Bill Frisell

BlueMiles · #1 11-02-2011, 01:06 PM

There does not seem to a Bill Frisell thread, or at least not a recent one.

I have really enjoyed a lot of his work, such as Have a Little Faith, Gone Just Like a Train, East/West, Beautiful Dreamers, and the trio with Carter and Motian. There are also many sideman projects, as well as groups such as Motian-Frisell-Lovano (sometimes augmented by another player or two).

I find Frisell to be very creative and still near his peak. I have heard some tracks (at Bill's website) from the new Lennon CD and I like what I hear.

cosmic gumbo · #2 11-03-2011, 07:48 AM

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BlueMiles · #3 11-12-2011, 01:53 PM

I'm still not getting what's going on with the lack of Frisell discussion. Is it around here somewhere? If so, I haven't found it.

I have been listening to the Lennon record (All We Are Saying), which has plenty of great stuff on it. It's divided up evenly, half Beatles and half Lennon's solo work. I think I prefer the solo stuff a bit more. A rather mysterious sounding "Give Peace a Chance" ends the album; I really like it, in fact much more so than Lennon's own version, which I always found a bit annoying. On the other hand, "Woman" still sounds too sing-songy. "Mother," which is so personal you'd think no one could cover it, sounds great.

"In My Life" receives a gorgeous reading, and "Nowhere Man" is handled very creatively; in general he sticks perhaps a bit too closely to melodies, especially on the Beatles' songs.

I really love much of Frisell's writing, but sometimes I think he is at his best as an interpreter. Exhibit #1 there would be Have a Little Faith. This new one may be Exhibit #2.

paynow · #4 11-12-2011, 02:53 PM

Here is one that was started back in April:

http://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/playe...sell-fans.html

There are a lot of Frisell fans on this forum, myself included. My assumption as to why he isn't discussed more is that he's not really easy to classify in a jazz sense, which is why I like him. He ends up in the jazz section of a store simply because he plays with some jazz guys occasionally and where else would you put him? Jazz is the closest I guess, maybe World Music would be better, Americana, who knows?

BlueMiles · #5 11-12-2011, 05:04 PM

Yes, he brilliantly blends genres or styles, but what else would you call him besides jazz? Not to mention the credits with Paul Motian, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Elvin Jones, Charlie Haden, John Scofield, Lee Konitz, Jim Hall, Scott Colley, and so and so on. And then there are the Downbeat covers and features.

Sure I love Wes and Kenny and Grant, but Frisell takes me to different places.

mr. beaumont · #6 11-12-2011, 05:21 PM

Recently picked up a Jakob Bro record called "balladeering" which also features frisell and joe lovano.

Great stuff...some of Bill's most subdued work to date. Beautiful.

paynow · #7 11-13-2011, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Recently picked up a Jakob Bro record called "balladeering" which also features frisell and joe lovano.

Great stuff...some of Bill's most subdued work to date. Beautiful.

I have to pick that up. It seems that it's only available through his site:

JAKOB BRO

BlueMiles · #8 11-13-2011, 08:35 AM

Lovano? From what I've seen, it's ageless Lee Konitz who is on this date.

I've heard just a bit of Bro. He seems a player that's been influenced by Frisell.

mr. beaumont · #9 11-13-2011, 09:25 AM

My bad, I have Lovano on the brain lately, it's definitely Konitz. Which is wild, because Lee's tone is as "beefy" as ever, there's definitely times where it sounds like a Tenor!

I beleive Bro's making a new one with Konitz and Frisell as well.

Balladeering also features Ben Street and the alays amazing Paul Motian.

And paynow, I found it on iTunes.

eddy b. · #10 11-17-2011, 01:17 PM

I really like Frisell a lot. For my money the ECM stuff with Power Tools and Bass Desires is pretty perfect, and the record with Sco... Grace Under Pressure. His sound changed so much when he left New York...but his touch and all of that stayed the same...he definitely sounds like "himself" and so he stands alone as an iconoclast ... sometimes I think my whole "jazz" problem has been that my first "jazz" guitar record was James "Blood" Ulmer "Freelancing"...after that it took about twenty years before I could understand "jazz" guitar from that Golden era 50's and 60's vibe... now I LOVE it all and am inspired by everyone on the journey...

BlueMiles · #11 11-17-2011, 09:43 PM

Bill Frisell is going for a very string-oriented sound of late. Sometimes I long to hear him with such kick ass drummers as Joey Baron or even the rock (jazz?) drummer Ginger Baker.

On "Mother" from All We Are Saying Frisell digs in with a stripped down guitar-bass-drums attack. I really like this track.

Banksia · #12 11-18-2011, 04:21 AM

He's on the Joey Baron albums "Down Home" and "We'll soon find out", both albums with Arthur Blythe and Ron Carter.

BlueMiles · #13 11-18-2011, 08:21 AM

Yes, indeed, and I especially like the second of the Baron records.

Joey Baron also had a pretty lengthy stretch as Frisell's regular drummer, which was quite some time ago. If I'm not mistaken, Baron is the drummer on the classic Have a Little Faith.

Banksia · #14 11-18-2011, 08:45 AM

If you like upfront drummers with good guitarists there are two Chad Wackerman albums I like, both with James Muller on axe. "Scream" and "Legs Eleven"