Fred Frith Solo

Friday, December 6, 20248:00 pm
$30 advance$35 doors$25 Student/Senior (w/ ID, Senior 65+)doors 7pm

Fred Frith is a composer, improviser and educator best known for his pioneering extensions of the electric guitar. This is the first of Frith’s two-night run at Roulette, the final events of his 75th birthday celebrations. 

“if (you) haven’t seen Fred improvise solo, (you) must. Just to see him live, it has to be done. It’s one of the wonders of the world.”   —Marc Ribot

“Fred Frith is a great drummer.” —Miles Davis

“Frith should be sellotaped to Derek Bailey and pushed off a cliff.”  —Skelidude, YouTube


Fred Frith is a pioneer of the extended electric guitar whose ground-breaking first LP Guitar Solos is enjoying its fiftieth anniversary this year! Frith has performed works by and sometimes alongside composers John Luther Adams, Gavin Bryars, Sylvie Courvoisier, Alvin Curran, George Lewis, Annea Lockwood, René Lussier, Jose Maceda, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, James Tenney and Christian Wolff; improvised with Laurie Anderson, Derek Bailey, Camille Émaille, Joëlle Léandre, Butch Morris, Pauline Oliveros, Evan Parker, Zeena Parkins, Mariá Portugal and Camel Zekri, to name a few; and recorded on albums by Brian Eno, The Residents, Robert Wyatt, The Swans, Violent Femmes, Material, Negativland, John Zorn, Matthew and the Unfortunates, and Half Japanese, among many others. His compositions have been performed by ensembles ranging from Arditti Quartet and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Ground Zero and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
Film music credits include the acclaimed documentaries Rivers and TidesTouch the Sound and Leaning into the Wind, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, The Tango LessonYes and The Party by Sally Potter, Werner Penzel’s Zen for Nothing, Peter Mettler’s Gods, Gambling and LSD, and the award-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Last Day of Freedom, by Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones.
Fred is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s much loved Step Across the Border, cited by Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the 20th century’s hundred most influential films.

Photo: Peter Gannushkin

Fred Frith Solo

Friday, December 6, 20248:00 pm
$30 advance$35 doors$25 Student/Senior (w/ ID, Senior 65+)doors 7pm

Fred Frith is a composer, improviser and educator best known for his pioneering extensions of the electric guitar. This is the first of Frith’s two-night run at Roulette, the final events of his 75th birthday celebrations. 

“if (you) haven’t seen Fred improvise solo, (you) must. Just to see him live, it has to be done. It’s one of the wonders of the world.”   —Marc Ribot

“Fred Frith is a great drummer.” —Miles Davis

“Frith should be sellotaped to Derek Bailey and pushed off a cliff.”  —Skelidude, YouTube


Fred Frith is a pioneer of the extended electric guitar whose ground-breaking first LP Guitar Solos is enjoying its fiftieth anniversary this year! Frith has performed works by and sometimes alongside composers John Luther Adams, Gavin Bryars, Sylvie Courvoisier, Alvin Curran, George Lewis, Annea Lockwood, René Lussier, Jose Maceda, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, James Tenney and Christian Wolff; improvised with Laurie Anderson, Derek Bailey, Camille Émaille, Joëlle Léandre, Butch Morris, Pauline Oliveros, Evan Parker, Zeena Parkins, Mariá Portugal and Camel Zekri, to name a few; and recorded on albums by Brian Eno, The Residents, Robert Wyatt, The Swans, Violent Femmes, Material, Negativland, John Zorn, Matthew and the Unfortunates, and Half Japanese, among many others. His compositions have been performed by ensembles ranging from Arditti Quartet and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Ground Zero and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
Film music credits include the acclaimed documentaries Rivers and TidesTouch the Sound and Leaning into the Wind, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer, The Tango LessonYes and The Party by Sally Potter, Werner Penzel’s Zen for Nothing, Peter Mettler’s Gods, Gambling and LSD, and the award-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Last Day of Freedom, by Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones.
Fred is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s much loved Step Across the Border, cited by Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the 20th century’s hundred most influential films.

Photo: Peter Gannushkin