“The crowd was on their feet, whipping out their phones to record again, and the song ramped up to the more familiar reggae sound, complete with an incredible sax solo.” - Traci Turner, OC Music News (Review of Culture Club Concert at Ascend Theatre, Nashville, TN. July 24, 2023) https://ocmusicnews.com/boy-george-culture-club-live-in-nashville/

 

"Perhaps the most compelling part of the whole track is the saxophone solo placed in the outro. It sings and squeals with a divine celebratory tone to end on." - Max Pasion-Gonzales - EARMILK

https://earmilk.com/2021/03/02/pwnt-unveils-vibrant-new-jam-shortcuts/

 

"The new single from PWNT, “Shortcuts,” is the crank-able springtime nostalgia-infused drivin’ with the windows down track that you’ve been waiting for. As the man behind the music puts it, Steve Frieder’s sax solo at the end really “brings the full yacht rock potential, ya know?...And of course, the slayin’ sax solo to close it out.'" - Charles Weinmann - Wooo Media 

https://www.wooo.media/features/pwnt-shortcuts

 

"I cannot think of any tenor sax player of the last twenty years that I would rather listen to than Steve Frieder, and when you listen to his debut record, After Time, you will likely share my opinion. Driven by veteran drummer, Bob Meyer, and accompanied by two extremely talented young musicians, guitarist Luke Franco and bassist Peter Brendler, After Time shows Frieder’s mastery of the instrument. His warm sound may remind us of the beloved saxophone masters of the past, but his ideas are modern and highly original." -Jack Kleinsinger, "Highlights in Jazz"

"Steven Frieder played a beautiful opening sax solo on the song “Polkadots and Moonbeams.” The band joined him after his introduction. This was followed by an up tempo swing led by Benny and Steven that was four on the floor and swing til you sing time!" Eric Frazier - Jazz Inside, April '12


"By way of surreal contrast, the Steve Frieder Trio at the otherwordly and totally modern Seligmann Center in nearby Chester, New York, suggested to concertgoers that the festival is anything but uniform. The setting—on spacious park grounds, away from the swirl of traffic and nighttime tumult—was just right. The 23-year-old Frieder, alternating between tenor and alto saxophones, put an emphasis on composition, even though the music itself relied heavily on improvisation. With keyboardist Neil Alexander and Kostas Galanopoulos on drums, the music was organized yet very fluid, melodic but loose-limbed, at times very swinging. Frieder’s lyrical tenor was the center, but gave full sway to his cohorts time and again." —John Ephland, DownBeat Magazine

Hot House Jazz Magazine, Dec. 2014