veteran of New York City's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with sax ...
– cello
The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...
* Andy Laster – alto saxophone
The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...
*Stomu Takeishi
Stomu Takeishi (born 1964, in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture) is a Japanese experimental and jazz rock bassist. He is known for playing fretless five-string electric bass guitar and a Klein five-string acoustic bass guitar, often using extended techn ...
– bass
*Satoshi Takeishi – percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
References
{{Authority control
1999 albums
Erik Friedlander albums