Fred Frith is one of the most innovative guitarists to ever pick up the instrument, the rare kid born in postwar England who almost intuitively saw the guitar as more than a way to make rock songs and pursue stardom. Though he did love dashing riffs and hard blues as a teenager, an early introduction to an improvising scene challenged him to reconsider how he might interact with his six strings—both in how he approached them physically and in the sounds that they might render. Released when he was 25 and in the throes of the boundary-slashing band Henry Cow, Frith’s 1974 album Guitar Solos demanded answers of the instrument to questions few had bothered to ask: How far away could he move from mere riffs? How could rhythm sound like chaos? Could the guitar sound both haunted and eternally present?

Frith has been a dauntless explorer, improviser, and collaborator in the half-century since he made that breakthrough. From leaving Henry Cow to start Art Bears, from leaving England to enlist in a hyperactive New York improvisational circuit that led him to join Naked City and launch his own Massacre, Frith has situated his extended techniques and handmade instruments in dozens of different contexts. A longtime teacher at California’s Mills College, he brings another new band, Fremakajo, to Big Ears 2026. He has tapped intertwining Bay Area circles to build this quartet, with curious and playful drummer Jordan Glenn joining exploratory saxophonist Kasey Knudsen and stylistically globetrotting accordionist Marié Abe. They will be playing new compositions and, in the grand Frith tradition, improvising. (Pressetext)