Alex Henderson

Encore: Ahnee Sharon Freeman

By Alex Henderson

 
Ahnee Sharon Freeman’s history reads like a who’s-who of post-bop and avant garde orchestral jazz. The pianist, French horn player, arranger and composer performed in the bands of pianist/arranger Gil Evans, bassist Charles Mingus, pianist George Gruntz and trumpeter Don Cherry, among others. And she spent many years as music director for bassist Charlie Haden’s politically charged Liberation Music Orchestra (LMO). But the native New Yorker also has a long history of leading her own groups, which she says will be a high priority for her in 2019.

Freeman presently leads different groups in New York City, including a piano trio and a French horn ensemble. Despite the fact that she has been performing live as a leader for decades, one thing the Queens resident has yet to do is release a studio album under her own name, another goal for this year.“

I’ve led big bands, I’ve led duos and trios and larger ensembles at the Village Gate, Birdland and Sweet Basil,” Freeman explains. “But I’ve never recorded my own CD as a leader. I’ve played on around 27, 28 albums, but they weren’t mine.” Among those are several as part of the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra led by Cherry (Relativity Suite), trombonist Roswell Rudd (Numatik Swing Band) or violinist Leroy Jenkins (For Players Only). Additionally, her discography boasts credits with trumpeter Charles Sullivan (Kamau Adilifu), drummer Warren Smith’s Composer’s Workshop Ensemble, Beaver Harris/Don Pullen 360° Experience and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams.

A Freeman bio posted on the website Wikipedia claimed that her association with the LMO started in 1982, but Freeman stresses that she joined Haden’s visionary big band well before that. Freeman, who grew up in Brooklyn, recalls that Haden first hired her for the LMO in the late ‘60s. And she asserts that as proud as she is of her decades in the LMO, she had many other important associations as well.

“That bio made it look like I’d only played with Charlie Haden and that’s simply not true,” Freeman emphasizes. “I played with lots and lots of people: Charlie Haden, Gil Evans, Billy Taylor, Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath, McCoy Tyner, Mingus. Gil Evans’ band was mind-blowing. I played in all kinds of big bands. I was Music Director of two or three dance companies. I was a conductor of a Broadway show for a while and I did off-Broadway, just all kinds of stuff that’s not in there.”

Another association that Freeman is proud of is her work in trombonist Melba Liston’s band in the early ‘80s.

“Melba was a very interesting lady,” Freeman recalls. “I was 30 when I played with her and she was my mother’s age. She was 54. When you could get her to really talk about things—the music industry, romantic relationships—Melba was really interesting. We both played brass instruments and we were both arrangers and composers. And we both had the experience of being a woman in an entirely male environment. Melba was very encouraging.”

Freeman also has fond memories of her association with Mingus in the early ‘70s.

“I called Mingus up and he wanted me to play in his quintet,” Freeman remembers. “At that time, I wasn’t improvising. But Mingus said, ‘Come on down.’ So I came down. He was cooking a big pot of something on the stove and then he sat down and played piano for me. We just sat and chatted for a while and then I left. But I got called later on to play in his big band at the Mercer Arts Center for three-and-a-half months. I didn’t have to solo in that particular band, but it was fascinating.”

Freeman speaks highly of bandleader/arranger Carla Bley, whom she worked with extensively when they were in Haden’s LMO together.

“Carla and I had some very interesting conversations,” Freeman recalls. “I never found her difficult to get along with; she was always very pleasant. But you had to really know Carla to get her to open up. Carla does not reveal a lot about what’s really going on inside. That’s what I found about Carla Bley. You have to get to know her quite well.”

These days, Freeman is making a point of teaching. An adjunct professor, Freeman teaches music history classes at the New York City College of Technology and elsewhere. She is quick to point out that many other jazz musicians in The Big Apple are heavily focused on teaching as well in 2019. “The teaching keeps many of us afloat,” Freeman notes. “For years, it would be quite common for me to be working four or five days a week, playing with different people. I could depend on JVC with the jazz festival. I could depend on certain bands that I worked with going to Europe. I knew that I would be in Europe for a minimum of four to five or five-and-a-half months. So you kind of knew what you could do. And plus, there were the gigs that I got with my trio, duo, quartet, octet or whatever. But when that began to decline, a lot of guys jumped into teaching. As the gigs went down—or as the availability of work went down in the city—the guys began to go into teaching.”

One of the intriguing things about Freeman’s history has been her ability to dive into a variety of musical situations. And in 2019, she is still keeping her options open. “I play two instruments, I conduct, I compose, I arrange,” Freeman explains. “My career has been like, ‘OK, what’s the next thing that I want to do?’ And I’m still pushing forward.”

Recommended Listening:

• Don Cherry and The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra— Relativity Suite (JCOA, 1973)

• Roswell Rudd and The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra—Numatik Swing Band (COA, 1973)

• Leroy Jenkins and The Jazz Composer’s Orchestra—For Players Only  (JCOA, 1975)

• Charlie Haden/Carla Bley—Ballad of the Fallen (ECM, 1982)

• Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra—The Montreal Tapes (Verve, 1989)

• Charlie Haden Liberation Music Orchestra—Not In Our Name  (Verve, 2004)