I'm thrilled to be able to share the new website of Jazz and Improv legend Fred Kaz. For the better part of my life Fred's wisdom and music have been a guiding force in the lives of hundreds of the most creative people on Earth.
As a young man Fred played with many of the greatest names in the Chicago Jazz scene where he was introduced to improvisational comedy. He then spent nearly 30 years as the Musical Director of the Second City in Chicago deeply influencing many of the funniest people in the world. He's has developed his very own signature style of Jazz that has always sounded to me as if Fred plays the piano like a horn. A close friend and colleague of Fred's Jane Morris explains:
"…one of his signature techniques (and maybe why it gives you the impression of a horn) is that Fred realized that the piano is the only instrument that can't change volume during a note. Once you strike the note, that's the volume. So he developed that hammer technique to bring a tone up and down."
For his many, many fans and admirers it has been hard to find his music if you weren't in contact with him directly. Here now are a few songs from an album he and some colleges produced in the late 80s as well as a few very personal stories told in Fred's own wonderful voice from his album "Once."
You can read more about Fred, in his own words, here.
I can not express how much I love both Fred and his wife Helen. They are wonderful friends and truly among the finest people I've been honored to know.
