The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #26

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    rumored or diagnosed asperger ?

    when I'm thinking to the social difficulties that face most of the "aspis", I'm not surpised that some "famous people" are not diagnosed but only rumored.

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  3. #27

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    I like this rendition of Moon River. That said, I have seen him in person where his hesitancy, his fiddling with his equipment, his exaggeratedly slow tempos … I did not think served the music well. He seems to be making his personality a part of the performance —- which is admirable — but taken purely musically I don’t understand his approach.

  4. #28

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    ... one more thought, I forgot.

    Speculations about if Bill is in somewhere in the authism spectrum is useless. Not because if it is true or not, instead because it is totally irrevelant. (plus inappropriate) (plus who cares) Listen and enjoy or analyse the music, the last thing what you want to bring your music related life, is the journalist attitude, which tells more about the author's defects than the facts and consequences and results.

  5. #29

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vihar
    Why do you think it rules out the possibility of autism? Or do you mean it's something else? I'm not seeing it, that's why I'm asking.



    Watching that he feels like someone on the spectrum to me.
    I agree, and have thought that for a long time. And there's nothing wrong with it, it's not derogatory or anything (if he is). Many geniuses are likely on the spectrum somewhere, and their unique way of thinking and handling information is part of the reason they can do things others can't.

  6. #30

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gabor
    ... one more thought, I forgot.

    Speculations about if Bill is in somewhere in the authism spectrum is useless. Not because if it is true or not, instead because it is totally irrevelant. (plus inappropriate) (plus who cares) Listen and enjoy or analyse the music, the last thing what you want to bring your music related life, is the journalist attitude, which tells more about the author's defects than the facts and consequences and results.
    How could it be irrelevant when someone necessarily has to put his personality and skills into his own music? Me being on the autism spectrum also puts a signature on my music, whether I like that signature or not. Don't tell me that me being me is irrelevant to the music I make.

    (Also don't guilt journalists for being journalists. Or should they work from a list of allowed topics?)

  7. #31

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    Quote Originally Posted by Vihar
    How could it be irrelevant when someone necessarily has to put his personality and skills into his own music? Me being on the autism spectrum also puts a signature on my music, whether I like that signature or not. Don't tell me that me being me is irrelevant to the music I make.

    (Also don't guilt journalists for being journalists. Or should they work from a list of allowed topics?)
    Please read carefully what I wrote (and my previous posts). I wrote about Bill with the greatest respect.

    - I did not state that a personal condition could not have effect. Of course it has effect. I find Bill's music great, and I respect his personality. I wrote no more, no less, than listen enjoy or analyze his music, instead his person and condition. Everything is in his music. I found this OP disrespectful, and some post also went further in that direction. That was my point.

    - Regarding journalists, again please read carefully, I did not wrote anything about forbidden topics. I regard journalism as important profession as a being surgeon. My bad to bring this also important topic here, we can discuss this in other more appropriate thread.

  8. #32

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    Quote Originally Posted by NSJ
    Exception: Miles 2nd quintet: playing with Tony Williams-Ron Carter-Wayne Shorter-Herbie forced Miles to get his chops together and burn when he had to.
    Many of Miles records especially live show him burning. He is even on fire during some of the last shows of his life.

    But for many of his recordings Miles wasn’t relying on chops so much as melody and making each note count—emphasizing the spaces between the notes.

    Frisell has the same approach I think. Thoughtful playing. Being in the moment playing.

  9. #33

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cunamara

    Speaking as a licensed psychologist, I would note that it is quite impossible to accurately diagnose anyone you haven't met- and it's often hard to accurately diagnose people you have met until you've gotten to know them pretty well. There is a biography of Bill called Beautiful Dreamer that you can read; the author at several points indicates that Bill has suffered from crippling anxiety at times. In terms of his hesitancy when speaking and playing, I've always had the impression that he is evaluating multiple options in front of him in terms of directions he can go musically or conversationally.
    Often people speak at a faster tempo because their brains only present them with one option. If you only have one idea, are only capable of one perspective and only have a vocabulary of about 20 words, what's there to think about?

  10. #34

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    Bill's recordings seem to have this behind the beat feel very often. With him I feel like a lot of notes and phrases start exceptionally late, even for a guy intending to play behind the beat. But they end in the right timing. To me that's what holds it all together. And his delay is so exaggerated that it becomes natural if that makes sense. I could be way off, but his endings of phrases bring the timing back to what the ear wants to hear.

  11. #35

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    Quote Originally Posted by Banksia
    Often people speak at a faster tempo because their brains only present them with one option. If you only have one idea, are only capable of one perspective and only have a vocabulary of about 20 words, what's there to think about?
    Well, that explains most of Twitter!

  12. #36

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    ...and back again to the "hesitation" topic, maybe my musical language processing capability is limited, but I can not hear any hesitation when listening.

    All phrases are completly fluent, timed *naturally*, completely in time and completly makes sense. If there would been hesitation, an experienced listener should explititly hear that multiple times in every solo.

    It is possible, we extrapolate our perception of Bill's speaking, plus some of our visual perceptions from the videos, and speculating and creating theories about the music, which is not the appropriate method by definition.

    Anyway, I find no explanation the contradiction between the theories created in this thread and the music what we actually hear.

    ***

    Regarding Cunamara's info on anxiety, that helps, and it seems it comes through directly in many tunes.

  13. #37

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    His speaking may flavor the perception of his playing. I'll stipulate that. But there's something to his playing as well. It's not every time.

    I have no idea if he's on the autism spectrum. I never thought of that. But I love his originality.

    What I have seen during his performances is tweaking his effects back and forth and sometimes a slight hesitancy in his actions, maybe more so than the notes. It's like he winds up to pick the note in a hurry so the note is on time.

    These are not criticisms. It's his style and personality. If I knew him personally, I would not be surprised that he is somewhat anxious and finicky.

    I've listened to him talk about his Telecasters. He has a lot to say about specific customizations. I'll mention two others: Ted Greene and Tim Lerch. They also had or have lots of thoughts on the Telecaster but without the angst.

    So listen to these two versions of Shenandoah. See if you notice a difference in flow and hesitancy. They are very different styles. Which one seems more effortless and smoother, like it's been practiced until perfection? Which one exudes technical mastery and which one the momentary passion of the player?




    Could this playing style be his schtick? I dunno. Long ago he played more conventionally (legato).

    So if I can free associate on the topic, look at one of the best acts of showmanship in the last century. Is it real passion or an act? It will take a few minutes but it is time well spent. Also you'll see a fine Gibson in action.


  14. #38

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    Quote Originally Posted by Marty Grass

    I've listened to him talk about his Telecasters. He has a lot to say about specific customizations.
    Do you have any links for that? I'd love to hear the specifics of his telecasters, they are unique.

  15. #39

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    I don't have a specific video. He has mentioned in print interviews and videos, as I recall, about his pickups over the years and his guitars.

  16. #40

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    Goes to show you have to “try so hard” to be a master musician.

  17. #41

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    I don't remember if it was in the book, Beautiful Dreamer, or an interview that I just saw recently on YouTube with him in which he mentioned that he uses Telecasters because the form factor is the same. The instruments can be quite different in terms of tonality, pickups, etc.; that way he has variety of sounds to play with while physically not having to adapt very much from one instrument to the next.

  18. #42

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    He owns sixty-three guitars:


    He tunes a string up a microtone, picks it, and elicits a pair of ringing harmonics with a fingertip. “The harmonics—it’s like there’s this whole rainbow of overtones happening. I mean, it comes out in nylon string or gut string, too, but,” Frisell says, as he strums,“having played a steel-string guitar and hearing those overtones, your ear gets pulled there. So then when you play the nylon-string guitar you say, ‘Oh, that’s there.’

    “That’s my excuse for having a bunch of guitars: one guitar will teach you about another guitar.” Frisell strums ultra-lightly, and calls forth a couple of blooming harmonics. “If you have that attitude, it’ll pull you.” He then strums the first two chords of “My Man’s Gone Now,” a tune from “Porgy and Bess” that he has made his own. “And you find ways of getting sounds that you thought weren’t there.


  19. #43

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    Bill had some great lines in here. Julian's wild intro has grown on me after a few listens

  20. #44

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    I met Bill in the late 70's. I've been a close friend all these years. We've had many deep and flowing conversations about so many things and there has never been any behaviour that even suggests that he was or is on the spectrum. I know it's a very broad range of functionality, and I've known many musicians who have genuinely been solidly on the spectrum, my friend Mick being one of them.
    Bill has always had a deep and indelible stroke of genius about him, and he writes, speaks and plays music the way a circle of beat poets would converse: with deliberate awareness of peripheral happenings and a very conscious effort to frame that confluence of events into some unified statement.
    Bill is a very gentle and deeply empathic human being, something that is so often untapped in people on the spectrum, and he's also really funny.
    He lives his life as a poet and he practices that 24/7 and it's the way he is.
    So many players harbour a jealousy for the state of being that they call "childlike"; free from judgement and need. It's elusive, and even more difficult as an artist. It takes a devotion to consciousness. Your art isn't something you 'put on' and 'perform'. It takes the practice of being. That's Bill.

    Back in the early 80's Bill was playing with the drummer D Sharpe, who had also played with Jonathan Richmond, and as they were on the bandstand a whisper passed through the band as they were playing. At the end of the number, the entire band spontaneously broke into "Here comes the bride" which they played with gusto after which D holds an arm out to someone in the audience. Utter surprise, and quizzical silence broken by Bill Frisell doubled over in an uncontrollable gaffaw ... "THAT'S NOT HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!" They had reflexively gone into the wrong tune. Bill was gasping in laughter. THAT's the elusive Bill Frisell being totally normally human.