Volume CXXXIII, Number 3 September 26, 2003 f

Bop goes the cello
CAROLINE LORENZ
STAFF WRITER

The electric cello itself is bizarre yet oddly enjoyable, much like the sense of humor of its owner. Cradling what looks like a giant wooden anchor, Freudmann was a ten-finger frenzy of plucking for the first few minutes of the show before breaking out the bow. He played a 15-song set, along with several improvisations. It was anything but typical. Not that anything involving the electric cello can be typical.

Freudmann writes many of his own songs, with titles like "Funk Shui," "Robin Hood Changes His Oil," and "Hologram Crackers," but also entertains with a motley collection of cover songs. The Kinks, the Coasters, Taj Mahal, and David Bowie all received tribute. And in several of his originals, he weaves in common tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the theme from "The Brady Bunch."

Like the electric guitar, the electric cello uses an amplifier and offers versatility the classic instrument does not. A distortion box allows Freudmann to manipulate the sound the cello produces, allowing it to growl like Black Sabbath, or imitate a traffic jam, as Freudmann demonstrated in the weirdest two minutes of the show. He also, by power of the foot pedal, is able to loop segments, play them backwards, echo them, and layer them. This lets Freudmann turn his one man show into something much greater (and stranger).

"I like mixing musical styles," Freudmann said. "The cello has been stuck in the classical ghetto for three centuries, and I show people that the cello can be hip and can be fun."

Aiding in the fun is Freudmann's sense of humor and easygoing manner, which kept an hour and a half of cello a bit more bearable for non-cello enthusiasts. After having a cello lost in the mail, he wrote a song with lyrics along the lines of "UPS, what a mess." Freudmann isn't afraid to take a stab at President George W. Bush's difficulty pronouncing "terrorists," or play a spur of the moment rendition of what a Hasidic-Irish tune might sound like.

Freudmann's unique talent, humor and compositions all contribute to the madness that is "Cello Bop," although "madness" and "cello" are two words that until now never seemed to go together.

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