About Fraser
A Piper and Low Whistle player who improvises like a jazz musician. A Soprano Sax player playing the traditional music of his native Scotland like it had always been played on that instrument. Fifield's compositions and his musical language are uniquely his own.
A most individual musician, Fraser Fifield, plays an unusual combination of instruments all to an unusually high standard. Aged 9 years, in rural North-East Scotland, Fifield commenced his enduring relationship with the Great Highland Bagpipes. He learnt from two excellent local Piping exponents and went on to win many prizes at various piping competitions around the north of Scotland. After piping for some years, as a companion instrument, Fifield chose the saxophone and continued to study that instrument thoughout his school years and on to Royal Scottish Academy of Music in Glasgow. A convenient transition, somewhere in between the pipes and sax was found in the Low Whistle which these days we hear him play perhaps more often than the other instruments. On the Low Whistle in particular the influences from the music of pipes and saxes distil into something new. Fifield's whistle playing has solid traditional roots but can soar into passionate jazz inflected soloing.
Scottish Highland Folk Rock legends Wolfstone summoned Fraser, aged 18, to come and play with them which he did. Returning from California to Glasgow 3 weeks after the start of his 2nd college year indicated Fifield's growing desire to get into the real music business. Taking a year off to 'practice' before completing his BA Honours, fourth year Fraser fell in with popular North East Scotland outfit The Old Blind Dogs and continued playing with them for two and half years. The ordinary BA degree came through the post one day and signalled the end of Fifeld's academic pursuits.
Moving down to central Scotland Fifield started playing with Edinburgh Latinos, Salsa Celtica, balancing the celtic with the salsa through his pipe and whistle playing and his compositions. Six years with Salsa Celtica included performances at main stages in Cambridge, Womad, Lincoln Centre and many more great concerts and tours.
Honest Water, Fifield's first solo recording, released on his own label in 2002, gathered a lot of great reaction from press and public alike. The Herald's Rob Adams writing, "music with heart, emotion, and tunes that the "repeat play" button was designed for."
The Fraser Fifield Trio was formed shortly after the release of Honest Water with two other North-East musicians, guitarist Graeme Stephen and drummer Stuart Ritchie. The trio went on to play many gigs across Scotland and Europe as far a field as Baku International Jazz Festival in 2005, and recorded the album 'Slow Stream'.
Versatility and skill as a musician has always kept Fifield engaged in other musicians projects such as Graeme Stephen Sextet, Chris Stout, Mr McFall's Chamber, Mick West, Alyth McCormack, Kathleen MacInnes, Gavin Marwick, Jim Sutherland, La Banda Europe, Unusual Suspects, Donnie Munro and many more.
At the request of the late Martyn Bennett, Fraser continues to be involved playing Martyn's music in several different forms, occasionally with his electric band Cuillin Music and also with the maverick classical ensemble Mr McFall's Chamber.
In 2008 Fifield's fascination with the Bulgarian Kaval led to the album 'Traces Of Thrace' made with one of the most respected kaval players in the world, Nedyalko Nedyalkov, and also featured Georgi Petrov on gadulka alongside Fraser's band. 'A magnificent achievement' said Songlines magazine in Oct 2008. The album featured in the European World Music Chart Top 20 for a time in summer 2008.
A continual fascination with recording and developing technologies has led to the eventual building of his own studio, and composing for TV and other media over the years.
Fraser's fourth album, Stereocanto, is released on October 5th 2009 on Tanar Records. A multi-layered recording of original compositions that feature Fifield's dazzling low whistle in particular alongside magnificent playing from Alyn Cosker on drums and Graeme Stephen on guitars, multi-layered electronic beats and textures, strings and much more. The wonderfully expressive Bulgarian Kaval has found a permanent space in Fraser's flight case and features in his own hands on some tracks. The music is, unsurprisingly, innovative, to say the least.
