Local jazz guitarist (brother of tenor sax legend Von Freeman) strays from the beaten path along similar lines of his 50s contemporaries Sun Ra & drummer Wilbur Campbell. "When it comes to individualism -- not to mention quirkiness --", says Chicago Reader critic Neil Tesser, "local Jazz guitarist George Freeman is king." He's infrequently heard in the city's clubs, but does record for the Southport Records label, including his cleverly titled recent George Burns!, which alludes both to Freeman's guitar playing and the classic comedian. "Like Von," says Tesser, "George borrows tonally from prebop icons (in his case Charlie Christian and the electric blues players) and liguistically from the boppers. The resultant style seems at once frozen in time -- specifically in the transition period between swing and bop, where giants like Christian and saxists Gene Ammons and Don Byas roamed -- and utterly fresh, thanks to the Freeman family values of gentle mischief, wacky allusion, and timbral distortion."
"Freeman, of course," says the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich, "is a veteran guitarist who takes pains to express his ideas succinctly and eloquently."
He and organist Chris Foreman are scheduled to play at the 1999 Chicago Jazz Festival.
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