Editing Fred Frith (section)

===New York===
[[File:FredFrith October2005.jpg|thumb|210px|right|Fred Frith performing at [[Mills College]], [[Oakland, California]] in October 2005]]

Towards the end of 1979, Frith relocated to New York City, where he immediately hooked up with the local [[avant-garde]]/[[downtown music]] scene. The impact on him was uplifting: "...&nbsp;New York was a profoundly liberating experience for me; for the first time I felt that I could be myself and not try to live up to what I imagined people were thinking about me."<ref name="paristransatlantic">{{cite web |url=http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/frith.html |title=Fred Frith interview, March 1998 |work=Paris Transatlantic Magazine |first=Dan |last=Warburton |access-date=22 November 2006}}</ref> Frith met and began recording with a number of musicians and groups, including [[Henry Kaiser (musician)|Henry Kaiser]] (''[[With Friends Like These (album)|With Friends Like These]]'', ''[[Who Needs Enemies? (album)|Who Needs Enemies?]]''), [[Bob Ostertag]] (''[[Getting a Head]]'', ''[[Voice of America (Frith, Ostertag and Minton album)|Voice of America]]''), [[Tom Cora]], [[Eugene Chadbourne]], [[Zeena Parkins]], [[Ikue Mori]], [[the Residents]], [[Material (band)|Material]], [[the Golden Palominos]], and [[Curlew (band)|Curlew]]. He spent some 14 years in New York, during which time he joined a few bands, including [[John Zorn]]'s [[Naked City (band)|Naked City]] (in which Frith played bass) and [[French Frith Kaiser Thompson]] (consisting of [[John French (musician)|John French]], Frith, Henry Kaiser and [[Richard Thompson (musician)|Richard Thompson]]). Frith also started three bands himself, namely [[Massacre (experimental band)|Massacre]], [[Skeleton Crew (band)|Skeleton Crew]], and [[Keep the Dog]].

Massacre was formed in 1980 with bassist [[Bill Laswell]] and drummer [[Fred Maher]]. A high energy [[experimental rock]] band, they toured the United States and Europe in 1980 and 1981, and released one album, ''[[Killing Time (Massacre album)|Killing Time]]'' (1981), recorded at [[Martin Bisi]]'s later-to-be historic studio in [[Brooklyn]]. Massacre split in 1981 when Maher left, but later reformed again in 1998 when drummer [[Charles Hayward (drummer)|Charles Hayward]] joined. The new Massacre released three more albums.

Skeleton Crew, a collaboration with Tom Cora from 1982 to 1986, was an [[Experimental music|experimental]] group noted for its live improvisations where Frith (guitar, violin, keyboards, drums) and Cora (cello, bass guitar, homemade drums and contraptions) played a number of instruments simultaneously. They performed extensively across Europe, North America and Japan and released ''[[Learn to Talk]]'' in 1984. Zeena Parkins (electric harp and keyboards) joined in 1984 and the trio released ''[[The Country of Blinds]]'' in 1986. In October 1983 Skeleton Crew joined [[Duck and Cover (German band)|Duck and Cover]], a commission from the [[JazzFest Berlin|Berlin Jazz Festival]], for a performance in [[West Berlin]], followed by another in February 1984 in [[East Berlin]].

Frith formed Keep the Dog in 1989, a [[sextet]] and review band for performing selections of his extensive repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years. The lineup was Frith (guitar, violin, bass guitar), [[René Lussier]] (guitar, bass guitar), [[Jean Derome]] (winds), Zeena Parkins (piano, synthesizer, harp, accordion), Bob Ostertag (sampling keyboard), and [[Kevin Norton]] (drums, percussion). Later Charles Hayward replaced Norton on drums. 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 performances in Austria, Germany and Italy in May and June 1991, was released in 2003.