My latest mini-profile for the Island Packet newspaper on Hilton Head Island, SC, is about pianist Noel Freidline. Here’s the opening:
Noel Freidline was first exposed to jazz in the usual manner: via National Geographic.
Wait a minute, National Geographic?
“My mom was briefly a member of the National Geographic album club back in the late ’70s,†Freidline said. “One of the albums they sent her that she did not actually order was a compilation album of Dixieland jazz. One day, when I was about 11 or 12, I found the album and put it on. I was fascinated. Shortly thereafter a neighbor gave me a Dave Brubeck album called ‘Time Out.’ He was probably the only person in my little hometown of Clearwater, Kan., who even knew who Dave Brubeck was. Now I was hooked.â€
