Spring/Fall Concert

After graduating high school, Frahm went to Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School for the Arts and from there earned his B.A. in Jazz Performance at Manhattan School of Music. Initially, he worked with such artists as drummer Matt Wilson and pianist David Berkman; he would work and record with both on numerous occasions.

A player with varied musical sensibility and both traditional and modern leanings, Frahm began working with a wide variety of jazz mainstays – both those of different generations as well as a number of peers and colleagues closer to his own age. For instance, Frahm worked with elders and icons such as Maynard Ferguson, Betty Carter and Dewey Redman as well as Lee Konitz, Pat Martino and Andrew Hill. He also worked with near contemporaries or contemporaries such as Wilson, Larry Goldings, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Allison, Ingrid Jensen, Dena Derose and Kyle Eastwood. He also developed a reputation as a saxophonist who can accompany and work with singers – a quality that he exploits and mines to this day. In addition to working with the aforementioned pianist-vocalist DeRose and tonight’s bandleader Diane Schuur, a quick check of the Frahm discography underscores the point. Among the vocalists he has shared the bandstand and the studio with are: Cyrille Aimee, Rondi Charleston, Laine Cooke, Dana Lauren, Chris McNulty, Jane Monheit, Janis Siegel, Tessa Souter and Joan Stiles.

In 2004, Frahm, collaborating with Mehldau, released Don’t Explain, for the Palmetto label. No one was surprised that the two collaborated – other then by the music itself, which was just that: surprising and entertaining. At the time, Thomas Conrad, the veteran critic writing for Jazz Times, said in part, “…Frahm and Mehldau are notably successful in avoiding the primary risk of saxophone and piano duo recordings, which is their tendency to become austere, non-swinging recitals between contrapuntists. They conduct unhurried conversations over songs, closely listening and responding, like on ‘East of the Sun.’ But they also provoke, like on ‘Oleo,’ where they push one another so far from their starting point that their joint exercise in free thinking is conducted among faint shadows of Sonny Rollins’ idea. And the hook-up between these two classmates is deep: On Ornette Coleman’s ‘Turnaround,’ they function in and out of one another’s thoughts. In the decade-plus, since, Frahm has become one of the more in-demand saxophonists – certainly standing among the top-tier players in New York as well as globally.

He’s since released a number of recordings under his own name – mostly for the Palmetto, Anzic and Smalls labels. Additionally, his contributions to others’ recordings now exceed the 100-title mark. In 2018, Joel was a part of two Grammy- nominated CDs, Freddy Cole’s My Mood Is You, and Dafnis Prieto’s Back To The Sunset, which won the Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Ensemble recording. In 2020, Brad Mehldau’s “Finding Gabriel” won the Grammy for Best Jazz Recording, on which Joel was a featured soloist. Joel is also a highly sought after educator who has been an artist in residence at universities and jazz workshops around the world.