Karl Frierson | de

Karl Frierson was born in Florence, South Carolina on January 8, 1968. At a early age his talents in music and theatre were recognized and supported. At the age of 9, a chance meeting with his fellow statesman Dizzy Gillespie, inspired him to follow his dream in becoming an international entertainer. Karl was a part of many magnet programs in the US for the musically gifted and talented, one of which, involved faculty from the University of South Carolina. In 1983, Karl became the youngest choral student in his high school to achieve the honor of Honors All-State Chorus. In 1985 he became the first student in his school to receive a summer scholarship to the South Carolina Governor´s School Of The Arts held at Furman University in Greenville South Carolina. There he worked intensively with the faculty from the highly acclaimed North Carolina School for the Arts. After declining a scholarship to study classical music in Italy, Karl opted to Attend Georgia State University and received exposure to the entertainment busines in The Southeast. The entertainment business became so tempting to Karl, that to the dismay of his university professors, he left GSU to persue a career in the entertainment business. After two years, the business was moving too fast for him and he wanted to slow down. To the disappointment of his talent agents, Karl left the business and joined the US Army as an Infantryman which was a choice very far away from the entertainmant business. After three years as an Infantryman, Karl accepted a special assignment the the US Army Europe Band and Chorus. During the duration of his military career (five years), he performed over 800 shows as a musical ambassador throughout Europe. Karl finally accepted his entertainment talent as something that should be taken seriously and took the big step into enetertainmant as a profession. In 1997, together with German Producer Pit Baumgartner, They formed De Phazz, downtempo jazz ensemble intergrating modern turntabilism and elements of soul, Latin, trip hop and drum and bass into a lounge music sound. The first single of their first album, Hero Dead and Gone, sung and texted by Frierson, became a German charted hit. Since 1997, the trend setting band has released 7 albums, received musical award nominations and international acclaim. In 2006, Karl released his solo album, Soulprint., which was also successful in Europe. Karl contiues to entertain and write with De Phazz parallel to his solo career. Karl lives in Lindau Germany on Lake Constance. .