Jonathon Frielich

Born in Philadelphia and raised in London and Los Angeles, Jonathon Frielich arrived in New Orleans in 1989 and immediately threw himself into the city's musical life. Almost at once he found work as a sideman for Kermit Ruffins, Sun Ra trumpeter Michael Ray, and other prominent locals, while pursuing an eclectic compositional vision that drew on jazz, klezmer, Latin, avant-garde classical, and the city's own brass band traditions. He is perhaps best known as a founding member and driving force of the New Orleans Klezmer All Stars, a band that fused New Orleans rhythmic sensibility with klezmer tradition and became one of the city's most celebrated exports. He has also led the jazz groups Naked on the Floor and the avant-garde big band Naked Orchestra, the ska-reggae band 007, and the rhythm and blues group Poor Man's Speedball.

Frielich's work extends well beyond performance. He has composed four operas, including the satirical Bang the Law (2009), the Joyce-inspired Darling, Please Do Not Be Offended at What I Wrote (2019), and The Coronation (2019), a hyper-collaborative work about bee queens. He produced the acclaimed NOLA? album for Basque artist Fermín Muguruza (2016), rearranging the artist's catalog with New Orleans musicians. He has written music for film, television, and commercials (Mercedes, Verizon, Southwest Airlines), and contributed arrangements to Grammy winner Peter Stampfel's 100 Songs of the 20th Century project. He is the subject of an award-winning radio documentary by David Kunian. He has also maintained an extensive podcast of interviews with notable New Orleans musicians, forming a living oral history of the city's contemporary underground scene.