Contributors to the Freddie Green Web Site

Michael Pettersen, Musician and Writer
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Michael Pettersen has a BA in Music from the University of Illinois. He has played guitar and banjo in big bands since 1970. Currently he is on the playing roster with five big bands in the Chicago area: Arts Center Jazz Ensemble, Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Chicago Jazz Orchestra, In Full Swing, and Jay Lipe's Big Band. Michael is also the Corportate Historian for Shure, Inc., the legendary microphone and audio manufacturer.

Carl Severance, Musician and Web Master
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Carl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz and Commercial Music from Johnson State College (now known as Northern State University) in Johnson, VT and has been playing guitar, performing around Northern New England for decades. He was a member of the Vermont Jazz Ensemble, a 17-piece big band from 1993 until 2009 and still fills in regularly. He also performs with his own sextet Pine Street Jazz. Carl is employed in the educational technology industry and works for DreamBox Learning.

Nick Rossi

Guitarist, bandleader, writer, and historian Rossi is a longtime San Francisco resident who has contributed greatly to the area's jazz and roots music scenes. In addition to a long history of music performance, Nick has enjoyed some acclaim as both a writer and researcher. His focus has primarily been jazz and jazz guitar history with a concentration on the early-through-mid 20th Century. As a guitarist, he has come to be known as a local rhythm specialist, although his interests on the instrument range from the early Italian-American influences of Nick Lucas and Eddie Lang, through the abundance of diversity during the Swing Era, as well as the modern jazz innovations of Charlie Christian and Oscar Moore. Nick is also an educator who teaches both guitar and jazz history.

Mark D. Allen

Mark Allen is a professor of Cognitive Brain Research at Brigham Young University, specializing in neuroimaging of language functions in the brain. Mark received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from Johns Hopkins University in 2000. Mark has played the guitar recreationally for 25 years. During the 80s and 90s he played mostly in punk/metal bands, notably The Bad Yodelers, who gained some popularity in Europe through extensive touring during the early 90s. Dr. Allen currently plays rhythm guitar in the Provo-based Tree Street Jazz Quartet. Dr. Allen began focusing on analyses of Freddie Green's rhythm playing at the beginning of 2002.

Reiner Polz, Musician, Collector

Reiner is a social worker in the City of Cologne, Germany and plays drums in Swing and Dixieland bands. He can be heard regularly at the famous Papa Joe’s Jazzlokal in Cologne, or with the oldies rock band Smash Four. Reiner has been fascinated by Freddie Green since his youth, and began learning his guitar style and collecting information about Freddie Green in 2000.

Roland Mueller

Roland is an electrical engineer, math instructor, father, and husband who has been playing the guitar regularly since 1973. Although he recently moved to Wichita, KS, he has played in various jazz big bands and combo groups in the Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids areas since 1978. He performs rock, classical, folk, and bluegrass styles although jazz is the type of music you are most likely to find him playing. Recently, Roland has played guitar for a couple of big bands and a spiritual church music group in the Chicago area. He also dabbles with the piano and bass guitar.

David Ness, Musician, Arranger, and Educator

Chicago Jazz Magazine said of Dave Ness, “there is no denying his superlative skill on the guitar.” A sought-out educator and clinician for nearly 25 years, Dave has directed jazz ensembles for several colleges and high schools, including Northwestern University and Carthage College. Dave has been studying Freddie Green guitar style since 1990 and in 1999 his article on Freddie Green was published in the Jazz Educators Journal. He also presented a clinic at the 2018 IMEC convention, focusing on the Freddie Green Style. Currently Dave teaches guitar and jazz ensemble as well as AP Music Theory and Electronic Music at Libertyville High School. Dave has released three albums with the Dave Ness Trio: “Sketches,” “Layers,” and his 2018 release “Grooveness.” His website can be found at www.daveness.net

Lewis H. Dickert, Professor of Music

L. H. Dickert teaches guitar, directs jazz bands, and is the chair of the Strings Committee at Winthrop University. He holds a B.M. degree from Winthrop University, a diploma from the Berklee College of Music, an M.M. degree from Wichita State University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Memphis. Dr. Dickert has studied guitar with a wide array of teachers including William G. Leavitt, Jerry Hahn, Johnny Smith, and Lily Afshar. Dickert is active both regionally and nationally as a performer, guest artist, and clinician. Performing credits include work with such notable artists as Natalie Cole, Lou Rawls, Charlie Rouse, the Diamonds, Ronnie Milsap, Dixie Carter, Ray Charles, Johnny Mathis, the Guy Lombardo Orchestra, Randy Brecker, Frank Sinatra, and Wayne Newton. Dr. Dickert also is in demand regionally as a musical arranger and clinician.

Tim Berens

Tim is an orchestral and jazz guitarist. In addition to steady work in jazz clubs, his playing schedule includes more than 100 orchestral services per year with the Cincinnati Pops and several other orchestras around the country. These services include rehearsals, concerts, recording sessions, television broadcasts, and touring. Tim has performed on more than 30 CDs with the Cincinnati Pops and other orchestras, and appeared many times on nationally broadcast television shows. Tim is an active and avid jazz guitarist. He works regularly in jazz clubs and has completed his second CD as a leader, "Nortonomy", which will be released in the fall of 2001. His first CD, "Another Rhumba for Armando", was released in 1999, on the Red Mark label. Tim holds a Bachelor of Music degree with a major in classical guitar performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

In the Spring of 2002 Tim launched his own jazz guitar Web site: http://timberens.com

John Lehmann-Haupt

John Lehmann-Haupt is a New York based guitarist whose recordings of original and popular arrangements, and classical repertoire have been released on the Physical World and AIG labels.

Jim Brown

[Editor's Note: Jim Brown has compiled an extensive jazz CD and LP library, and has generously loaned over 100 recordings in support of our Freddie Green research.]

Jim Brown began seriously listening to jazz on the radio at about age 12 in Huntington, WV, where he grew up. Since 1984, he has been the principal of Audio Systems Group, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in the design of sound systems for jazz clubs, performing arts facilities, churches, stadiums, and arenas. Prior to starting his consulting firm in 1984, he mixed live sound and performance recordings for most jazz artists active during the 70's and 80's, including big bands led by Basie, Kenton, Herman, Rich, Ferguson, Mulligan, Thad/Mel, and Toshiko Akioshi, small groups from Blakey to Baker to Weston, and singers Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughan, and Sylvia Syms. A 2-CD live set by Carmen McRae he recorded in 1976 was recently released on the Hitchcock Media label. His jazz collection includes more than 4,000 CD's and 3,000 LP's. Jim worked in the civil rights movement during the 60's and 70's as a photographer and audio specialist. More than thirty of his photographs were published in the 1996 book, "Let My People Go - Cairo, Illinois, 1967-1973."

Albert RomanÌ, Musician and Writer

Albert RomanÌ lives in Barcelona, Spain and has been on the jazz scene since 1983. Having started as a tenor banjoist, his main interest is now big band rhythm guitar, particularly Freddie Green, and other great guitarists of the past like Billy Mackel, Al Casey, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Tiny Grimes, and Oscar Moore. After meeting guitarist Paul Weeden, a Basie band alumnus, Albert began transcribing Freddie Green's work. In March 2003, Albert performed in a master class with former Basie saxophonist, Frank Wess. Albert plays New Orleans style jazz with the New Orleans Blue Stompers, and plays with with the oldest big band in Spain, La Locomotora Negra. Since 1972, this band has collaborated with renown jazz artists, including Wild Bill Davis, Harold Ashby, Charles Williams, and others.

Dave Jackson

Dave Jackson is a guitarist who lives in Scotland and specialises in accompanying traditional fiddle music. His role model is the late Willie Johnson of Shetland, who in turn was influenced by players like Freddie Green and Eddie Lang.

Dave has no formal musical training. He studied at Aberdeen University and has a Masters Degree in the History of Art. He is a practising visual artist and also worked as an arts administrator as the Director of The Seagate Gallery in Dundee.

Dave accompanied the late Davy Tulloch of Shetland who was considered the most talented fiddle player of his generation. Currently Dave accompanies violinist, Kenny Slaven and the duo performs a wide range of traditional music but also include gypsy jazz and traditional music from South America in their repertoire.

Jakub Cervenka

Jakub Cervenka (born 1972) is a saxophone player, music teacher, and school jazz orchestra leader in Olomouc, Czech Republic. He is a skilled transcriber of big band jazz and small group jazz. His enthusiasm for the Count Basie Orchestra led him to explore the secrets of Basie's rhythm section. Logically, he discovered that there is no Basie-style band without the rhythm guitar sound of Freddie Green. Jakub invented a unique numbering system to assist guitarists in learning the basics of Freddies style. This numbering system is based on the research of Michael Pettersen into the favorite chord voicings of Freddie Green. Even though Jakub does not play guiter, he began to teach guitarist Jiri Krbecek, who volunteered to become the first follower of the Freddie Green style in the Czech Republic. Jakub and Jiri have performed together since 2008 in Big Band ZUS Isi Krejciho.

Matt Buttermann, Musician/Educator

Matt Buttermann received his B.F.A from the City College of New York and M.M. from William Paterson University; his master’s thesis is entitled Freddie Green: A Musical Analysis of the Guitar in the Count Basie Orchestra. He has performed throughout the United States and is currently a musician and educator in the New York City area having worked on educational programming for such organizations as Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Smithsonian Institute.