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Barbara Ina Frenz

Historian and writer, living in Frankfurt am Main, Germany

About Me

Historian (PhD) and writer of non-fiction and poetry living in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The author of Music To Silence To Music. A Biography Of Henry Grimes. Foreword by Sonny Rollins, Northway Books, London 2015. Contributor to long-standing German Jazz magazine Jazz Podium. Currently working on a biography of US-American drummer Clarence Becton.

My Jazz Story

Jazz music - i.e. Black American Music - has already been present in my life when I was an embryo. My parents particularly listened to Billie Holiday, Charlie Christian, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster and Charlie Parker. The music Sonny Rollins and Henry Grimes were playing together in 1959 and 1963 has a huge impact on my life since about 2004. Jazz is a musical art form that represents life to me in its ezz-thetic (Max Roach) way. It is brilliant (just listen to it). It is honest and courageous since it is spontaneous creativity. It lives through the infinity of improvisational ideas and emotional expression (more than just happy or sad). It is intellectual. It is political. It represents inclusion—a principle that is desperately needed today. It goes beyond all of that. I listen to jazz music almost every day.