Name:: Vincent Frates
Instrument: Piano and keyboards.
Early Years/Education: Grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah. My mom was a Mormon but I was not raised as one. I came up as a musician there. My brother and I got piano lessons, I was eight and kept at it until age fourteen. My brother still plays, he plays vibes but not professionally. I wasn't in a jazz band in high school, I didn't think it was cool. My first gigs were playing solo piano at age nineteen or twenty. I went to Skyline High School in Salt Lake. There were some cool guys that went there like the Fowler Brothers. Walt Fowler was a trumpeter (he played with Zappa and is now with James Taylor), Bruce Fowler played trombone (he's now a top film orchestrator working for Hans Zimmer). I went to the University of Utah which is where I studied music theory.
I got connected with some guys who were working for the Osmond Brothers and I played with them too. We did all kinds of gigs in all kinds of bands...wedding bands, country bands, salsa bands, funk bands, etc. We traveled all over the inner mountain west, playing in Durango, Boise, Missoula, etc. After the Osmond gig some of the guys started a production company. These guys were hustlers and they did all the music for the Calgary Olympics. Then, they started doing all the music for ABC sports, then NBC, CBS, then Warner Brothers and Disney. By the time I came along the guys who were writing music for them got burned out so I started working for them writing spots for national TV. Basically, I became a composer. I did film trailers, TV themes for Good Morning America, wrote theme music for NBC news, for example. Their business was called Non-Stop Music. They sold it to Warner Chappell and they are now the production arm of Warner Chappell, one of the largest music publishers out there. I wrote music for them all thru the '90s.
Portland: I left Utah in 2002, took time off, lived in San Luis Obispo, California and started taking lessons again with Terry Trotter in LA. I've always liked this area and in 2002 moved to Portland. I still write music for Warner Chappell and their spin offs that distribute through them. I still have music connections in Utah and write for different music libraries. When writing pieces right now, they put in a request, I'll get an email and write music and send it in and the requests are always different. I have a long relationship with some of these guys. They don't usually ask for jazz but they asked me to write twenty original jazz solo pieces for them recently. They wanted them to sound like jazz standards. Last fall, I scored a feature film for a private party called The Emissary. And the music I wrote for the German national news, RTL, is still running over there. Recently, I got a gig writing music for Legos (the toy company).
Here in Portland I play for a number of vocalists like Shirley Nanette, Nancy Curtin, Heather Kaiser, Johnny Martin, Bre Gregg, Anandi, etc. Different singers want different things. Some of them get mad at you if your note is anywhere near their note. The hope is that the singer knows their material well enough that it's easy to fill in and support the vibe. It's best to provide harmonic and rhythmic support underneath them that works as a frame for what they're doing and fills in the holes. As a pianist, when your solo comes you don't want it to sound like you just let the horse out of the barn! I find I play a lot better if I'm not reading, that's the advantage to playing with the same vocalist for a long time, you know their book.
Musical Influences: Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheny, Weather Report, Yellowjackets, Jeff Lorber, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein; Salt Lake guys like the Fowler Brothers, Mike Miller and Wayne Christiansen; Portland guys like Randy Porter, Steve Christofferson, David Evans, and Lee Wuthenow.
Most Satisfying Experience: I get to play with really good people all the time and it's frequently ecstatic. For example, sometimes on a Thursday night with Johnny Martin at The Heathman when there's no one in there and it's completely dead and the first set starts. The sound is fresh. Charley Doggett is on drums and I'm playing keyboard and bass, we just get this vibe going and get to that place where it's all feel. Another really fun gig happened this past February 2014, when I got to participate in the 25th anniversary of Jazz Vespers at the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was the musical director there for thirteen years. They rented a concert hall in Salt Lake and flew me back for the celebration.
Favorite Recordings: "Goodnight Irene", James Booker from "Junco Partner"-"Lalene" Keith Jarrett from "Facing You"-"James" Pat Metheny Group from "Offramp"-"American Dreams" Charlie Haden from "American Dreams"-"A Remark You Made" Weather Report from "Heavy Weather"-"My Funny Valentine" Keith Jarrett from "Keith Jarrett Still Live"-"My Foolish Heart" Bill Evans from "Waltz for Debby"-"This Masquerade is Over" Cannonball Adderly and Nancy Wilson - "Waters of March" Antonio Carlos Jobim from "Elis & Tom" and "Lush Life" John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman.
Discography: While living in Salt Lake, I was also a studio musician. I'm on a ton of pop albums, Christian pop and vocal albums. I'd do arrangements too. I'm on odd stuff like “Tribute to the Eagles” instrumental version. While here, I produced two jazz albums for singers. One was for Anandi, “The Song Is You.” I also did one for Sandy Dennison called “Jazzed.” I did the arranging, production and played on both those CDs.
Gigs: Friday, September 5th, Shirley Nanette Trio at The Heathman Hotel from 8-12:00, Portland; Saturday, September 6th, Shirley Nanette Duo at The Benson Hotel from 8:30-12:00, Portland; September 20th, Vince Frates Trio, Private Event; Sunday, September 21st, Augustana Quartet at Augustana Lutheran Church from 6-7:30, NE 15th and Fremont, Portland; Monday, September 25th, Johnny Martin Trio at The Heathman Hotel from 7-10:00, Portland.
Future Plans: I still want to record some original stuff. It'll be improvised music, I'll integrate some strings, might go for a full orchestra. I've done so much music for other people for so long it's time to do something for myself.
Other: To get into the promotional music or production music field, find out who all the big music libraries or production libraries are and submit your stuff. There's a music library publication for composers I found online. Submit music to them or go face to face like be an intern. And then there's training programs like Full Sail, Guitar Institute of Technology, etc.
-- by Rita Rega