Tickets are on sale now for a flurry of dates Fred has coming up in the fall, including a big hit with his New JBs at Australia’s Melbourne Jazz Festival, two Europe tours with his Generations Trio, and a special honor in his home state of Alabama. Fred’s also celebrating the July 31 release of the single “Requiem for AJ,” which he wrote under a commission for the Prism Quartet’s Generate Music Project. The track features Philadelphia poet Ursula Rucker and longtime Fred cohort David...

Fred celebrated 83 trips around the sun on Saturday, July 4, with a few hundred of his closest Croatian friends at the 26th annual Liburnia Jazz Festival in beautiful Opatija. The day fell during a summer tour of his Generations Trio with Leonardo Corradi on organ and Tony Match on drums. Just days earlier Fred was at Antone's in Austin for the Texas debut of his band the New JBs, with Dwayne Dolphin on bass, Bryan Morris on drums, Bruno Speight on guitar, Gary Winters on trumpet, Charles...

A long-awaited appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on April 30 with his New JBs was the climax of Fred's swing through the U.S. South. Initially cancelled due to forecast thunderstorms, the crestfallen band was elated to have the set rescheduled for four hours earlier and to finally get their chance to play. A planned oral history interview was cancelled when storms ended the Festival day early, but Fred still was able to have a brief fun visit with the interviewer,...