Keep the Dog
American experimental rock band
title: "Keep the Dog" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-experimental-musical-groups", "musical-groups-established-in-1989", "musical-groups-disestablished-in-1991", "free-improvisation-ensembles", "fred-frith"] description: "American experimental rock band" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_the_Dog" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary American experimental rock band ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist | "]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Keep the Dog |
| background | group_or_band |
| origin | New York City, |
| United States | |
| genre | Avant-rock, experimental, free improvisation |
| years_active | 1989–1991 |
| label | Fred |
| past_members | Jean Derome |
| Fred Frith | |
| René Lussier | |
| Kevin Norton | |
| Bob Ostertag | |
| Zeena Parkins | |
| Charles Hayward | |
| :: |
| name = Keep the Dog | image = | caption = | background = group_or_band | alias = | origin = New York City, United States | genre = Avant-rock, experimental, free improvisation | years_active = 1989–1991 | label = Fred | associated_acts = | website = | current_members = | past_members = Jean Derome Fred Frith René Lussier Kevin Norton Bob Ostertag Zeena Parkins Charles Hayward
Keep the Dog was an American-based experimental rock touring band from New York City formed in 1989 by English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor Fred Frith. The sextet was conceived as a review band for performing selections of Frith's repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years.
The band lineup was Frith, René Lussier, Jean Derome, Zeena Parkins, Bob Ostertag and Kevin Norton. Later Charles Hayward replaced Norton. The group existed until mid-1991, performing live in Europe, North America and the former Soviet Union. A double CD, That House We Lived In, from their final 1991 European tour, was released in 2003.
History
Keep the Dog was formed in 1989 to perform selections of Frith's repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years. The lineup was Frith, René Lussier, Jean Derome, Zeena Parkins, Bob Ostertag and Kevin Norton.
Keep the Dog began purely as a review band, performing pieces from Frith's solo albums, from some of the groups he belonged to (Henry Cow, Massacre, Skeleton Crew and French Frith Kaiser Thompson), and from his many collaborations with other musicians. But as the group grew in stature it started extending itself. Instead of simply covering Frith's compositions, they began to adapt them and improvise around them. By 1991, Keep the Dog had become largely an improvising band.
During the band's three-year existence they toured extensively, performing in the United States, Canada, mainland Europe and the former Soviet Union. They also played at a number of festivals, including the 7th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada in October 1989. Every concert was different: Frith often juggled the material around and in some cases re-arranged it, for example if a venue provided a piano. While remaining a sextet throughout, they were occasionally joined on stage by guest musicians, including Tom Cora, John Zorn and Tenko Ueno.
Being a touring band, Keep the Dog never went to the studio, but every concert they performed was recorded on DAT. While bootleg recordings of some of the concerts soon began circulating, Frith never considered officially releasing their work until a decade after the band stopped performing. In a 2003 interview, Frith said:
Leidecker sifted though about 20 DAT recordings from the band's final performances in Austria, Germany and Italy in May and June 1991, and built a montage which he passed on to Frith for further editing. The result was a double CD, That House We Lived In, which was released on Frith's own Fred Records in 2003. Frith remarked in the album's liner notes:
That House We Lived In was generally well received by critics. Beppe Colli wrote in a review at Clouds and Clocks that Keep the Dog plays Frith's material "with a freshness, assurance and creativity" that demonstrates how well the sextet work together.
Members
- Fred Frith – guitar, bass guitar, violin, voice
- René Lussier – guitar, bass guitar
- Jean Derome – alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, flute, voice
- Zeena Parkins – accordion, electric harp, piano, synthesizer, voice
- Bob Ostertag – sampling keyboard
- Kevin Norton – drums, percussion, voice
- Charles Hayward – drums, percussion, voice
Discography
;Live albums
- 2003 – That House We Lived In (2xCD, Fred Records, UK)
;Other album appearances
- 1992 – Various artists: Angelica 91 (CD, CAICAI Music, Italy) – includes two Keep the Dog tracks {"Huge Bored Uncle", "Vie en Mimosa") recorded live at the Angelica Italian jazz festival, May 2, 1991.
References
References
- Couture, François. "Keep the Dog: That House We Lived In".
- Colli, Beppe. (September 7, 2003). "Keep The Dog".
- Grella, George J.. (January 20, 2016). "Ostertag, Bob [Robert]". [[Oxford University Press]].
- Jenkins, Todd S.. (2004). "Free Jazz and Free Improvisation: An Encyclopedia". Greenwood Publishing Group.
- "7th Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville". International Festival Musique Actuelle Victoriaville.
- Sękowski, Tom. (October 2003). "Fred Frith interview". Bagatellen.com.
- [https://detritus.net/wobbly/newsarchive01.html Jon Leidecker homepage] ''News archive''.
- Fred Records. (2003). "That House We Lived".
- Gagné, Nicole V.. (1990). "Sonic Transports: New Frontiers in Our Music". De Falco Books.
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