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Watch Bill Frisell's 'Keep Your Eyes Open' / udiscovermusic.
Posted At : July 19, 2020 12:00 AM
Acclaimed guitarist Bill Frisell has released "Keep Your Eyes Open," the second single to be revealed from his forthcoming Blue Note album, Valentine, featuring his trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston. Mixing originals new and old, jazz standards, traditional songs, and covers, Frisell's new album ‘Valentine' is set for release on August 14.
"Keep Your Eyes Open," which originally appeared on Frisell's 1997 album Nashville, is accompanied by a new video by Monica Jane Frisell,
Valentine will be released by Blue Note Records on August 14. Produced by his long-time collaborator Lee Townsend and recorded by Tucker Martine at Flora Recording in Portland, Oregon, it's a 13-song set that mixes Frisell originals new and old, jazz standards, traditional songs, and covers. The album explores the creative freedom of the trio format and the profound relationship that exists between these three musicians after years of touring. Photo: John Lamparski
READ THE FULL udiscovermusic. ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEO
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Bill Frisell Trio was maybe all-time best RIJF show / Rochester City Newspaper
Posted At : June 23, 2019 12:00 AM
It's a stunning moment when an artist allows us inside his or her head, to that lifetime-retrospective rattling around in the brain. But that's what happened during the second show from the Bill Frisell Trio on Saturday night at the Temple Building Theater. This is the 18th Rochester International Music Festival. I've covered them all, and I would never pick an all-time best show. But this one would certainly be in the conversation. Frisell opened with an uninterrupted, 55-minute medley of guitar, bass and drums. Fifty-five minutes - that's supposed to be all there is, right? But after a moment's pause, the Bill Frisell Trio went right back to work. Another 25-minute, uninterrupted medley.
READ THE FULL City Newspaper ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell to perform in Vietnam for first time / Vietnam +
Posted At : May 23, 2019 12:00 AM
Guitarist Bill Frisell, widely known as one of the most versatile players in jazz history, will perform for the first time in Vietnam at the "Bill Frisell: Summer on Guitar" concert which will take place on May 26 at the Soul Live Project Complex in Ho Chi Minh City's district 3. The concert features Thomas Morgan on bass, Rudy Royston on drums, and Bill Frisell on guitar. The audience will experience a musical space of jazz full of improvisation and romance, as natural as breathing. They will be treated to an interesting conversation of the three instruments on stage, as well as the creative musical approach and expression of the trio. Frisell said: "I'm very excited to come to Vietnam. Music is such a mysterious, magical and wonderful thing. Music has the most extraordinary power to connect and bring people together."
READ THE FULL Vietnam + ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell chats with Guitar.com
Posted At : May 2, 2019 12:00 AM
The esteemed guitarist on being himself, letting go of theory, and why he's happy to blur the genre lines. Bill Frisell might well be one of the most-recorded guitarists of his generation. Possessing one of the most recognisably bell-like tones you'll ever hear, he's been lauded as among the most versatile players in jazz history. With the guitarist soon to hit the road following the recent release of his latest album Epistrophy, it's a welcome opportunity to chat to one of the most sought-after musicians in the world.
PHOTO: John Lamparski/Getty Images
READ THE FULL Guitar.com ARTICLE
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Public Radio Tulsa celebrates march birthdays, among other things
Posted At : March 30, 2019 12:00 AM
Tune in for the next broadcast of All This Jazz, starting at 9pm on Saturday the 30th, right here on KWGS-FM / Public Radio Tulsa. It'll be three hours of can't-miss modern jazz -- all of it introduced, chosen, contextualized, and presented by an actual person (rather than a robot)!
In the third and thematic hour of our show, our theme will be March Birthdays. Thus we'll hear from Norah Jones (who turns 40 today), Bill Frisell (who's shown here, and who played a KILLER show here in Tulsa recently), Steve Kuhn, Eliane Elias, and other jazz greats born in the 3rd month. And elsewhere in our program, we'll listen to the music of Eddie Daniels, Michael Dease, Kate McGarry, and Clifford Jordan, among others.
READ THE FULL Public Radio Tulsa ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell returns for Give-a-Jam / Louisville Eccentric Observer
Posted At : March 20, 2019 12:00 AM
Renowned jazz guitarist and composer Bill Frisell has a history of helping the homeless. He once did a string of shows supporting the progressive, Seattle-based, homeless advocacy newspaper Real Change. Now, Frisell is returning to Louisville for 2019's first Give-a-Jam, a benefit concert series for the Louisville Coalition for the Homeless. He told LEO Weekly when an opportunity comes "to actually help somehow, it feels really great. Sometimes you feel helpless, and you're like, man, I don't know what to do," Frisell said. "So, it's like a selfishly great thing for me to feel I can do a little bit, just put something into it and help somebody, especially when it's something that's already organized, and it's working."
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READ THE FULL Louisville Eccentric Observer ARTICLE
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JAZZIZ wishes Bill Frisell 'happy birthday' with SONG OF THE DAY
Posted At : March 18, 2019 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell, whose career as a pathbreaking guitarist spans more than 40 years, was born on this day (March 18) in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1951. With more than 35 albums as a leader, Frisell has become one of the leading voices in jazz guitar, with a style that merges modern jazz with elements of folk, early rock and roll, country music, bluegrass, Americana and the avant-garde. Today's Song of the Day comes from Frisell's 2011 release, All We Are Saying, which features the guitarist's unique interpretations of John Lennon's music. Frisell's trademark guitar sound is pure, shimmering and richly hued; on "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," it's a thrill to hear it take the shape of one of Lennon's most enduring melodies.
LISTEN TO "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"
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Bill Frisell readies four-night residency at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage / San Francisco Chronicle
Posted At : February 25, 2019 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell contains multitudes, but it's not often that several of his bandstand personae get to hang out in the same building. With music as variable as the weather, the protean jazz guitarist seems to introduce a new band or project every month. But most of the time, he's on the move with one ensemble focusing on a particular body of work.
In a welcome change of pace, he plays a four-night residency at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage from Thursday, Feb. 28, through Sunday, March 3, offering a wide-angle glimpse into his variegated creative realm with a different lineup for each show. He opens Thursday with his trio featuring bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen, the volatile rhythm section tandem for trumpeter Steven Bernstein's Sex Mob, and special guest Sam Amidon, a folk singer with whom Frisell has occasionally collaborated.
Photo: Monica Jane Frisell
READ THE FULL San Francisco Chronicle ARTICLE
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New Bill Frisell, Cuong Vu collaboration reflects a cross-continental sensibility / popMATTERS
Posted At : October 2, 2018 12:00 AM
In 2007, trumpeter and composer Cuong Vu moved from New York to Seattle, where he teaches music at the University of Washington. Bill Frisell, the versatile guitarist, made the same move years before, and he just returned to New York recently. But the two overlapped on the west coast for over decade-along with bassist Luke Bergman and drummer Ted Poor. Change in the Air is the hippest of their collaborations to date: a session of all-original music by all four members of the "4Tet". And every tune is fascinating, a perfect match for this balanced, always-interesting band.
It is Frisell's genius and generosity that, despite having a unique approach and distinctive guitar tone, he is a subtle partner in a band that is not his own, blending into the group sound with sympathy.
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READ THE FULL popMATTERS REVIEW
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John Zorn brings his multiconcert marathon to ARTIC, pairing 12 ensembles with iconic artworks / Chicago Reader
Posted At : September 1, 2018 12:00 AM
In recent years the sprawling variety and prolificacy of works by musician, composer, and community force John Zorn, have been showcased in appropriately ambitious, multiconcert marathon events presented all around the world with enormous casts of musicians. Last month I experienced one of the largest such efforts when Jazz em Agosto, in Lisbon, Portugal, turned over its entire ten-day lineup to Zorn's music and artists from deep within his circle such as Ikue Mori and Robert Dick. But I have to say I think the modest iteration of that format happening this Sunday at the Art Institute of Chicago seems more illustrative of his compositional heft-and it also seems like a more manageable and logical program. A superb cast of musicians will perform in a dozen pieces by Zorn that tilt toward rigorous notation. Each of the 12 will be played by a different ensemble in relation to specific works of art located in across 12 areas of museum at 30-minute intervals. Participating musicians include guitarist Bill Frisell.
READ THE FULL Chicago Reader ARTICLE
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Watch Bill Frisell discuss fender mustangs in 'Carmine Street Guitars' trailer / Deadline Hollywood
Posted At : August 31, 2018 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell, a member of John Zorn's Naked City and the man who provided the music for the TV version of Gary Larson's The Far Side, talks Fender Mustang guitars and The Astronauts in this exclusive clip of doc Carmine Street Guitars, which premieres next week in Venice. The doc, which has its world premiere in Venice on September 3 before airing in Toronto and New York, was instigated by filmmaker and guitarist Jim Jarmusch and tells the story of the fabled Greenwich Village guitar shop. Directed by Ron Mann (Altman), it follows custom guitar-maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej, who build handcrafted guitars out of salvaged wood from historic New York buildings. Fans have included Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Jarmusch.
READ THE FULL Deadline Hollywood ARTICLE
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Hear Paul Simon's new version of 'Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War' / RollingStone
Posted At : August 30, 2018 12:00 AM
Paul Simon adds lush orchestral layers to "Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War" in a new version of the 1983 track. New York chamber ensemble yMusic offers textural elegance to the rerecorded take, which appears on the singer-songwriter's upcoming 14th LP, In the Blue Light out September 7th. 10 new versions of overlooked pieces from throughout Simon's catalog. Guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist John Patitucci and drummers Steve Gadd and Jack DeJohnette appear on the album; yMusic also contributed to one other song, "Can't Run But," which features an arrangement from the National's Bryce Dessner.
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READ THE FULL RollingStone ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEO
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Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell team for Johnny Smith tribute / Reverb Q&A
Posted At : August 22, 2018 12:00 AM
Guitarists Mary Halvorson and Bill Frisell have two of the most distinctive musical voices of their respective generations. Each has found a rare and unparalleled way of approaching the instrument, with such unique approaches to melody, harmony, and their respective sounds, and it's no surprise that they've both inspired the future of guitar music. At the impetus of composer and Tzadik records proprietor John Zorn, Halvorson and Frisell teamed up to pay tribute to another guitar iconoclast, Johnny Smith, with their new duo record, The Maid With The Flaxen Hair.
READ THE Reverb Q&A
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Skuli Sverrisson, Bill Frisell and more on WBGO's 'Take Five'
Posted At : August 13, 2018 12:00 AM
Look Sharp with NATE CHINEN and New Music on 'Take Five,' featuring Christian Sands, Mark Turner, Bill Frisell and more.
Newvelle Records, the audiophile subscription vinyl label, is now into its third season. For those who have the proper resources - a working turntable, and some discretionary funds - it's a fabulous fount of new music that can't be heard any other way. The latest Newvelle release, shipping this week, is Strata, a poetic duo collaboration between the Icelandic bassist Skúli Sverrisson and the all-American guitarist Bill Frisell. It consists entirely of music by Sverrisson, much of it composed specifically for this pairing. But the video above features "Afternoon Variant," a piece previously heard on Sverrisson's 2013 album The Box Tree (with saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson). No surprise that it so beautifully suits the lyrical side of Frisell, whose interplay with Sverrisson feels effortlessly deep.
SEE WBGO: Newark NJ PAGE
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Carmine Street Guitars documentary set for world premier at Venice Film Festival / Variety
Posted At : July 26, 2018 12:00 AM
New documentary "Carmine Street Guitars" will have its world premier at the Venice Film Festival. The Ron Mann-directed film chronicles a week in the life of Greenwich Village guitar maker Rick Kelly and his apprentice Cindy Hulej. Kelly's method is unique: he builds his guitars out of wood salvaged from old New York City buildings constructed in the 1800s or as he calls it, "the bones of old New York." Artists like Lou Reed and Bob Dylan have owned Kelly's guitars, which feature parts taken from such iconic Manhattan locales as the Hotel Chelsea and Chumley's pub.
The doc brings musicians of all stripes - including Patti Smith Band's Lenny Kaye, Kirk Douglas of The Roots, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Bill Frisell, Nels Cline of Wilco, Marc Ribot, Ester Baling, Dallas and Travis Good of The Sadies and Dylan six-stringer Charlie Sexton - to the shop. Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch also makes an appearance for a quick guitar repair, and was responsible for the film's conception, in a way. "This movie was really made thanks to Jim Jarmusch," Mann tells Variety. "Not only for introducing me to Carmine Street Guitars but also for films like ‘Coffee and Cigarettes' and ‘Patterson' - this film has that sort of tone." Mann's own credits go back more than three decades and include 2014's "Altman" as well as "Grass" and "Comic Book Confidential."
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READ THE FULL Variety ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell Trio set for Boulder Theater / Westword
Posted At : June 13, 2018 12:00 AM
When guitarist Bill Frisell, who grew in Denver and is now based in Brooklyn, was beginning his career as a professional musician in the early '80s, he played a solo show for the first time and told himself he never wanted to do it again. But the next year he did another solo gig and one the year after that, and it gradually became easier.
The chameleonic Frisell clearly knows how to get inside whatever music he's playing, whether it's jazz, Americana, country, folk or many other music traditions that he's worked into one of the most distinctive guitar voices in the last few decades. Music IS, Frisell's first solo album in a decade, shows just how wide his scope reaches.
To prepare for Music IS, he took a big pile of sheet music of his own songs to a weeklong solo stint at the experimental music space The Stone in New York City and played different songs each night. Some of these songs were newer compositions that he hadn't played yet, or older songs he had never performed live, like "In Line," from his 1983 ECM debut of the same name.
While the sixteen-track Music IS has some stunning new songs, like "Thankful" and "What Do You Want," Frisell also puts fresh solo takes on older songs like "Rambler," also from In Line, "Ron Carter" and "The Pioneers." Frisell recorded the album with longtime collaborators Lee Townsend and Tucker Martine, and he says making it was sort of like playing a gig in slow motion.
The Bill Frisell Trio is set for the Boulder Theater, tonight June 13. READ THE FULL Westword ARTICLE
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Set for Boulder Theatre, Bill Frisell chats with KGNU
Posted At : June 13, 2018 12:00 AM
Almost every day, Bill Frisell gets up in the morning, has some coffee, and writes music. At this point, there are piles and piles and piles of single pages of staff paper filled with his graceful script. "I don't know where the melodies come from," says Frisell. "I try not to judge anything and just let them be." Frisell's mantra, or motto so to speak, is, "Music is Good" – a statement said to him by his dear friend and great banjo player Danny Barnes. "That is something that I can say is always true. It's so perfect. Everything I need to know is that phrase, ‘Music is Good.' I almost called the album that, but then I thought that might be too literal. It's good to leave it open." Music IS – released on March 16 via OKeh/Sony Music Masterworks – marks the long awaited solo album from the master of his craft.
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KGNU: Boulder CO, Indra Raj chats with Frisell following the release of 'Music IS' and in advance of his June 13 Boulder Theatre Show. LISTEN
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Bill Frisell indeed sounds like no other. Highlights from the Discover Jazz Festival / BurlingtonFreePress.com
Posted At : June 11, 2018 12:00 AM
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Bill Frisell, left, talks with William Ellis, professor in the music department at St. Michael's College, during a "Meet the Artist" session in FlynnSpace as part of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival on June 7, 2018. An audience member mentioned how unique the guitar giant's tone is, and that he sounds like no other musician. Frisell said he must be failing, because he has always aspired toward the greats; he said he's just playing at them rather than playing like them. Then he went on stage a few hours later for the first of two sold-out shows at FlynnSpace and proved that he indeed sounds like no other, alternately melodic and dissonant, jazzy and western twangy, clear as a raindrop and murky as a cloud. Frisell, it turns out, is one of those greats others aspire to emulate.(Photo: BRENT HALLENBECK/FREE PRESS)
READ THE FULL BurlingtonFreePress.com ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell releases spellbinding solo guitar album / Chicago Reader
Posted At : June 1, 2018 12:00 AM
Few musicians have built as distinctive a sound world as guitarist Bill Frisell. Though he's ostensibly a jazz guitarist, since the early 80s he's funneled a wide variety of influences and ideas from country, rock, noise, and various international traditions into an aesthetic as American as anything forged by Sousa, Presley, or Copland. Though specific projects such as film scores or songbooks constantly shift his focus in the short term, a macrosweep of his oeuvre shows how earthy twang, melodic wanderlust, and humid atmospheres infused with the wide-open spirit of the plains meld in his recordings. Earlier this year he released a spellbinding solo guitar album, Music Is (Okeh), a luxuriant survey of older original tunes along with some new ones. The project was sparked by an air of spontaneity that coursed through the guitarist following a weeklong solo residency at the Stone-the New York not-for-profit avant-garde and experimental space programmed by John Zorn.
READ THE FULL Chicago Reader REVIEW
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Bill Frisell - Music IS sincere guitar artistry / 91.5KIOS: Last Call 'Pick of the Week'
Posted At : May 22, 2018 12:00 AM
Guitarist Bill Frisell is back with another album, and this one is a solo date. Frisell is a one-man band with electric and acoustic guitars, loops, bass, ukulele and music boxes. He roams freely through his influences, which range widely from country, to folk & rock & jazz. The satisfying results will please almost any listener who is interested in sincere guitar artistry. Highlights of disc include "Ron Carter", 'Rambler" and "Pretty Stars". The disc includes 16 tracks that are perfect for solitary listening or in the company of those who appreciate heartfelt music that can't be in the background.
READ THE FULL 91.5KIOS: Last Call 'Pick of the Week' REVIEW
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Frisell,Morgan,Royston, set for NAJS: summer jazz kickoff / 91.3KUAF
Posted At : May 22, 2018 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell Trio featuring Thomas Morgan & Rudy Royston June 14 will kick off the 91.3KUAF - jazz summer concert series. This concert is presented by the Northwest Arkansas Jazz Society and Walton Arts Center as part of the 20th season of Summer Jazz Concerts and the Artosphere Festival. On Frisell, The New York Times wrote; "It's hard to find a more fruitful meditation on American music than in the compositions of guitarist Bill Frisell. Mixing rock and country with jazz and blues, he's found what connects them: improvisation and a sense of play. Unlike other pastichists, who tend to duck passion, Mr. Frisell plays up the pleasure in the music and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness."
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Bill Frisell Trio, set for 'Sound,' chats with 103.3 - The Duluth Alternative
Posted At : May 17, 2018 12:00 AM
Grammy award-winning guitarist Bill Frisell brings his Trio, featuring Tony Scherr & Kenny Wollesen to 'Sound' in Duluth MN on May 18. Frisell explores the musical possibilities of his own multi-faceted compositions and time-honored jazz and folk songs with this ever-evolving constellation of extraordinary musicians. Their diverse backgrounds and talents provide a wide-open climate to interpret the full spectrum of Frisell's repertoire where an integration of many musical directions becomes possible. He says;
"My trio with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen is probably the most flexible, spontaneous group I play with. The program can change from night to night depending on what kind of mood we're all in, the size or sound of the room, the audience, what we have or had not had to eat that day, how much sleep we've had recently, how far we've traveled, etc. etc. We never plan a set before hand. With Tony and Kenny I have the luxury of playing just about anything that comes into my head at any moment. This could be music from any of my albums, standard songs, folk songs, or whatever. These guys really inspire and challenge me everytime we get together."
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Frisell sat down with 103.3KUMD - Duluth to discuss music and Music IS. Listen to the attached clip
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Bill Frisell knows what Music IS / NWADemocrat & Gazette
Posted At : April 22, 2018 12:00 AM
I've interviewed four American presidents. Norman Mailer. Madonna. Tom Cruise. They can work out well and make great pieces, but I hardly ever get excited about doing interviews.
Because I was talking about Bill Frisell. The occasion was a show he was scheduled to play at Little Rock's Ron Robinson Theater -- a show that wound up being canceled because of bad weather. So while I talked to Frisell and wrote the interview for our blood, dirt & angels blog (blooddirtangels.com), obviously I didn't get to see and review the show.
Now Frisell, who for years has served as a sideman for figures as disparate as free jazz composer-producer-saxophonist John Zorn and alt-folkie Vic Chesnutt, has released the remarkable jazz guitar album Music IS (OKeh Records). This is his first completely solo effort since 2000's Ghost Town. It's composed of 15 Frisell compositions; the 16 tracks have two new stripped-down versions of his venerable tune "Rambler," which in its original form was the title track of Frisell's 1984 album and featured flugelhorn and tuba. On the new album, the artist plays acoustic and electric guitars, with a little bass and ukelele in the mix. Yet the most salient feature of the recording might be Frisell's subtle and sensitive use of a looper pedal to create a sonic canvas for some of his most painterly playing.
This is a fairly straightforward album, at least for a musician as eclectic and resistant to characterization as Frisell. You can pick out elements of folk, rock, country and jazz, delivered with his trademark American tonal flavor. His playfulness weaves lightly through the project, and though the tracks are multilayered and harmonically complex, they never become dense. Above everything else, a sense of joy and tenderness permeates the project -- like we're hearing Frisell pray through his instrument.
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READ THE FULL NWAOnline ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell 'Music IS' could also be titled - 'Music Frisell Is' / 88.9KUCI - Irvine
Posted At : April 16, 2018 12:00 AM
Certain artists play themselves through their instruments. In a strange way their instruments are peripheral to their performances and their compositions are vehicles for their passing humours. In these sixteen short pieces for electric guitar and effects Frisell presents a summation of a musical and more urgently a personal vision. Like Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier" or Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", this suite dwells in the essence of it's creator and seeks to expand the range of an instrument by expanding the range of performance and technique, and ultimately expanding the range of perception and awareness. Frisell's "Music Is" could also be titled Music "Frisell Is".
SEE ALL OF THIS WEEK'S REVIEWS ON 88.9KUCI - Irvine CA
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Bill Frisell releases long overdue solo album / Jazz Weekly
Posted At : April 16, 2018 12:00 AM
Guitarist Bill Frisell releases a long overdue solo album, collecting material ranging from his earliest albums to fresh new material. Because of his experimentation with sounds and colors, any return to an "old" song is bound to have radical re-interpretations, and Frisell doesn't disappoint. His effects on "In Line" and "The Rambler" from his first ECM album, as well as his return to "Ron Carter" feature wondrous sonic musings, while "Happy Go Lucky" and "Thankful" are patient pieces that use space like a sound. Most fun is "Think About It" which has the mad scientist putting his amp inside an upright piano to create a rich and other worldly tone. How did he even think about this? As Monk was to the piano, Bill Frisell is to the guitar; not focused on showing off chops, but bringing forth sonic textures, and this one is a beaut.
SEE THE Jazz Weekly PAGE
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Bill Frisell - Music IS...good / Something Else! Reviews
Posted At : April 13, 2018 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell recently released Music IS, a solo studio project, via Okeh / Sony Music Masterworks – but it almost had a slightly different title. Frisell's mantra is "music is good," a saying which comes from his banjo-playing friend Danny Barnes. "That is something that I can say is always true. It is so perfect. Everything I need to know is that phrase," Frisell says. "I almost called the album that, but then I thought that might be too literal. It's good to leave it open. Playing solo is always a challenge. For me, music has all along been so much about playing with other people, having a conversation, call and response. Playing all by myself is a trip. I really have to change the way I think."
READ THE FULL Something Else! Review
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Bill Frisell releases long-awaited solo album / jazztrail
Posted At : April 9, 2018 12:00 AM
Venerated guitarist Bill Frisell, one of the most emblematic figures of Americana and folk-jazz, releases his long-awaited solo album, Music Is. The 16-track recording includes brand new compositions and old material irresistibly dressed with the sonic possibilities of our times. In addition to the electric and acoustic guitars, Frisell plays ukulele, electronic loops, bass, and music boxes, in a lush fusion of jazz, country, blues, and rock. His genuine musicality is immediately foreboded on the Westerner "Pretty Stars", a perspicacious country-folk examination cooked up with a descendent whole-step melodic interval that rings in most of the harmonic passages.
READ THE FULL jazztrail REVIEW
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There are beautifully reflective pieces on Bill Frisell's Music IS / Elsewhere
Posted At : April 7, 2018 12:00 AM
When Elsewhere profiled Bill Frisell in advance of his appearances at the Wellington Jazz festival in 2017 we headed the piece "Guitarist Without Portfolio".
Among his vast catalogue are recordings for ECM, albums with titles like Richter 858, Guitar in the Space Age, Music for the Films of Buster Keaton, Nashville . . .
And everywhere his mercurial and meticulous guitar seems to fit perfectly.
In that article we quoted him as saying that he was at his happiest when really immersed in music and his guitar.
In that regard this new album should find him delirious because he went into the familiar comfort of a longtime friend's studio in Portland and simply immersed himself in the solo recordings, more than half of which were new pieces.
There are beautifully reflective pieces here: Made to Shine sounds like it was adapted from a melancholy Civil War ballad (as does The Pioneers, the sound of quiet dusk on a lone prairie), Miss You is the reverie its title suggests, Monica Jane will doubtless be moved to tears by the piece bearing her name as she walks away in the closing passages . . .
There are more idiosyncratic piece like the multi-tracked and lightly country-funk Rambler (and its alternate take) which dates back to his ECM album of that title in '85, the gritty and discordant Kentucky Derby which packs a fanfare and backward tapes into two minutes, the aggressive minute-long Think About It . . .
From heartache and soul-filled reflection to flickers of out-there avant-guitar, this is a showcase of Bill Frisell's all-encompassing gifts . . . and the quieter pieces which predominate will have you engrossed.
READ THE FULL Elsewhere ARTICLE
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Ahead of AthensGA date, flagpole highlights Bill Frisell
Posted At : April 4, 2018 12:00 AM
Sixty-seven-year-old Bill Frisell, one of the world's most influential guitarists, recorded his live album Small Town in 2016 at the world's most famous jazz club, the Village Vanguard in New York. When Frisell arrives to play Hendershot's on Friday April 6, in a trio with bassist Thomas Morgan-his duo partner from Small Town-and drummer Rudy Royston, he'll be in an actual small town, though one with a vaunted and outsize musical history. There's little doubt his music will fall on receptive Athenian ears. "I played at Nuçi's Space a few times and one other place, but it's been quite a while," the guitarist recalls.
Reached in Minneapolis during a tour with Charles Lloyd last month, Frisell had a lot to look forward to, including the release of his extraordinary solo-guitar album Music IS, released Mar. 16. "We're going into the Vanguard again with Thomas and Rudy, and I'll be playing in there for two weeks," he says, "so by the time we get to Athens, there's no telling what's gonna be happening. But we'll be warmed up, anyway."
READ THE FULL flagpole ARTICLE
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Acoustic tracks, bass and ukulele broaden the sonic palette, on Bill Frisell - Music IS / Audiophile Audition
Posted At : April 4, 2018 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell is a guitarist for all seasons. He fits in as the ultimate guitar sideman. His tastes are eclectic and cover rock, country, jazz, and bluegrass. His use of variable timbre is well known and he can combine beautiful melody with a rapid progression into dissonance. On one session he can cover John Lennon (All We Are Saying in 2011) and then play on a John Zorn Tzadik label that can satisfy the avant garde leanings.
It has been quite awhile since Frisell's previous solo album, Ghost Town. On his latest CD, Music Is, he returns to recording only his own compositions. There are five new tracks among the fifteen numbers, plus an alternate version of "Rambler" (that revisits one of his early ECM releases). His new CD was recorded at Tucker Martine's Flora Recording and Playback Studio in Portland, Or. The acoustics are crisp and clear, and the echo of plucked strings is ever present. As the tracks were laid down, they were mixed to keep Frisell's vision sharp. Though known primarily for his electric guitar, there are acoustic tracks, and bass and ukulele are mixed in to broaden the sonic palette.
READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition REVIEW
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A 'who's who' for John Abercrombie: Timeless concert / Brooklyn Vegan
Posted At : March 29, 2018 12:00 AM
On March 26, Brooklyn venue Roulette hosted ‘John Abercrombie: Timeless – A Tribute to His Life and Music,' a benefit concert in honor of the late jazz musician who passed on in August of 2017 at 72 years old. Abercrombie was an innovative and prominent guitarist recorded over 40 albums as a leader or co-leader and the majority were released by the revered label ECM where he remained a flagship artist for his entire career.
Monday's sold out show brought out 17 stellar musicians who had worked with Abercrombie over the course of his career. Appearing in several different configurations the performers included Joey Baron – Drums, Randy Brecker – Trumpet, Nels Cline – Guitar, Marc Copland – Piano, Jack DeJohnette – Drums, Eliane Elias – Piano, Peter Erskine – Drums, Mark Feldman – Violin, Bill Frisell – Guitar, Drew Gress – Double-bass, Billy Hart – Drums (a surprise guest who wasn't on the advertised line up), Marc Johnson – Double-bass, David Liebman – Soprano Saxophone, Joe Lovano – Saxophones, Thomas Morgan – Double-bass, Adam Nussbaum – Drums and John Scofield – Guitar. Disappointingly, the brilliant guitarist Ralph Towner was supposed to perform but an acute ear infection forced him to cancel his appearance.
The real show stopper, literally, was the last set grouping the incredible drumming of Jack DeJohnette (who appeared on many of Abercrombie's best releases including Timeless and Gateway) with bassist Drew Gress, pianist Marc Copland and the gorgeous and delicate guitar stylings of the great Bill Frisell. They performed a couple of songs from the classic Timeless that were absolute perfection, which delighted the audience and drew a standing ovation from the over-sold and packed house.
review and photos by Greg Cristman
READ THE FULL Brooklyn Vegan ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell Q&A with Premier Guitar
Posted At : March 27, 2018 12:00 AM
"They're sort of floating around out there, and we don't even know where they're coming from or how far they are or what's going on." Bill Frisell is talking about melodies and stars, but what he's saying illustrates a lot about his sound. From the tones he conjures out of his guitar to his improvisational vocabulary, Frisell draws from ideas that seem to be floating around in the musical cosmos. At any moment, he can sound equally referential to early rock 'n' roll, classic country, jazz of all eras, and the cutting edge of experimentalism, but he always sounds completely personal and instantly identifiable.
Frisell thrives on fitting his sound into unique musical situations, which can range from playing alongside jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd to the Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh to doom-metal lords Earth. Variety seems to dictate many of the guitarist's artistic choices, and his discography is full of a wide range of highly focused projects, from his early avant-garde-quartet releases on ECM Records to country and bluegrass-tinged projects like Nashville and The Willies to his world-music album The Intercontinentals or his recent take on classic motion picture themes, When You Wish Upon a Star.
For his newest release, Music IS, Frisell has chosen to make a return to solo guitar. He's explored solo music throughout his recording career, starting with the four solo pieces on his debut album, 1983's In Line. He returned to the idea on 2000's Ghost Town, which featured layers of guitars and bass ruminating on dark Americana themes, and then took a much different approach on 2013's Silent Comedy, freely improvising in the studio.
Music IS feels like a culmination of those previous efforts. While many of the pieces feature carefully layered guitar parts, there is an openness to Frisell's playing and choice of tone that feels live and spontaneous. Despite referring to solo playing as an "ongoing challenge," Frisell sounds at home on the album's 15 tracks-some of which are new compositions and many of which are new versions of tunes that he's recorded in other formats on previous albums. "It was like seeing it as if someone else had written it, so I was almost learning it for the first time all over again, or seeing things that I never knew were there," he told Premier Guitar during our phone interview, explaining why the tunes on his new album sound as fresh as ever.
"I was just so terrified to sit there and try to play alone. It was like torture or something. I swore I would never do it again."
Music IS is warm and welcoming, much like the man himself, and Frisell has plenty of stories to share. We discussed his ideas about playing solo, why it was time for another solo guitar outing, the cool things about getting older, finding guitars with a story, and more. Photo by Monica Jane Frisell
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READ THE Premier Guitar Q&A
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Music IS. A set of richly detailed originals that reflect Bill Frisell's boundary-breaking approach / Financial Times
Posted At : March 23, 2018 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell has been condensing a wealth of Americana into a precise, slightly otherworldly and utterly original musical universe for more than 30 years. His latest release, a set of richly detailed originals for solo guitar, combines country strolls, angular modern jazz and love of texture into a defining statement that reflects his boundary-breaking approach.
Music IS spans the four decades of the American's recording career, beginning with "In Line", the title track of his 1983 debut on ECM, to "Change in the Air", written for a forthcoming movie of the same name. But with each piece freshly reimagined, and four new compositions in the mix, the album looks more to the future than the past.
It opens with the country melody of "Pretty Stars" twinkling gently over harmonised runs and answering bass and continues with the playfully acerbic, Monk-like blues "Winslow Homer", originally a commission for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. "Ron Carter" is a brooding standout of strums vibrating in space; "Think About It" a concise burst of gritty power-chord rock.
The sleeve lists Frisell playing electric and acoustic guitars, bass and ukulele as well as loops and music boxes for electronic effects, but not all tracks are overdubbed. "Rambler", from his second ECM release, is presented twice. The first version strides inquisitively through thickets of overdubs for more than six minutes; the second closes the album with an equally detailed reading for solo guitar that is half the length.
The new compositions present Frisell taking his concise minimalism to another level. The downward run of "Thankful" evolves into a full country band, "What Do You Want" gains an ominous wash of electronica, but the abstract pings and tipsy sense of time of "Go Happy Lucky" are conjured from solo guitar. But whether layered or unadorned, each track sounds equally fresh, a reflection, perhaps, of tunes being chosen in the moment and the album being mixed as the session went along.
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The highly anticipated solo album from Bill Frisell, is finally here / Making A Scene
Posted At : March 22, 2018 12:00 AM
The highly anticipated solo album from one of the world's premier guitarists, Bill Frisell, is finally here. This is Frisell at his most distilled and, as you would expect, melodic, ethereal, and imaginative. Recorded in August 2017 at Tucker Martine's studio in Portland, OR and produced by longtime collaborator Lee Townsend, the album features 15 Frisell originals, some brand new and others culled from previous albums with "In Line" and "Rambler" from his first two on ECM.
The new tunes are: "Change in the Air," "Thankful," "What Do You Want," "Miss You," and "Go Happy Lucky." Even his classic tunes like "Ron Carter" and "pretty Stars," for example, sound different here as he tweaked the arrangements. Frisell is truly one of our treasures and his modesty is refreshing. He claims that he'll never figure music out, offering this – "One of the amazing things about getting older is being able to revisit things that I heard of played long ago. There's always something new to discover, something to uncover. New pathways open up. If I'm really lucky I might even realize that I've learned something along the way. It's far out looking at my own music through this long lens."
Be forewarned that like most of Frisell's music, this is quiet but subtly complex, especially the layered pieces. It's not background music. When you give your full concentration, it becomes that much more rewarding.
READ THE FULL Making A Scene REVIEW
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Bill Frisell's 'Music Is' offers powerful reminders / Wall Street Journal
Posted At : March 20, 2018 12:00 AM
On Thursday night at Manhattan's Village Vanguard jazz club, in the midst of a two-week run, guitarist Bill Frisell exuded authority and compassion in equal measure while leading his trio. He prompted drummer Rudy Royston to play gently here or with bombast there, and lured bassist Thomas Morgan craftily in and out of each song's structure. Mr. Frisell, who has made 40 albums as a leader and played on more than 250, is by now a ubiquitous presence, ranging well beyond jazz's sphere (his list of collaborations includes Elvis Costello, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the film director Wim Wenders ).
Mr. Frisell's new release, "Music Is" (Okeh/Sony Music Masterworks), out now, a solo recording of original music, offers powerful reminders. Mr. Frisell, who is 67 years old, revisits the title of his first recording as a leader, 1983's "In Line" (which was all originals, and mostly solo-guitar); here, he slows the tempo down, drawing from the former version's skittering background figures what now sounds like a sturdy theme, which sprouts fresh shoots of counterpoint and harmony. Unlike his 2013 solo-guitar album, "Silent Comedy," of improvised pieces, this album focuses squarely on compositions, split between old and new. The loops, effects and overdubbing that he made good use of on another solo-guitar release, 2000's "Ghost Town," by now constitute a language of personalized sonic gestures. Given these, even solo, Mr. Frisell is not alone. He can sound like a chorus of strings, as on a lovely new song, "Change in the Air," or as if his looped phrases are in conversation with whatever he strums or plucks, as on " Ron Carter, " an older piece.
READ THE FULL Wall Street Journal ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell - Music IS / the arts fuse review
Posted At : February 26, 2018 12:00 AM
In 1982, after having recorded with European bassists Eberhard Weber (Fluid Rustle, ECM) and Arild Andersen (A Molde Concert, ECM), and with drummer Paul Motian (Psalm, ECM) along with Chet Baker, Tony Scott, and Mike Metheny, guitarist Bill Frisell made his own, mostly solo, record, In Line for ECM.
He returned to the solo format in 1999 with Ghost Town. On guitar, banjo, and bass (also drawing on tape loops), he played originals, such as "Creep," but also the Carter Family's hit "Wildwood Flower" and Hank Williams' plaintive "I Am So Lonesome I Could Cry." It's taken 18 years for Frisell to issue another solo record: Music IS. It may be his best yet. Having compared Frisell to Pollock, I was amused to see that he has penned a tribute to a much different painter, "Winslow Homer." With its eccentric accents and delayed entrances, it's a blues that could have been composed by T.S. Monk. As Frisell improvises inventively, though without entirely abandoning his original melody, the guitarist gradually adds layers of over-dubbed material. Despite the complication, every line is lucid and the composition moves along joyously. His "Pretty Stars" boasts what sounds like an inevitable melody. But, of course, there's more to the track than its lyricism.
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Bill Frisell uses the Line 6 DL4 pedal to create his expansive soundscapes / Pitchfork
Posted At : January 19, 2018 12:00 AM
"It's possible the past 10 years could become the first decade of pop music to be remembered by history for its musical technology rather than the actual music itself," wrote Eric Harvey at the end of the last decade. He was referring to the impact of the mp3, but the idea rings just as true for creators as it does consumers. A less commonly discussed breakthrough of the era involved musicians' outboard gear, such as guitar pedals, which moved from analog to now-inexpensive digital architectures. There was one pedal in particular that emerged as a favorite: the Line 6 DL4 delay modeler.
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Radiohead are known to fiddle the knobs of the DL4. Andrew Bird utilized two DL4s to create his glitched-out violin loops, as did Kishi Bashi. Grizzly Bear were known to have a DL4 or two on stage. Deerhunter's Lockett Pundt is known to have one on his pedalboard. Bill Frisell and Sarah Lipstate, aka Noveller, both used the pedal to create their expansive and florid guitar soundscapes. And Battles, arguably the wonked-out kings of '00s indie-prog, could not deny the presence and influence of the DL4. The band's vocalist on their breakthrough 2007 record Mirrored, Tyondai Braxton, utilized DL4s to achieve the unique sound of his vocals. He still has them on his performance rig today.
READ THE FULL Pitchfork ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell returns to big band with the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra / Maryville Daily Times
Posted At : January 18, 2018 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell's hunger and drive to continue growing as a musician keeps him humble, and the more he plays with fellow musicians of all levels and genres - like the members of the Knoxville Jazz Orchestra, with whom he'll perform on Tuesday at The Mill and Mine in Knoxville - the more he realizes just how far from the mountaintop he still is, he told The Daily Times recently. "It's overwhelming sometimes. Early on, when I first started playing, I was naive. I thought if you practiced real hard, you would get to this point where you sort of figured it out, and you'd just be in this amazing state of mastery all the time - but I was so wrong! It didn't take long to figure out, that's not the way it works. The more you know, the more you realize you don't know. I think, when you're younger, that can be almost paralyzing. It can almost wipe you out because of how daunting it is."
READ THE FULL Maryville Daily Times ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell goes BIG with Knoxville Jazz Orchestra at The Mill and Mine / 91.9:WUOT
Posted At : January 12, 2018 12:00 AM
In 2015, legendary guitarist Bill Frisell teamed up with Michael Gibbs, one of his former Berklee College of Music professors, and the famed NDR jazz orchestra of Germany to record a full length recording of music for big band. The fruits of that recording will be performed live in the U.S. for the first time at this very special Knoxville Jazz Orchestra event at The Mill and Mine on Tuesday Jan 23. The New York Times proclaimed that Frisell "plays up the pleasure in the music, and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness." The Philadelphia Inquirer stated that "Frisell is a revered figure among musicians - like Miles Davis and few others, his signature is built from pure sound and inflection; an anti-technique that is instantly identifiable"
Bill Frisell chats with 91.9:WUOT's Todd Steed about the show and big band
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Residencies are a good idea for musicians and listeners / Buffalo News
Posted At : January 11, 2018 12:00 AM
An artist-in-residency program, as it applies to the fine arts, is meant to allow artists time and space away from their regular existence in order to create freely in an unfettered environment. Why not apply a similar concept to the music world? Why not offer musicians a steady gig in a consistent space, that they might dig into their art away from the hustle and bustle and demands of maintaining a career as an independent musician in Buffalo? The benefits to both the musician and the listener would be plentiful.
The idea is not new; a handful of local artists are in residencies, which in the music world, tend to consist of weekly appearances at a club or concert venue. Two notable ones are Kelly Bucheger's bi-weekly Monday jazz workshops at Stamps the Bar in Tonawanda, and more recently, the Wazmopolitans' Wednesday "In Residence" series at Lucky Day Whiskey Bar on Pearl Street. The Sportsmen's Tavern, long a progressive-minded venue in terms of booking, has been offering a weekly lunch-hour residency featuring the Joe Baudo Quartet for years.
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In the jazz world, residencies have had an immeasurable effect on the development of the music. Venues such as the Village Vanguard, the Five Spot Cafe, the Half Note and Birdland became a combination of workshop and playground for some of history's greatest musicians – from John Coltrane to Charles Mingus to Miles Davis to Bill Frisell, all of whom used residencies to break in new bands, woodshed new ideas, debut material, and explore the limits of their own artistry.
READ THE FULL Buffalo News ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell: A Portrait / Film Journal review
Posted At : December 7, 2017 12:00 AM
The widely admired guitarist and composer Bill Frisell has lost count of the albums he's appeared on. In addition to his twenty or so solo records, and his appearances in other bands, he's played with everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Elvis Costello to jazz legends like Jason Moran. Shot over a five-year period, this documentary provides a broad overview of his accomplishments. Director Emma Franz follows Frisell through several of his musical lives: playing jazz and country in a trio with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollensen; rehearsing with conductor Michael Gibbs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra; archival footage of the Paul Motian Trio with Frisell and Joe Lovano at the Village Vanguard; joining the Richter 858 Quartet.
READ THE FULL Film Journal REVIEW
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Bill Frisell | Thomas Morgan make August '5 best Paste studio sessions'
Posted At : September 6, 2017 12:00 AM
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Canonic artists really stole the show in the Paste Studio last month. We were lucky enough to welcome some of the most influential musicians in the history of jazz, blues, prog rock and more into our Manhattan studio this past Aug., and those sessions ended up among our collective favorites. Among them was Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan.
Guitarist-composer and sonic innovator Bill Frisell paid a nearly 45-minute-long visit to Paste Studios last month with his bass-playing partner, Thomas Morgan. Together the two brilliant instrumentalists performed tunes from their new ECM recording, Small Town, showing an uncommon empathy and a conversational chemistry on the title track, as well as Morgan's beautiful "Pearl," an intimate reading of John Barry's James Bond theme "Goldfinger," and a highly interactive rendition of Thelonious Monk's "Epistrophy." -Bill Milkowski
SEE ALL 5 SESSIONS
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Bill Frisell - When You Wish Upon A Star featured on Voice of America - Jazz America
Posted At : June 27, 2017 12:00 AM
On the next JAZZ AMERICA program from the Voice of America, SHOWS #1869-1870...24-25 JUNE 2017, join Russ Davis as he talks with Andre Menard & Alain Menard, the founders of the Montreal Jazz Festival that celebrates its 38th year in 2017. We'll talk to these two visionaries and hear music from some of the artists who'll play the festival this year including Diana Krall, Stanley Clarke, Ingrid & Christine Jensen, Christian McBride, John Pizzarelli and many more, on the next Jazz America.
JAZZ AMERICA...SHOW #1869…24-25 JUNE 2017
DIANA KRALL…I'll see you in my dreams (turn up the quiet)
INGRID & CHRISTINE JENSEN…old time (infinitude)
* Andre Menard & Alain Menard Interview
RAY CHARLES ORCHESTRA…ghana (zurich 1961)
DeJOHNETTE, SCOFIELD, MEDESKI & GRENADIER…up on cripple creek (hudson)
TONY ALLEN…drum thunder suite (tribute to art blakey)
JOHN PIZZARELLI…let ‘em in (midnight mccartney)
* Andre Menard & Alain Menard Interview
CHRISTIAN McBRIDE TRIO…car wash (live at the village vanguard
NICHOLAS PAYTON…kimathi-cotton gin & tonic (afro Caribbean mixtape)
BILL FRISELL-psycho pt. 1 (when you wish upon a star)
JAZZ AMERICA...SHOW #1870…24-25 JUNE 2017
THE BAD PLUS…big eater (live at bonnaroo)
BRIA SKONBERG…go tell it (into your own)
* Andre Menard & Alain Menard Interview
NEIL COWLEY TRIO…rooster was a witness (live at montreux 2012
KURT ROSENWINKEL…chromatic b (caipi)
ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT…in my mind (artscience)
STANLEY CLARKE BAND…lopsy lu (live at the 2010 new orleans jazz festival)
SOMI…let me (petite afrique)
* Andre Menard & Alain Menard Interview
ROBERTO FONSECA…cubano chant (ABUC)
VIJAY IYER…revolutions (reimagining)
PAT METHENY…broadway blues (live at the 1982 montreal jazz festival)
Voice of America - Jazz America is heard by an estimated audience of 40 million listeners worldwide each weekend on the entertainment service VOA1, online and via local radio affiliates around the world.
*Jazz America airs online at the follow sites and airtimes:
It is heard live online on the Global English feed (https://www.voanews.com/a/3878432.html)
Hour 1 - Saturday 1300 UTC/Hour 2 Sunday 1300 UTC
VOA1 - The Hits
Saturday…0500 - 0700 UTC 1000 - 1200 UTC
Sunday…0700 - 0900, 1300 - 1500 UTC and 2000 - 2200 UTC
VOA Africa Stream (https://www.voanews.com/a/3880678.html)
Saturday…0700 - 0900 UTC
Sunday…1000 - 1200 UTC
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Bill Frisell Quartet brings favorite films themes to Brisbane QPAC / scenestr review
Posted At : June 12, 2017 12:00 AM
Jazz guitar genius Bill Frisell brought his band to Brisbane's QPAC (9 June) for a night celebrating the songs of his favourite films. Bill has appeared on hundreds of recordings, but his playing style is unique enough to spot. Joined by double bassist Tom Morgan, drummer Rudy Royston and vocalist Petra Hayden, Bill put his stamp on classic songs from a host of movies. When Bill and his band step on to the stage, the first thing Bill does is introduce each of them but not himself. Instead he introduces himself by picking up his guitar and using his pedals to create a symphony of twinkling notes. Petra begins to sing ‘Moon River' from ‘Breakfast At Tiffany's' over the top, making the song sparkle like a starry night.
The group closed the show with a rendition of the classic James Bond theme ‘You Only Live Twice'. Bill's guitar twang masterfully recreated the famous string motif of the song, with Tom and Rudy giving a light touch while Petra's voice became sultry. The band returned for what I guess was a post-credits sequence and a performance of the Burt Bacharach and Hal David tune ‘What The World Needs Now Is Love'. It was a lovely way to end the night, highlighting the need to stay right until the end when you're in the presence of Bill Frisell.
READ THE FULL scenestr REVIEW
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Bill Frisell plays Adelaide Cabaret Festival / The Advertiser
Posted At : June 10, 2017 12:00 AM
ALTHOUGH Bill Frisell was known as a jazz guitarist in the 1980s - and this Adelaide Cabaret Festival program was advertised as such - it was more a concert of pop songs where the guitarist fronted a trio with bass and drums, and also featured vocalist Petra Haden. Haden opened with a pleasant ballad rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star, using an effective range and pitch, and followed up with a wordless vocal that featured a repeated four-note riff with the guitar. Instrumental numbers from the trio often used repetitive riffs that were rescued from any threat of boredom largely by the inventive drumming of Thomas Morgan.
READ THE FULL The Advertiser ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell quartet plays Wellington Jazz Festival / stuff.co.nz review
Posted At : June 8, 2017 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell played the Wellington Jazz Festival with a quartet consisting of Petra Haden, daughter of the late bassist Charlie on vocals, Thomas Morgan on bass and Rudy Royston on percussion, whose work was nothing short of brilliant. The set started off with a version of Moon River, a Henry Mancini tune that nearly missed the cut in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's due to the lack of foresight from the producers. It's a plaintive number, but the slow tempo seems unsuitable for Haden's vocals. When she left the stage, the number picked up, which was surely where she should have made an entrance. It's a paradox that Frisell loves these lighter numbers; Burt Bacharach's and Hal David's Alfie, two James Bond themes – Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice – and When You Wish Upon a Star, when he is known mainly as a jazz guitarist, and a daunting and adventurous one at that.
READ THE FULL stuff.co.nz REVIEW
READ THE Scoop.nz REVIEW
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Paste - Notes From New York features Bill Frisell & John Scofield
Posted At : June 6, 2017 12:00 AM
Welcome to Notes From New York, a monthly jazz column by Bill Milkowski that includes observations on the scene along with interview snippets, gossip and gig information.
Acclaimed guitarist and prolific composer Bill Frisell came to prominence in New York during the 1980s as an ECM recording artist. He lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, where the rents were cheaper and the city was accessible via public transportation. In 1988, Frisell and his family (wife Carole D'Inverno, daughter Monica Jane) moved to Seattle, where he remained for the next 28 years while racking up 25 albums as a leader for the Nonesuch label and another six for the Savoy and Okeh labels while also collaborating with the likes of Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, Marianne Faithfull, Joe Jackson, Paul Simon, Allen Toussaint, Bono, Yo Yo Ma and Charles Lloyd. Now Frisell has returned to the New York area to begin the next phase of his remarkably productive career. "There's a lot of stuff going on, boy," said the unassuming 66-year-old artist in a recent interview. "We sold our house, put all of our stuff in storage and came here. We don't even have a place yet. We're temporarily staying at a place in Brooklyn, but we're looking for a place to buy. We just decided to do it really fast. It's crazy!"
In a retrospective concert held in the Appel Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 5 and 6, recent Grammy-winner (for 2016's Country for Old Men) John Scofield revisited the music of two significant albums from his past-1986's Blue Matter and 1996's Quiet. Curated by Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jason Olaine, this rare evening presented two complementary sides of Scofield's considerable musicality. "Now I'm a different person, I'm into different stuff, but I'm really glad that I did it," said the acclaimed guitarist-composer and former Miles Davis sideman after the show. "In the case of Blue Matter, we hadn't played together in 30 years but the rehearsal was this joy fest, because we all really became good friends back in the ‘80s and we haven't spent much time together since then. So it just felt like home to me."
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Inventiveness and taste stand out in Bill Frisell's Melbourne Jazz Festival appearance / The Australian
Posted At : June 6, 2017 12:00 AM
The theme to the film Goldfinger and American traditional folk song Shenandoah are not tunes usually associated with the jazz repertoire. But under the fingers of virtuosic American guitarist Bill Frisell they were stretched and transformed into vehicles for jazz explorations at his Friday concert at the Melbourne Recital Centre. What stood out about Frisell's reinvention of familiar songs in other genres in his When You Wish Upon a Star concert was his lavish melodic inventiveness and his exquisite taste. Interacting with bassist Thomas Morgan, who provided probing solos, and mood-setting drummer Rudy Royston, Frisell injected new life into film and television themes. He did this sometimes by simply changing the placement of a chord or reshaping a phrase, while at other times by teasing out melodic ideas and harmonic possibilities.
READ THE FULL Australian ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell: A Portrait set for Melbourne International Jazz Festival / ArtsHub
Posted At : May 31, 2017 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell: A Portrait by award-winning independent Melbourne film-maker and jazz singer Emma Franz highlights Frisell's enormous impact on the canvas of American music over the last fifty or so years. It achieves this through an impressive array of interviews with some of his musical collaborators. They range from fellow jazz guitarist Jim Hall and saxophonist Joe Lovano to pop music's Paul Simon, to Wilco's rock guitarist Nels Cline, to country and blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt to the BBC's big band arranger Michael Gibbs.
What makes the documentary compelling is Frisell's frankess and the way he opens himself up in a home setting with the camera full on him to probing about his music. Here is a musician patently not used to articulating his approaches to playing and to composing. But as he strives to express his inner drives the viewer is taken on a journey inside Frisell's music.
The documentary has its Australian premier at ACMI at Federation Square on Sunday June 4 at 2pm as part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. It will be preceded by an introduction by Frisell and film-maker Franz and followed by a Q and A.
READ THE FULL ArtsHub ARTICLE
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Paul Simon and Bill Frisell perform on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert / JamBase
Posted At : May 26, 2017 12:00 AM
Famed singer-songwriter Paul Simon sat for an interview and performed on Wednesday's episode of the CBS talk show The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Simon discussed his upcoming tour, a new album he's working on and played a song with acclaimed jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. The New York City native revealed he is prepping an album of songs he had previously released. "It's kind of a rare opportunity for a writer to go back and re-examine a piece of work that was good but maybe could've been better. I'm picking out songs that I really liked that I thought were well written and just weren't noticed. I'm recording them again with other musicians," Simon said. He also talked about his upcoming tour which begins on June 1.
WATCH THE VIDEO via JamBase
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Bill Frisell, A Portrait - plays Seattle International Film Festival / KEXP Radio review
Posted At : May 24, 2017 12:00 AM
You may very well have passed Bill Frisell on the streets of Seattle, and not even realized you were in the presence of one of the most admired and emulated jazz guitarists of our time. The Bainbridge Island-based musician has worked with such household names as Bono, Brian Eno, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, yet, he himself maintains a low profile, humble and soft-spoken, letting his music do all the talking.
It's for this reason that Bill Frisell, A Portrait is long overdue. It took a filmmaker from Australia - director Emma Franz - to get the Grammy Award-winning guitar genius talking. At one point, while filming Frisell on the streets of New York City, passersby keep stopping to stare, puzzling who this smiling man is. Frisell politely laughs, joking to Franz, "Little do they know, I'm one of them."
The documentary has no real narrative, letting the interview clips drive the film. Franz spent five years interviewing bandmates and collaborators, capturing some final interviews from drummer Paul Motian (who sadly passed in 2011) and guitarist/teacher Jim Hall (who sadly passed in 2013). There are also clips with saxophonist Joe Lovano, drummer Joey Baron, composer Mike Gibbs, pianist Jason Moran, and the list goes on and on. As an artist whose career spans nearly 50 years, it may be fair to say he's worked with hundreds of musicians, and it's not surprising that each and every one confirms: he is the nicest guy in music. Franz also shares footage from several rehearsal sessions, live performances at sold out venues, and practice sessions as Frisell collaborates with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, led by composer Michael Gibbs (who is, incidentally, a former teacher of Frisell's at Boston's Berklee College of Music back in the mid-70s). Bill Frisell, A Portrait - screened at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23. READ THE FULL KEXP: Seattle REVIEW
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Bill Frisell trio set for STL-Ready Room / Riverfront Times
Posted At : April 27, 2017 12:00 AM
When Bill Frisell picks up his guitar, adjusts his pedals - they're arrayed like Zen stepping stones at his feet - and tweaks his amp, he's not readying a performance or looking for a sound, exactly. He's finding out where he's at in that moment, on stage or in a studio, and how that moment can really be what he's feeling - or even what he may not know he's feeling. No guitarist in jazz or rock or blues or folk sounds like him, because none are him. That's not really a tautology. The guitarist - who was born in Baltimore in 1951 and raised in Denver, Colorado - has a discography that reads like a secret relief map to all of the byways, skyways and hidden alleys of American music.
Frisell returns to St. Louis this weekend at The Ready Room with bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen.
PHOTO BY PAUL MOORE
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READ THE FULL Riverfront Times ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell picks up 2017 JJA nom for 'Guitarist Of The Year'
Posted At : April 24, 2017 12:00 AM
2017 JJA Jazz Awards Nominees were chosen by the votes of Jazz Journalists Association members. Nominations were made on the basis of work done in calendar year 2016, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are for a lifetime body of work. Members and others were able to submit their own work for consideration in the Photo of the Year category; a committee of JJA Members chose the nominees in that category from among the submissions. Winners of the 2017 JJA Jazz Awards in all categories will be determined by the votes of JJA Professional Journalist Members; and will be announced on May 15.
Bill Frisell picks up 2017 JJA nom for 'Guitarist Of The Year'
SEE JJA PAGE LISTING ALL NOMINEES
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Bill Frisell, A Portrait - Emma Franz Q&A@SXSW with theIris
Posted At : March 28, 2017 12:00 AM
Australian Director Emma Franz‘s poignant documentary Bill Frisell, A Portrait premiered earlier this month at SXSW in Austin, Texas. The film is, as the name suggests, a portrait on the much loved musician Bill Frisell, both in his own words and through interviews with iconic artists like Bonnie Raitt and Paul Simon. I sat down with Emma in the lobby of the Hilton hotel not long after the film premiered to talk about the screening, the film, Bill and the legends that came together to make it all possible.
READ THE Q&A
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Bill Frisell set for Queensland debut / Broadway World Australia
Posted At : March 23, 2017 12:00 AM
Hailed as one of the most innovative and influential guitarists of the past quarter of a century, Guitarist and composer Bill Frisell will make his Queensland debut at the Concert Hall, Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) on Friday 9 June 2017. Frisell is a revered musician and Grammy® award-winner whose career spans more than 35 years and 250 recordings. The When You Wish Upon a Star concert includes music from Bill's latest album release of the same title that was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016. It features unique interpretations of classic American cinema music from Hitchcock's Psycho through to Ennio Morricone's score to Once Upon A Time In The West, via Nino Rota's music for The Godfather as well as other jazz classics for which Frisell is well-known.
READ THE FULL Broadway World ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell 'A Portrait' featured at Nashville Film Festival / The Tennessean
Posted At : March 11, 2017 12:00 AM
Everyone from jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to rapper Snoop Dogg will be seen on screen at this year's Nashville Film Festival. The 48th annual fest - taking place April 20-29 - has shared details on its "Music Films/Music City" competition. The nine films hail from around the globe and celebrate a universe of sounds. There's "The Last Songwriter," which includes appearances from Garth Brooks and Emmylou Harris, and the gangsta rap doc "G Funk," starring Snoop, Warren G and other west coast mainstays. "Artic Superstar" follows a rapper pursuing stardom, despite speaking an endangered language, while "Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape" examines a strangely enduring audio format. Additional films include "Davi's Way," "Score: A Film Music Documentary," "Straight Into a Storm" and "Tokyo Idols."
Bill Frisell 'A Portrait' traces the ideas and processes that shaped the guitarist's music, and provides rare insight into his mind and personality. Full of live music, revealing stories, and intimate access to the normally reclusive Frisell, various collaborations are followed from development to fruition, including the last ever performance of the Paul Motian Trio with Frisell and Joe Lovano. Also featuring Bonnie Raitt, Hal Willner, Paul Simon, Nels Cline, Joey Baron, Jim Hall, Jason Moran, Mike Gibbs, John Zorn, Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter and John Abercrombie.
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The 48th annual Nashville Film Festival takes place April 20-29 at Regal Hollywood Stadium 27
READ THE FULL Tennessean ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell 'A Portrait' debuts on March 12 / Grateful Web
Posted At : March 8, 2017 12:00 AM
A character portrait of anti-archetype guitar hero, Bill Frisell, this nuanced film traces the ideas and processes that shaped Frisell's music, and provides rare insight into the mind and personality of one of the significant musicians of recent decades. Full of live music, revealing stories, and intimate access to the normally reclusive Frisell, various collaborations are followed from development to fruition, including the last ever performance of the Paul Motian Trio with Frisell and Joe Lovano. Also featuring Bonnie Raitt, Hal Willner, Paul Simon, Nels Cline, Joey Baron, Jim Hall, Jason Moran, Mike Gibbs, John Zorn, Jack DeJohnette, Ron Carter and John Abercrombie.
SEE Grateful Web PAGE
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Bill Frisell documentary set to premiere at SXSW / NOISE11.com
Posted At : February 20, 2017 12:00 AM
American jazz musician Bill Frisell was born in Baltimore and grew up in Denver. As a child he studied clarinet with Richard Joiner of the Denver Symphony Orchestra and then studied music at the University of Northern Colorado. Bill became the ECM Records in-house guitar player in the 80s working on ‘Psalm' for Paul Motian and then Jan Garbarek's ‘Paths, Prints'.
In 1988 after a stint in New York City, Bill moved to Seattle where he recorded ‘Have A Little Faith', paying tribute to American music as diverse as Dylan to Madonna. Frisell collaborated with Elvis Costello for ‘The Sweetest Punch' reworking the songs of Elvis and Burt Bacharach on their ‘Painted From Memory' album. His most recent album ‘When You Wish Upon A Star' was released in 2016.
Emma Franz previous documentary ‘Intangible Asset No. 82' told the story of jazz drummer Simon Barker. It screened at SXSW in 2009.
The documentary ‘Bill Frisell A Portrait', by Australian filmmaker Emma Franz, will have its world premiere at SXSW on March 12, 13 and 16.
Sunday, March 12 at 4:00 PM – Alamo Ritz 1
Monday, March 13 at 2:00 PM – Alamo Lamar A (Bill Frisell attending)
Thursday, March 16 at 10:45 AM – Alamo Lamar A
WATCH THE TRAILER VIA NOISE11
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The Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan duo play a diverse set at Winter Jazzfest / NEWSWHISTLE review
Posted At : January 16, 2017 12:00 AM
To find refuge from the blustering winds of 2017's first snowstorm, one could escape into the electrifying world of the 13th Annual Winter Jazzfest, which boasted over 100 bands across 13 different stages over this past weekend. The Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan Duo performed on Saturday night at the New School Tishman Auditorium.
Guitarist Bill Frisell - an innovator on every style from bebop to Americana to surf rock - wove an intricate web of sound along with young bassist Thomas Morgan, who got his first ECM session with another revered guitarist: John Abercrombie. Frisell led energetic Morgan through a diverse labyrinth of sound, which included everything from a meditative improvisation constructed by outrè loops and effects, to variations on Kristofferson and Foster's "Me and Bobby McGee." The dynamic duo built off each other's ideas, creating a unique vibe which was accessible yet ethereal.
READ THE FULL NEWSWHISTLE ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan Duo
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Once both sets had completed, the gentleman to my left remarked, "Nothing can top that tonight." My friend to the right was so astonished, he couldn't even utter "wow."
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Bill Frisell | Thomas Morgan New School performance is highlight at Winter Jazzfest / Seattle Times
Posted At : January 8, 2017 12:00 AM
With more than 100 performances in 12 downtown venues - many of which fill up early - the splendid gumbo of the Friday and Saturday (Jan. 6-7) marathons at Jazz Winterfest can be many different festivals to many different listeners. But surely one of the highlights this year was the elegant, intricate, soulful duo performance by Seattle guitarist Bill Frisell with bassist Thomas Morgan at the New School's Tishman Auditorium on Saturday.
Weaving through six tunes that ranged from the touching Willard Robison ballad "Old Folks" and Fats Domino's lilting "What A Party" to "Subconscious-Lee," Lee Konitz's tricky take on "What Is This Thing Called Love," the mischievous guitarist navigated ingenious paths through the songs' harmonies, occasionally inserting a twangy jab or snow shower of quiet notes. In Morgan, Frisell appears to have found a naturally flowing conversationalist on the order of the late Charlie Haden, so it is welcome news that simpatico pair will release an album on ECM later this year.
READ THE FULL Seattle Times REVIEW
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Bill Frisell - When You Wish Upon a Star / Interview with Oregon's 89.7 KLCC
Posted At : October 26, 2016 12:00 AM
Guitarist Bill Frisell turns his attention to the beauty and emotion of film and television music on his new release When You Wish Upon a Star. It's a melodic quintet album that continues his exploration of music across all boundaries of jazz, Americana and more-over the course of more than 35 CDs as a leader, and countless collaborations. Bill Frisell will bring his ensemble to the stage of the Jaqua Concert Hall in Eugene on Thursday, November 3rd. He speaks with Eric Alan and shares music from When You Wish Upon a Star.
Listen to Eric Alan's Interview on Oregon - 89.7 KLCC
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Win Tickets to Bill Frisell at the Moore Theatre / KNKX Radio
Posted At : October 24, 2016 12:00 AM
STG Presents Bill Frisell: "When You Wish Upon a Star" featuring Petra Haden, Thomas Morgan & Matt Chamberlain at The Moore Theatre on November 5, 2016. Presented as part of the 2016 Earshot Jazz Festival.
BILL FRISELL'S career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 35 years and 250 recordings, including 40 of his own. Described as being "at the very epicenter of modern American Music" (BBC), Frisell's recording catalog has been cited by Downbeat as "the best recorded output of the decade," including his recent album, All We Are Saying, a new collection of John Lennon interpretations. Currently Frisell is the Guest Curator for the Roots of Americana series at Jazz at Lincoln Center and Resident Artistic Director at San Francisco Jazz.
WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR, Frisell's latest recording draws upon the classic film and television music we have heard on screen and how it shapes and informs our emotional relationships to what we see. Frisell, whose own music has been featured in major motion pictures like Finding Forrester and The Million Dollar Hotel performs with singer Petra Haden, bassist Thomas Morgan, and drummer Matt Chamberlin in re-imagining time-honored gems such as "When You Wish Upon a Star," "To Kill a Mockingbird," "The Shadow of Your Smile," "Moon River," "You Only Live Twice," Frisell's own theme for Gary Larson's television special, Tales from the Far Side and others. Produced by Lee Townsend; engineered by Tucker Martine and Adam Muñoz and mastered with Greg Calbi.
SEE KNKX PAGE & ENTER TO WIN TIX
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Bill Frisell. The most important figure in the new jazz-rock movement / Paste
Posted At : July 20, 2016 12:00 AM
"I could put together the greatest rock and roll band you ever heard," Miles Davis boasted to Rolling Stone in 1969. This was during the early stages of the first jazz-rock movement, which Davis was launching with such albums as 1969's In a Silent Way and 1970's Bitches Brew. He was working from two main assumptions: one, that jazz players were much better musicians than rock musicians, and so, two, the jazzmen could make better rock music.
But a new generation of jazz players has emerged with none of the old condescension. These younger jazzers view post-Beatles pop music-including rock, R&B, hip hop and Americana-with genuine admiration and affection, not as mere gimmicks to sucker in gullible audiences and pad the wallet. These younger players will not dash off a pop theme as a perfunctory, inconvenient stop on the way to their solos; they will dig into each musical element and try to add to its density. They are creating a newer, better kind of jazz-rock.
The most important figure in this new jazz-rock movement, though, is Bill Frisell. This guitarist made a decision early in his career to forego speed for emotional color. He used fewer notes, but the notes he did use were often unexpected, and he manipulated the length, shape and timbre of each one for maximum effect. This made it easy for him to play with less virtuosic singer/songwriters; he could play along at their deliberate tempos and with their simple chord changes without getting bored, because he was always tinkering with the melody and harmony to inject more feeling into already dense memes.
READ THE FULL Paste ARTICLE
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William S. Burroughs' upcoming 'Let Me Hang You' features music by Bill Frisell / American Songwriter
Posted At : May 25, 2016 12:00 AM
57 years after the publication of William S. Burroughs' seminal novel Naked Lunch, and 19 years after the death of the legendary writer, Let Me Hang You, a compilation of Burroughs reading the most outrageous sections of the book set to experimental music, is slated for a July 17 release. The project, led by Hal Willner and James Grauerholz and featuring music by Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz and Eyvind Kang, was unfortunately swept under the rug for decades. At the end of his life, Burroughs recorded himself reading sections of the book, particularly those most explicitly dealing with the drug use and sexual debauchery which characterize the novel, in varying voices.
READ THE FULL American Songwriter ARTICLE
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Reverb Soundcheck: Bill Frisell
Posted At : March 15, 2016 12:00 AM
When it comes to guitarist Bill Frisell, the word that comes up time and again is "amazing." His fans use it often, most recently with the boundary-breaking jazz guitarist's latest album, When You Wish Upon A Star, which was released in late January. This collection of TV and movie music has inspired glowing reviews. "Frisell is meticulous throughout, never playing more than necessary," said London's Independent. And, in an interview pegged to the new record, NPR Music dubbed Frisell "one of the world's most inventive guitarists and composers."
Yet when Frisell repeats "amazing" in his conversation with Reverb, it's in the most humble sense imaginable. The 2005 GRAMMY winner - he also was nominated for this year's Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for Guitar in the Space Age! - had this to say about the record-making process, "It's amazing I'm able to make recordings these days, given the way things are in music. When it came to making a record or recording, not all that long ago I had this idea that that's what the big guys do."
READ THE FULL Reverb ARTICLE AND LISTEN TO THE TRACKS
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Bill Frisell interprets the music from tv and the movies at Skirball Center / Los Angeles Magazine
Posted At : February 25, 2016 12:00 AM
In the dialogue that precedes the song "Move On" in Sunday in the Park with George, Dot asks the title character if he's working on something new. He says he isn't and that he don't have anything to say, or "nothing that's not been said." To which Dot replies, "Said by you, though, George." Whether this scene influences guitarist Bill Frisell with his career decisions or not, the sentiment certainly resonated with him as he tackled his new recording When You Wish Upon a Star. The project features his interpretations of classic film and television scores and songs-material that has been mined for years. On February 25, Frisell will be performing selections from the album at the Skirball Cultural Center.
READ THE FULL Los Angeles Magazine ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell plays Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum / Kansas City Star review
Posted At : February 22, 2016 12:00 AM
The frolicsome rendition of the theme from the television Western "Bonanza," performed by an ensemble led by Bill Frisell at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art on Sunday, was indicative of the surprising twists and turns the brilliant guitarist has taken in his unpredictable career. The lively hillbilly-jazz selection was a highlight of the concert presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series and the museum.
Raised in Colorado, Frisell has been blurring the boundaries between styles including jazz, country and classical music for more than 30 years. Most of the selections at Sunday's concert are featured on "When You Wish Upon a Star," a new album of familiar compositions associated with film and television. READ THE FULL Kansas City Star REVIEW
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Bill Frisell plays Denver's Oriental Theater / Westword
Posted At : February 22, 2016 12:00 AM
On Bill Frisell's last album, 2014's Guitar in the Space Age, the guitarist delved into songs from the '50s and '60s that initially got him interested in playing guitar as a kid growing up in Denver. On brand-new disc When You Wish Upon a Star, Frisell, who's been living in Seattle for nearly three decades, explores music from films and television that have had a lasting impression on him.
Frisell, who will be at the Oriental Theater on Wednesday, says that every song on When You Wish Upon a Star, which includes compositions by Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone and others, conjures strong memories. Many times the memory conjured had to do with something outside the film itself, as when Frisell first got his driver's license and he actually had a date, which he says was a very rare thing at the time, and he drove his parents' car to the Paramount Theatre to see a James Bond film. Sure enough, Frisell, along with singer Petra Haden, bassist Thomas Morgan, violist Eyvind Kang and drummer Rudy Royston, interpret "You Only Live Twice" (from the 1967 James Bond film of the same name). READ THE FULL Westword ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell returns to Old Town School of Folk Music / Chicago Sun Times
Posted At : February 19, 2016 12:00 AM
Versatile guitarist Bill Frisell last visited the Old Town School of Folk Music while supporting 2014's "Guitar in the Space Age." The album's colorful interpretations of rock and roll favorites from Frisell's youth were heralded among his best. This year, Frisell returns to explore his love of visual storytelling. His new "When You Wish Upon a Star" album reimagines music that is indelibly linked to images from film and television.
"It's so inspiring when a director lets the musician go – like Fellini with Nino Rota, Hitchcock with Bernard Herrmann, Jim Jarmusch with Neil Young, or the Birdman movie with Antonio Sanchez," says Frisell. "When I see those images, I hear the sound in my head without even trying." "Once Upon a Time in the West in particular blows my mind," says Frisell of the partnership between director Sergio Leone and composer Ennio Morricone. "The pacing of the film is more like an opera or a ballet. There's so much space for the music." SEE THE FULL Chicago Sun Times ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell - When You Wish Upon A Star / Jazz Police review
Posted At : February 14, 2016 12:00 AM
When You Wish Upon A Star, the latest project from legendary guitarist/composer Bill Frisell comprises music from iconic film and television scores, the Sony/Okeh LP is conceived not only as an homage, but as a celebration of music-making with longtime collaborators and their collective commitment to refined interpretation of material. Produced by Lee Townsend (Loudon Wainwright III, John Scofield, Carrie Rodriguez), the LP brings together an all-star "dream team" of Frisell's frequent partners in crime: violist Eyvind Kang, drummer Rudy Royston, bass player Thomas Morgan and vocalist Petra Haden. Frisell describes the group of friends' unique process as beginning with listening to as many versions of the pieces as possible and committing any lyrics to heart, followed by total immersion in the original score (harmony, phrasing, arrangement), learning the notes and hours of practice. "Finally, when it's in the blood," he says, the musicians are ready to deliver their interpretations.
Frisell enjoys a kind of Teflon status among musicians and music lovers. He is a stalker of many musical domains and a nomad, too. Whether he's combing through the Beatle catalogue, exploring electronica via Brazil, or covering sixties surf music as he's done in recent outings, he seems to be not only tolerated but embraced by the so-called gatekeepers.
READ THE FULL Jazz Police ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell set to play Oriental Theater / The Denver Post
Posted At : February 8, 2016 12:00 AM
Colorado jazz fans know that Bill Frisell was raised in the state and studied at the University of Northern Colorado. His electric guitar has long evoked the lonely, open spaces of the American West. While he has contributed original music to numerous film scores, until now he's never released a project dedicated solely to the film work of other composers. The just-released "When You Wish Upon A Star (Okeh)" affectionately interprets the work some of the biggest names in soundtrack composition, such as Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone and Bernard Hermann. Frisell's arrangements are sparse and mysterious, with flat-out lovely contributions from violinist Eyvind Kang and vocalist Petra Haden. Longtime Denver drummer Rudy Royston adds dramatic texture, and overall, "Star" is another deeply felt addition to Frisell's dense catalogue.
Almost everyone who played on the new album will be onstage at The Oriental Theater on Feb. 24, with the exception of Royston, whose chair will be filled ably by Kenny Wolleson. Frisell has brought numerous eclectic projects through his hometown of Denver, but this promises to be among his more accessible and crowd-pleasing appearances.
READ THE FULL Denver Post ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell - When You Wish Upon A Star / all about jazz review
Posted At : February 2, 2016 12:00 AM
While jazz and interpretation are hardly strange bedfellows, few musicians have managed to be both as deeply reverent to his source music and profoundly personal and in his approach as guitarist Bill Frisell. That's not to suggest his re-imaginings of other composers' works have been anything remotely approaching predictable; as early as his first "covers" record, Have a Little Faith (Elektra/Nonesuch, 1993), Frisell managed to create a congruent program out of disparate sources ranging from Aaron Copland, John Phillip Sousa and Charles Ives to Sonny Rollins, Muddy Waters, Madonna, John Hiatt and Bob Dylan. Subsequent albums, like All We Are Saying... (Savoy Jazz, 2011), may have been far more focused in their source material but, as Frisell demonstrated when he brought that John Lennon tribute music to the 2012 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, he possesses a rare ability to truly get to the heart of the music while still imbuing it with his often idiosyncratic musical dispositions...and an ever-unabashed love of all music that has made him one of the most important guitarists and conceptualists of his generation...in any genre.
READ THE FULL all about jazz REVIEW
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Bill Frisell - When You Wish Upon A Star / Wall Street Journal
Posted At : January 27, 2016 12:00 AM
When You Wish Upon A Star, the latest project from legendary guitarist/composer Bill Frisell ( OKeh Records ) is an album of iconic film and television scores. An LP, the album was not only conceived not only as an homage, but as a celebration of music-making with longtime collaborators and their collective commitment to refined interpretation of material. Produced by Lee Townsend (Loudon Wainwright III, John Scofield, Carrie Rodriguez), all-star Frisell partners include; Eyvind Kang, Rudy Royston, Thomas Morgan and vocalist Petra Haden. Frisell describes the group of friends' as a unique process of total immersion in the original score. WSJ's STEVE DOLLAR wrote the story. Posted Jan. 27, 2016 10:39 a.m. ET.
Movie songs are the ultimate ear worms. Who hasn't whistled the theme from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" or crooned a Disney lullaby? SEE WSJ PAGE
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Bill Frisell Takes On Screen Music / NPR: Weekend Edition Sunday
Posted At : January 24, 2016 12:00 AM
One of the world's most inventive guitarists and composers has recorded a tribute to some of his favorite music from TV and film. Bill Frisell's When You Wish Upon a Star covers the screen from Bonanza to The Godfather to the poignant themes of To Kill a Mockingbird. Set for release on January 29 via OKeh Records, the album is not only as an homage, but as a celebration of music-making with longtime collaborators and their collective commitment to refined interpretation of material.
Produced by Lee Townsend (Loudon Wainwright III, John Scofield, Carrie Rodriguez), the LP brings together an all-star "dream team" of Frisell's frequent partners in crime: violist Eyvind Kang, drummer Rudy Royston, bass player Thomas Morgan and vocalist Petra Haden. Frisell describes the group of friends' unique process as beginning with listening to as many versions of the pieces as possible and committing any lyrics to heart, followed by total immersion in the original score (harmony, phrasing, arrangement), learning the notes and hours of practice. "Finally, when it's in the blood," he says, the musicians are ready to deliver their interpretations.
Frisell joined NPR's Rachel Martin to talk about how the music first came to him, and what it is about a well-crafted theme that can make it stick with you forever. LISTEN TO THE SEGMENT
SEE THE WEAA: Baltimore REPOST
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The Bill Frisell Trio plays Florida State Univ. / Tallahassee Democrat
Posted At : November 20, 2015 12:00 AM
Let's just be blunt about this: Bill Frisell is one of the best guitarists on the planet Earth. The Grammy Award-winning Frisell is usually described as a jazz player but he's really a restless genre-jumper who's hard to pin down. Frisell is just as comfortable playing a Beatles cover, a surf tune, an Aaron Copland composition as he is with one of his original instrumentals such as "Monroe," his nod to bluegrass king Bill Monroe. The eclectic, intellectually fidgety Frisell never stays in one place for too long. His most recent album was called "Guitar in the Space Age!"
With all that in mind, I shouldn't have been surprised when I asked him what's on the set list for his upcoming concert with The Bill Frisell Trio at Florida State and he said, basically, he had no clue. "Well, that's a good question," Frisell, 64, said and chuckled over the phone from Seattle. "We've been playing together so long and we've made I don't know how many records together. So, when we play as a trio, it's really, really wide open. The possibilities are just huge. ... We never plan it out with the trio, it's just evolved to a point where it's like a language, it's a conversation." READ THE FULL Tallahassee Democrat ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell - Music for Strings / theguardian review
Posted At : October 21, 2015 12:00 AM
A string quartet at Ronnie Scott's, the temple of roaring horn riffs, smoky tenor sax canoodlings and sizzling cymbal grooves? Bill Frisell brought in just such a jazz rare breed this week, featuring himself on electric guitar alongside violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang and cellist Hank Roberts. They intuitively segued between blues, rockabilly, bebop and avant-improv with barely so much as a prompting nod, and if this often delicate music might have had a tougher time on a rowdy Frith Street Saturday night, it held the Monday audience rapt.
They opened as if it were a free-improv gig, with the acoustic players bowing gently dissonant sweeps while Frisell pinged soft harmonics – a long state of suspended animation abruptly ended by a single humming tremolo chord, as if Duane Eddy had usurped the leader's place. A chugging groove sprang up, for Kang to develop in slippery, sitar-like variations and the straighter-toned Scheinman in swerving long lines and barn-dance chords, before Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land glimmered and then vanished. Frisell's quietly plucked solo introduction to Fats Waller's Jitterbug Waltz became a clamour of arrhythmic pizzicato playing and bass-like improvised counterpoint from Roberts' cello; a surprisingly respectful From Russia With Love brought smiles; and Thelonious Monk's Skippy fizzed with beboppish drive. READ THE FULL guardian REVIEW
READ THE Financial Times ARTICLE
READ Jazzwise ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell, Not-So-Unplugged at Grace Cathedral / San Francisco Classical Voice
Posted At : September 22, 2015 12:00 AM
I came upon Bill Frisell more than 15 years ago, when I was still a teenager; the minimalist, slightly Rothko-esque cover of his second ECM release, In Line, beckoned to me from the "Guitar" bin of some Borders, Tower, or similarly defunct record store. As a young guitarist I was immediately smitten by his ethereal tone; his careful, always vocal phrasing; his effectiveness as a soloist without the need to rely on a gazillion notes.
It's been a challenge to keep up with Frisell, whose music encompasses the near totality of American vernacular and experimental styles, from his early work as a guitarist for John Zorn's Spillane and Godard, to the recent reimagining of 50s and 60s rock and surf hits on Guitar in the Space Age.
Yet no matter the idiom or genre, Frisell's personality always shines through, his sapient fingers acting as the perfect filter through which to shine new light on disparate corner of the repertoire. His Friday, September 18, solo concert at Grace Cathedral - an appropriately reverberant setting - was practically a master class in idiomatic fluency and improvisatory prowess, a wonderfully quasi-private opportunity to sneak a peek into the arranger's and guitarist's mind. With nowhere to hide, and no-one with whom to collaborate, all we got was pure, unadulterated Frisell: And what a treat it was.
READ THE FULL San Francisco Classical Voice REVIEW
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Bill Frisell joins David Crosby for The Fretboard Summit / Jambase
Posted At : September 11, 2015 12:00 AM
In celebration of 10 years of publishing, Seattle-based magazine The Fretboard Journal will host the The Fretboard Summit November 6 - 8 at the 140-acre Costanoa Resort in Pescadero, California. The inaugural three-day event will include workshops, demonstrations, interview stages, pop-up museums, complimentary guitar classes and performances from the likes of David Crosby and Bill Frisell.
Other confirmed artists appearing at the debut event sponsored by Artist Home and Martin Guitars include Blake Mills, Chris Eldridge & Julian Lage, Bryan Sutton, Joe Henry and Matt Munisteri. Confirmed speakers slated for the Fretboard Summit include Dick Boak of Martin Guitars, luthiers Paul Reed Smith, Richard Hoover of Santa Cruz Guitar Co. (who will be providing free on-site acoustic guitar setups), Dana Bourgeois and Bill Collings. SEE the Jambase PAGE
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Bill Frisell shows his talent@'BLUE' / Portland Press Herald
Posted At : June 28, 2015 12:00 AM
Though they've recently doubled the size of their space, the folks at Blue in Portland still call their ticketed performance series "BIG NAMES small room." Indeed, the change has not much compromised the intimate feel of the club. And, it has definitely opened up more opportunities for bookings of the sort that get a jazz fan's heart pounding.
A sold-out solo performance by Grammy-winning guitarist Bill Frisell on Thursday evening fit the room nicely, filling it with musicianship of a very high order.
Usually referred to as a jazz guitarist, Frisell has revealed eclectic tastes over a long career. Compositions from many genres, but often rooted in the sounds of his youth, show up on his recordings. His own originals also defy easy classification. But his sound remains instantly recognizable. The unassuming Baltimore native took a seat at center stage. With a couple of amplifiers behind him and an array of special-effects devices at his feet, he took up the telecaster electric in his lap and launched into an introductory passage that allowed the attentive audience, including a number of local musicians, time to get accustomed to his thoughtful approach. READ THE FULL Portland Press Herald REVIEW
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Bill Frisell - Guitar and the Space Age! Joshua Light Show / Sacaramento Press
Posted At : April 14, 2015 12:00 AM
One of America's most revered jazz guitarist, Bill Frisell, is melding music with art at a unique performance that combines music from his latest 1950s and '60s inspired album with the psychedelic art of the Joshua Light Show.
Playing on April 24 at the Mondavi Center for Performing Arts, the show will feature the brilliant guitar strokes of this imaginative musician as he plays songs from his 2014 release "Guitar and the Space Age!". The concurrently playing Joshua Light Show will give audience members a chance to experience the sights of magical, analog light projections that, in the 1960s, opened for artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, The Who and Chuck Berry.
"For me the music and some of the visual things that go with the music are so much about letting your imagination go and…trying to make things better and beautiful," said Frisell.
Frisell went back to his roots for "Guitar in the Space Age!" by visiting the American electric guitar songs that first inspired him to play. What resulted is interpretations of 1950s and '60s songs by artists including Pete Seeger, Joe Meek, Mel London, The Byrds, The Astronauts, Chet Atkins, Brian Wilson, and Junior Wells as well as some original Frisell songs. Frisell says the concert is expected to include not only songs from the album, but also moments of spontaneity.
"I feel lucky to have an audience that's willing to go along. There's an element of risk and I think, in that, there could be a big reward," said Frisell. "Rather than just playing it safe…there's a lot of improvisation in what we do and I think that makes it hopefully more exciting and interesting for the audience to follow along and check out what happens."
READ THE FULL Sacaramento Press ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell Quintet presents - 'Woody Guthrie's Better World' / Kansas City Star
Posted At : March 7, 2015 12:00 AM
The songs of Woody Guthrie were transformed at the Kancas City JCC on Friday March 6th compliments of the Bill Frisell Quintet. If rearranging Guthrie isnt' enough, the group also interprets other songwritersthat Woody inspired. Tthe 95-minute performance was entirely brilliant.
Flanked by cellist Hank Roberts and violinists Eyvind Kang and Jenny Scheinman on his right and drummer Rudy Royston to his left, Frisell opened the concert with a jarring examination of Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." With the five musicians playing in disparate directions, Frisell may have been making a statement about the current political and social climate.
READ THE FULL Kansas City Star REVIEW
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Bill Frisell keeps his music provocative / Kansas City Star
Posted At : March 1, 2015 12:00 AM
Guitarist Bill Frisell, one of the leading lights on his instrument for about three decades now, is putting a little bit of protest back in his music. His current group, a jazz/Americana project, features the unrepentant protest songs of Woody Guthrie. And he's bringing it to the Kansas City's White Theatre@Jewish Community Center this Friday March 5 as part of the Harriman-Jewell Series.
Frisell's note-bending playing has always had an elusive, lonesome quality - a quality in common with giants of American music from Hank Williams to John Coltrane. And it has been natural for Frisell to link his jazz with folk, country, pop and Americana: He has been doing it since the '80s.
For a show called "Woody Guthrie's Better World," he's bringing his Big Sur Quintet, with violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts and drummer Rudy Royston. (You might remember Scheinman and Royston from a KC appearance with Ben Allison a few years ago.) The multiple-strings sound is a dramatic departure from just about every other jazz band on the road today. But departing from the norm doesn't scare Frisell.
Guitar-based events are fairly common around Kansas City, but everything about this one is distinctive. We've heard just about every other giant of jazz guitar in person more than we've heard from Frisell. So this genre-bending show is bound to be one of the highlights of the year. SEE THE FULL Kansas City Star PAGE
Jazz has been used as entertainment music, dance music, background music and intellectual music.
But it has also had an important role as protest music, from the time when it seemed taboo to mix light-skinned and dark-skinned people on the bandstand, through the civil rights era and sometimes even now.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article11788904.html#storylink=cpy
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Rant N Roll: Whimsical Frisell / Aquarian Weekly
Posted At : February 25, 2015 12:00 AM
Guitarists come and guitarists go and a few of them seemingly stick around forever. Bill Frisell, 63, is in this latter category. He's kissed the sky so many times in his evolving artistry that I thought I had him pegged as this avant-garde fusionist with forays into classical, noise and complex jazz. As house guitarist for ECM Records, he'd played with the brightest and the most adventurous of them all. In the all-too-hip New York City loft scene of the 1980s, his wizardry astounded even the most jaded of hipsters.
But with the release of Guitar In The Space Age! (Okeh) late last year, he proves once again, he is not to be categorized. For it is here that he fondly remembers what got him there in the first place: "Tired Of Waiting" by The Kinks, "Pipeline" by The Chantays, "Rumble" by Link Wray, "Rebel Rouser" by Duane Eddy, "Baja" by The Astronauts, "Cannonball Rag" by Merle Travis, "Bryant's Boogie" by Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West, "Surfer Girl" by The Beach Boys, "Turn Turn Turn" by The Byrds and five more delicious morsels of basic, succinct, primal instrumental prowess.
Helped along by a second electric, pedal steel, drums, vibraphone, acoustic and electric bass, acoustic guitar and slide guitar, Frisell plays these simplistic childlike mantras to his youth like a man committed to reaffirming his own value system. Jimi Hendrix said "may you never hear surf music again" as he ripped open the guts of novelty hits. Sun Ra said "space is the place" for his astral projections. Apparently, Bill Frisell is saying he's not the serious musician you think he is all the time. He probably reads comic books and watches cartoons because he obviously still loves this teenage twang. SEE THE Aquarian Weekly PAGE
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Bill Frisell's Guitar In The Space Age On WCLK - Atlanta
Posted At : February 11, 2015 12:00 AM
Baltimore-born Bill Frisell has been a jazz leader since the 1980s, melding various tones and styles with a willingness to explore the boundaries of the amplified guitar. Atlanta fans have followed him avidly since that time. His latest release on Okeh is called Guitar In The Space Age, and features his takes on rock-era classics like Pipeline, Tired of Waiting For You, and Telstar. WCLK PD Aaron Cohen is playing this one at various times, particularly during Serenade To The City Mon-Fri 10a-2p, so watch out for that whammy bar.
You can purchase Guitar In The Space Age from Amazon from the link below, and WCLK will receive a portion of the proceeds.
SEE THE WCLK: Atlanta POST
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Bill Frisell@Boston's Scullers Jazz Club / Glide Magazine review
Posted At : February 1, 2015 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell is making old songs new again. Or maybe, with 2014's Guitar in the Space Age!, Frisell is making a new record, old.
In any instance, when his tour pulled into Boston, and his band squeezed into the intimate space of Scullers Jazz Club, what was clear above all was the timelessness of some of these tunes. Whether playing classic blues like "Messin' With the Kid" with smoking intensity, or exploring the elegant majesty of The Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl," Bill Frisell's mastery as bandleader and nuanced virtuoso guitarist were on full display, and so too his good taste as curator of the modern songbook.
A sort of "wormhole" atmosphere was ever-present during the late set at Scullers with the Guitar in the Space Age! band. Although the songs often soared almost imperceptibly, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen maintained a grounded foundation above which leader Frisell and guitarist Greg Leisz were freed to weave and paint against.
READ THE FULL Glide Magazine REVIEW
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Bill Frisell set to play Seattle's Showbox at the Market / TheStranger.com interview
Posted At : January 29, 2015 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell is set to play Showbox at the Market in Downtown Seattle this Sat Jan 31 at 9 pm. Frisell plays the guitar with near-telepathic finesse. His quiet, astute command of the instrument recalls Obi-Wan Kenobi. When Frisell waves his hand over the fret board and says, "These aren't the notes you're looking for," you absolutely forget you were looking for notes at all. What are notes? After more than 50 years of playing guitar, Frisell recently released his 35th album, Guitar in the Space Age!, featuring instrumental interpretations of songs from the '60s-like "Turn, Turn, Turn" and "Tired of Waiting for You"-that helped shape his musical consciousness. The Bainbridge Island resident spoke from the JFK International Airport in New York, shortly before boarding a flight for Colorado. READ THE FULL Stranger INTERVIEW
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Bill Frisell: The Space Age dichotomy and his remarkable dream / Oregon Music News interview
Posted At : January 27, 2015 12:00 AM
LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW
here's the article - This could really be two posts, except for how one topic led to another. I spoke with guitarist/composer Bill Frisell via skype for two reasons. One, to talk to him about his new album Guitar n the Space Age, for the most part, a collection of pop, guitar-oriented tunes from that era. He'll be bringing that basic band to the Aladdin Theater on Friday, January 30, doors 7pm, show 8pm, $35, minors under 21 with parent or legal guardian, tickets.
space age coverFrisell and I are contemporaries and I wanted to talk to him about the subject in the headline above: the dichotomy between the optimism of the expanding new worlds of the space age as contrasted with the newly acquired daily fear of the our destruction from nuclear weapons.
That optimism is best expressed in the tune "Telstar," from the album. It was named after the brand new satellite which brought live pictures from the other side of the world, to our TV screens. A wondrous feat.
The other side is best expressed by "Rumble," the anthem of juvenile delinquents.
But there was more. When Frisell's album Beautiful Dreamers was released a couple of years ago, he came to Portland to record with producer/engineer Tucker Martine and play a gig. I was doing Wednesday afternoons at KMHD at the time and he came in for an interview.
At one point I asked, "Bill, what do you dream about?" He told me about a dream that had changed his life. Unfortunately, the segment wasn't recorded and since then I felt a great loss in not having documented that dream.
He retells it at the conclusion of our conversation:
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Bill Frisell looks back at the ?Space Age? / The Aspen Times review
Posted At : January 20, 2015 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell will play the Aspen District Theatre on Tuesday. The 63 year old guitarist has been reminiscing about his childhood in Colorado recently. The roots of his renowned genre-spanning career were in Denver in the early 1960s, where a young Frisell discovered surf music and first picked up a guitar. His most recent album – titled "Guitar in the Space Age!" – returns Frisell to the foundation of his musical life and the songs that shaped him.
"I'm looking at the music that got me really fired up about music in the first place, but also realizing I've never really played it," Frisell said in a recent phone interview.
The record includes Frisell's inspired instrumental interpretations of songs like the Byrds' "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and the Kinks' "Tired of Waiting for You," along with surf classics like the Chantays' "Pipeline" and the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl," which was the first record Frisell ever bought.
The album also includes Frisell's take on the Boulder-based surf rock band the Astronauts' 1963 hit "Baja." It was a time when a band from a landlocked state might make surf music, and an equally land-locked kid, like Frisell, might obsess about surfing based on that music. READ THE FULL Aspen Times REVIEW
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Bill Frisell Returns to Denver's East High School, Site of His First Jazz Guitar Performance
Posted At : January 16, 2015 12:00 AM
The first time Bill Frisell played a jazz tune on guitar in public was at a talent show during his junior year at East High School, in 1967. He wasn't even the featured performer; the school's band director, Vincent Tagliavore, asked him to learn Wes Montgomery's "Bumpin' on Sunset" to accompany some girls who were doing a dance routine to the song. Tagliavore thought it would be a lot cooler if they played live rather than having the girls dance to the record. And so began the career of one of the planet's most well-regarded jazz guitarists. Frisell hadn't even listened to much jazz before that performance. He grew up listening to surf music, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, "and then blues -- and by the time I got there, it was James Brown and the Temptations, all mixed together," he says. "This was before Jimi Hendrix and all that. So ['Bumpin' on Sunset'] was like an atomic explosion in my brain that led me, really, into the world of jazz."
Frisell presents his Guitar in the Space Age show at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, January 21, East High School, 1600 City Park Esplanade, Denver
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Montreal Gazette - Sound of 2014 top picks. From Bill Frisell to The Bad Plus
Posted At : December 31, 2014 12:00 AM
Many of Juan Rodriguez' picks for 2014 included music that many do not consider jazz, or even rock.
Consider mild-mannered, poll-winning guitarist Bill Frisell, who finds himself the subject of yet another brouhaha about "purity", the likes of which too often afflict the jazz world. He released the unspeakable – a rock ‘n' roll album (ironically titled Guitar in the Space Age, on the Okeh label) reaching back to his 1960s influences, including surfing music, by Duane Eddy, The Chantays, Link Wray and The Beach Boys. Horrors! Critics have lambasted him for nostalgia-mongering. Little wonder, after opening with a sublime seven-minute version of Pipeline, an archetypal surf tune, he follows with a short by-rote Byrds version of Turn! Turn! Turn! with its telling line, "To everything there is a season."
The Rite of Spring by The Bad Plus (Sony), transcends its novelty – a jazz trio with rock volume tackling the 20th century's most iconic classical piece – by playing Stravinsky's masterpiece straight, no chaser, no falling into the cheesy trap of "jazzing up" the classics. To accomplish that, bassist Reid Anderson told me, "was to really delve into the details of the piece and honour them." Given their rep for tackling iconic pop-rock pieces (Smells Like Teen Spirit, et al), "it was kind of a no-brainer even though we put up a little bit of a fight because we knew it was going to be so much work." Remarkably it sounds neither belaboured nor pretentious. It's as seriously exciting as the original was back in 1913. A tour de force by The Bad Plus, a band that truly lives up to its name. READ THE FULL Montreal Gazette LIST
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age! / Elmore Magazine review
Posted At : December 2, 2014 12:00 AM
When I was offered the chance to review master guitarist Bill Frisell's latest release I was anxious for the opportunity. Before receiving the album, I had only the title to contemplate: Guitar in the Space Age. I thought someone in the promotional department at Okeh Records had an especially bad idea. Guitar? In the space age? Didn't they know the space age came and went in the early ‘60s? Then I received the album and all became clear.
Mr. Frisell, now 63, came of age during these formative years when rock ‘n' roll and electric guitar were beginning their conquest of the world, if not of outer space. This album is evenly divided between covers of tunes from the early ‘60s and original compositions. It is a flawless foray into some of the great timeless recordings of the age and new tunes in homage to the age. READ THE FULL Elmore Magazine REVIEW.
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Bill Frisell - Guitar In the Space Age / Audiophile Audition review
Posted At : November 30, 2014 12:00 AM
Anyone who thinks they have guitarist Bill Frisell pegged can put expectations into the cupboard. On his latest effort, the nearly hour-long Guitar in the Space Age!, Frisell trumps what fans might presume about his output. Over the course of 14 tracks, Frisell and his quartet-pedal steel player Greg Leisz (who also adds electric guitar), bassist Tony Scherr (who also plays acoustic guitar on one cut) and drummer/vibraphonist Kenny Wollesen-pushes backwards to the Baby Boomer era. Frisell composed two numbers, the others are recreations, reclamations and reinterpretations of songs Frisell (who turned 63 this year) grew up with or later embraced, including rock music by the Kinks and the Byrds; surf music by the Beach Boys and the Chantays; country material by Merle Travis and others; instrumental rock hits by the Tornados and Link Wray; and much more from the late-‘50s through the mid-‘60s. READ THE FULL Audiophile Audition REVIEW
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age! / All About Jazz review
Posted At : November 7, 2014 12:00 AM
Though prototype electric guitar first appeared in the early 1930s, the instrument only became a staple of popular music in the 1950s and 1960s. As a musical revolution was evolving, so was a different type altogether -space exploration. Sixty years on, in an age when the challenge is just to keep abreast of technological innovations it takes an effort to imagine the seismic shift that the electric guitar and space travel-and television that brought such adventures into millions of homes-signified for youngsters like Bill Frisell.
Growing up in Denver, Frisell was just eleven when Telstar made headlines as the first direct relay communications satellite to be launched into space. He was barely in his teens when Chicago blues, surf music and the era's alt-country that has so informed his playing first impacted. Here Frisell re-explores his musical roots-or perhaps joins the dots-once again in the soulful company of Greg Leisz, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen, who wove their collective charms on Frisell's John Lennon tribute All We Are Saying (Savoy Jazz, 2011).
That album and Guitar in the Space Age feel in some ways like companion pieces-sonic sculptures hewn from similar source material. However, if there's a suggestion that Frisell is getting a little nostalgic in the autumn of his years it's worth remembering that Frisell's two releases sandwiched between All We Are Saying and Guitar in the Space Age were the avant-garde solo guitar album Silent Comedy and the contemporary chamber-meets-country suite Big Sur. With Frisell, there's a time for stretching the boundaries and, as with Guitar in the Space Age, there's a time for plain-old having fun. READ THE FULL All About Jazz REVIEW.
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age! / Yonkers Tribune interview
Posted At : October 30, 2014 12:00 AM
Title this recording, Guitar in the Space Age! as (updated) memorabilia of the fifties and sixties; it plays like an AM radio jukebox from the same era, but radiates a current and unique vibe. No matter, set your way-back machine(s) and enjoy the modernized and respectful (all-instrumental) blasts from the past that additionally includes a pair of newly penned Frisell tunes.
Joining guitarist Bill Frisell are familiar associates: Greg Leisz on guitar and pedal steel, vibraphonist/drummer Kenny Wollesen and bassist Tony Scherr. The songs are improvisational, but calling this music jazz would be a stretch. For example, checkout the lengthy and hazy sustained note that jolts "Pipeline" and the hypnotic atmosphere that ensues with spacey interplay and abundant creativity that overshadows the original (surf –rock) version by the 1962 one–hit wonders the Chantays. READ THE FULL Yonkers Tribune REVIEW.
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Bill Frisell - Guitar In the Space Age debuts #18 on CMJ-Jazz Top 40
Posted At : October 28, 2014 12:00 AM
Just when you think you've got guitarist-composer Bill Frisell all figured out, confident in your expectations, this American original shakes things up with a heretofore unexpected glimpse into those layers of consciousness which inform his rootsy, inclusive, oh so personal style of musical outreach. Because while Bill Frisell is capable of routinely navigating the most harrowing ascents into the outer reaches of the improvisational Ionosphere without once ever flinching, there emerge at regular intervals suggestions of something more childlike and elemental; a sensibility which revels in expressions of earnest, unadorned directness-the aesthetic poetry of an impressionistic painter who is unafraid to distill things down to their most folkish, heartfelt essence.
As a baby boomer who came of age in the 1950s and 1960s, there is an undeniably autobiographical bent to the tenor and tone of the repertoire which Frisell explores on GUITAR IN THE SPACE AGE! The album debuts@#18 on this week's CMJ-Jazz Top 40.
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age! / South China Morning Post interview
Posted At : October 25, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell is now 63 years old, and in common with most jazz guitarists his age - or younger - he also likes to play a little rock.
During the past 30 years or so, he has made original music, always at least loosely classifiable as jazz, with roots in territories all over the musical map from bluegrass and country to blues to world.
It still comes as a surprise to hear him playing surf music, on his latest release, Guitar in the Space Age!, but perhaps it shouldn't. There has always been more twang in Frisell's guitar tone than in that of peers such as Pat Metheny and John Scofield, and here he owns up to his affection for Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, Link Wray and The Beach Boys.
"There's something about being the age I'm at now," he says. "After playing for more than 50 years, it just feels right to once again play some of the music which shaped my consciousness during my formative years, even to play some of it for the first time … and maybe get it right. Guitar in the Space Age! isn't really an exercise in nostalgia, but about a re-commitment to keep learning, to firm up the foundation." READ THE FULL South China Morning Post INTERVIEW.
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age / Kentucky.com Critic's Pick review
Posted At : October 21, 2014 12:00 AM
Among Bill Frisell's many gifts as a guitarist is the ability to provide a vibrant new voice to the roots music of his youth. In the past, that has largely been defined through jazz standards and Americana classics. Last year's electro-chamber adventure, Big Sur, opened the repertoire to a wider stylistic array of West Coast inspirations. But on the fine new album Guitar in the Space Age!, perhaps his most accessible record in 15 years, Frisell expands his source material to include the pop, surf, twang and rock sounds that caught his ear as a teenager.
But anyone thinking Guitar in the Space Age! is some retrofitting exercise needs to strap in and give this recording a full-length test flight. He doesn't take the melodic liberties here that he has with some of his Americana explorations, but the guitarist does toy with the temperament, tone and tempo of the music to make the album's 14 songs sound like a sonic mural that is best enjoyed as a single suite rather than a composite of single-tune snapshots. READ THE FULL Kentucky.com REVIEW.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/10/21/3492702_critics-pick-bill-frisells-guitar.html?sp=/99/684/&rh=1#storylink=cpy
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age / The Buffalo News: Gusto review
Posted At : October 6, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell has the right idea about nostalgia. And that is, you don't truck with it in its pure form, which is a social pursuit (it's good for parties and bar games and little else). In its impure form, as in this great Frisell disc, it can be as delightful as it gets and something far greater.
"I turned 63 last spring," Frisell explains in the accompanying publicity. "And after playing for more than 50 years, it just feels right to once again play some of the music which shaped my consciousness during my formative years, even to play some of it for the first time … and maybe get it right. Guitar in the Space Age isn't really an exercise in nostalgia but about a recommitment to keep learning, to firm up the foundation and showcase one of the best bands I ever had." READ THE FULL Buffalo News: Gusto REVIEW.
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age / The New York Times review
Posted At : October 3, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell - a grateful heir to Jim Hall, and an occasional partner to Charlie Haden - is 63, and has earned the right to follow his interests wherever they lead. On Guitar in the Space Age! (OKeh), due out on Tuesday, they've brought him back to the surf-rock and Top 40 instrumentals of his youth, the realm of Duane Eddy, Link Wray, the Tornados and the Chantays. Mr. Frisell reels off many of his melodic lines in tandem, favoring a Fender Telecaster while Greg Leisz, a trusted partner, plays a Fender Jazzmaster. (Also aboard are the members of Mr. Frisell's longtime trio: Tony Scherr on bass and additional guitars, and Kenny Wollesen on drums.) The album has an easy-listening sheen, even a touch of treacle, but then Mr. Frisell has never shied away from sincerity. There's more to his version of the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl" than prettiness, but he makes you wonder why prettiness can't sometimes be enough. -Nate Chinen
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Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age / The Guardian review
Posted At : October 2, 2014 12:00 AM
Guitar in the Space Age is an old-school electric guitar fan's album, played by one of the most creative guitar fans in the world. Bill Frisell is a lifelong lover of the quintessentially American invention, drawing on everything from Charlie Christian swing through 50s tremolo twangs to cutting-edge pedal technology. But it's also a fine display of bluegrass and rock-inspired contemporary music, in which Frisell's intelligent, jazz-informed sensibility is applied to 1950s and 60s classics by Duane Eddy, the Beach Boys, the Kinks and more. On a casual listen, he might seem to be treating the Chantays' Pipeline or the Junior Wells blues Messin' With the Kid as if he's still a teenage guitar prodigy who has just excitedly learned them off the singles – but in fact this is as serious, witty, layered and subtle as any of his more abstract work. Check out a rapturously tender Surfer Girl, a delicately spacey Tired of Waiting for You – and Kenny Wollesen's deep, casually flappy percussion, which elegantly counterbalances the metallic clangs all the way through. -John Fordham
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Bill Frisell composes score for filmmaker Bill Morrison's The Great Flood / Denver Westword interview
Posted At : July 17, 2014 12:00 AM
New York-based filmmaker Bill Morrison had already made two short films using Bill Frisell's pre-recorded music, but Morrison wanted to work with the well-known jazz guitarist on a longer project. That effort would become The Great Flood, a documentary that they started collaborating on a few years ago and released on DVD last year. Using film footage from the Fox Movietone News Collection and the National Archives of the Mississippi River Flood of 1927 (the most destructive flood in American history), Morrison assembled the eighty-minute film. There's not a word in the movie -- much less dialogue or narration -- just Frisell's score to accompany the visuals of the catastrophe. In advance of a screening Saturday, July 19 at the Boulder Theater, Denver Westword spoke with Morrison about what inspired him to make the film. READ THE FULL Denver Westword INTERVIEW.
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Bill Frisell performs three different sets of music on NPR: Jazzset with Dee Dee Bridgewater
Posted At : July 16, 2014 12:00 AM
Guitarist Bill Frisell shines in three very different settings: with his band reworking John Lennon tunes, in a duo with violinist Jenny Scheinman, and with The Bad Plus playing music of Paul Motian. Listen to the performances on NPR: Jazzset with Dee Dee Bridgewater.
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Bill Frisell plays Minneapolis' Dakota / Pioneer Press review
Posted At : July 8, 2014 12:00 AM
Fifty years ago, when guitarist Bill Frisell and others of his generation heard the pop hits of the day, they usually heard them on Top 40 radio -- without the accompanying video images that MTV would make de rigueur, two decades later. That meant listeners had to supply their own mental images to accompany the music, which lent a certain sense of mystery to the sounds coming out of the radio. Frisell and his band, who brought their tour to Minneapolis' Dakota Jazz Club on Monday night, have been revisiting some of those oldies -- some of which inspired Frisell to take up the guitar, a half-century ago, as a Seattle teenager.
READ THE FULL Pioneer Press REVIEW
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Bill Frisell plays 'Guitar in the Space Age' set for Rochester Jazz Festival / City Newspaper review
Posted At : June 28, 2014 12:00 AM
The tunes that guitar wizard Bill Frisell selected for his "Guitar in the Space Age" set at Kilbourn Hall were double-dipped in novocain, pumped with helium, and set adrift to cascade and careen about the packed hall.
This was Frisell waxing a little more rudimentary than usual. It's not to say he is ordinarily tuneless. It's just that he has a heightened sense of melody. Not one to dumb it down, Frisell keeps it trippy and abstract -- except tonight where he adhered to melodies that the average Joe could more easily pluck out of the air.
Tunes by the Kinks, the Beach Boys, the Ventures, Steely Dan, and Lynyrd Skynyrd got the Frisell treatment, which this time meant playing closer to the tune as opposed to taking the six-string expressway to the moon. What didn't change were the dreamy soundscapes and the master's curious and picturesque refrain. It was over entirely too soon. What a gas.
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Bill Frisell plays TD Ottawa JF's Studio Series / Ottawa Citizen review
Posted At : June 25, 2014 12:00 AM
Always on the lookout for opportunities to "dig around for where I'm coming from," Bill Frisell's project, GUITAR IN THE SPACE AGE! is an homage to the inspirational popular music of his formative years made in the wake of "the birth of the Fender Telecaster guitar" - (1951, the same year as Frisell's own birth) - that, he recalls, "got me super fired-up" about his instrument of choice. Frisell and his band mates explore material, recently recorded for release on Okeh/Sony Masterworks, associated with The Beach Boys, Junior Wells, Pete Seeger, The Byrds, Duane Eddy, The Ventures, The Kinks, Chet Atkins, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Speedy West & Jimmy Bryant, The Astronauts, Merle Travis, Johnny Smith and others, as well as original material by Frisell. As on all of his projects, the proceedings will be, Bill understates, "rich with possibility" – and on this one especially, involve a potent dose of fun!
As part of the TD Ottawa Jazz Festival, the master guitarist treated a packed house at the NAC Studio Tuesday night to a happy and intimate communion with his 1960s garage-band past. Grinning throughout, Frisell led his band through a blur of jangly, twanging, reverberating music that was on one hand deeply nostalgic but also fresh and spontaneous, forcefully coloured by Frisell's staggering ability to pull a universe of sounds from his instrument and electronic effects.
READ THE FULL Ottawa Citizen REVIEW
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Bill Frisell interview on WNYC: The Leonard Lopate Show
Posted At : June 4, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell talks about his upcoming release, Guitar in the Space Age! as well as his June 6-7 performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center with fellow guitar master Greg Leisz on electric and pedal steel guitars, and his trio partners Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. Listen to Bill Frisell's interview with Leonard Lopate on WNYC: New York.
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Bill Frisell - Learning From Lennon / Tucson Weekly
Posted At : May 15, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell's biggest fear about his ongoing tribute to the music of John Lennon is that anyone would assume he means to slight the music of Paul McCartney. "I've never met Paul, and I would never want him or anyone else to think I thought any less of his music, because I love his music. But these things sometimes just present themselves. I mean, it wasn't even my idea originally," he says with a chuckle. READ THE FULL Tucson Weekly ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell Talks the Beatles, Charles Llloyd / Santa Barbara IndependEnt
Posted At : May 14, 2014 12:00 AM
Summons to an 8 a.m. interview with a musician usually signifies that the artist - in this case guitarist Bill Frisell - hails from the Big Apple, where it's closer to beer-thirty. Not so with Frisell, who spoke last week from his home in Seattle. All of this seems to undermine the authenticity of his jazzman credentials, we posited. "Whoa, I guess that's true. Maybe I'm not a jazz musician," he laughed. "But actually, I do my best composing at this time of day. Say what you will; there's a lot to be said for being fresh from sleep. It's a more pure state of mind. And it's too early for phone calls usually. The rest of the world leaves me alone."
READ THE FULL Santa Barbara Independent ARTICLE
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Bill Frisell interview with Music-Illuminati
Posted At : May 10, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell is an acclaimed, eclectic jazz guitarist whose playing has graced a number of solo recordings including the Grammy Award winning album Unspeakable, plus many recordings for the jazz label ECM Records where he served as "house guitarist", and with the band Naked City with John Zorn.
This interview was for a preview article for Frisell's upcoming concert at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara on May 16th, a concert focused on the music of John Lennon, which inspired a Beatles-related focus to the interview. READ THE FULL Music-Illuminati INTERVIEW.
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Bill Frisell on John Lennon's influence / Sacramento Bee
Posted At : May 8, 2014 12:00 AM
Happenstance has played an integral part in guitarist Bill Frisell's 50-year trajectory through jazz, Americana, rock, folk, country, classical, experimental soundscapes, soundtracks and beyond.
Take, for example, his performance of "All We Are Saying: The Songs of John Lennon" on Wednesday May 14th at UC Davis' Mondavi Center.
"Like so many things I do," the soft-spoken, affable Frisell said during a phone call from his Seattle home, "it seems like these situations just present themselves. It wasn't like I had some big idea to do this." READ THE FULL Sacramento Bee STORY.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/05/08/6387051/john-lennons-music-was-just-right.html#storylink=cpy
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Bill Frisell reunited with former guitar
Posted At : April 24, 2014 12:00 AM
Whether due to financial shortcomings, boredom, space constraints or restlessness, every guitarist has a tale of the "one that got away," an instrument that we should have held onto, but, somehow, didn't.
In the case of Bill Frisell, the one that got away was a custom 1968 Gibson ES-175. In his 20s, while the young musician was still discovering his singular voice, the Gibson was his main guitar and constant companion. And then, in a move he'd regret for decades, he sold it. READ THE FULL Fretboard Journal ARTICLE.
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IndieGoGo funded documentary now being made about Bill Frisell
Posted At : April 23, 2014 12:00 AM
Australian documentarian Emma Franz is making a film about guitarist Bill Frisell and funding it through an IndieGoGo campaign. The film is characterized as an intimate, behind-the-scenes feature film portrait of one of the most influential and creative artists of our time.
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Congratulations to Bill Frisel. Winner of 2014 JJA Award
Posted At : April 15, 2014 12:00 AM
Congratulations to the winners of the 18th annual Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards for Music and Recording and congratulations to Crossover Media Artist - Bill Frisell winning for ‘Guitarist of the Year.'
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Bill Frisell named finalist for 2014 Jazz Journalists Association Award
Posted At : March 9, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell is a finalist nominees for the 2014 JJA Jazz Awards.
Nominees in most categories were chosen by the votes of the Professional Journalist Members of the Jazz Journalists Association. Nominations were made on the basis of work done in calendar year 2013, with the exception of Lifetime Achievement Awards categories, in which nominations are for a lifetime body of work. Members and others were able to submit their own work for consideration in the Photo of the Year and Best Shortform Video of the Year categories; committees of JJA Members chose the nominees in those categories from among the submissions. NOMINEES FOR JAZZ MUSIC AWARDS
1) LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN JAZZ
Muhal Richard Abrams
Herbie Hancock
Phil Woods
Randy Weston
2) MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR
Craig Taborn
Dave Douglas
Gregory Porter
Matt Wilson
Wadada Leo Smith
Wayne Shorter
3) UP AND COMING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Cecile McLorin Salvant
Jonathan Finlayson
Warren Wolf
Matt Mitchell
4) COMPOSER OF THE YEAR
Darcy James Argue
Maria Schneider
Wayne Shorter
5) ARRANGER OF THE YEAR
Darcy James Argue
Gil Goldstein
Maria Schneider
6) RECORD OF THE YEAR
Without a Net (Blue Note) Wayne Shorter Quartet
WomanChild (Mack Avenue) Cecile McLorin Salvant
Chants (ECM) Craig Taborn Trio
7) HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE YEAR
Jack DeJohnette Special Edition Boxed Set (ECM)
Miles Live in Europe 1969 (Columbia Legacy)
Clifford Jordan Complete Strata East Recordings (Mosaic)
8) RECORD LABEL/PLATFORM OF THE YEAR
ECM
Mack Avenue
Motema Music
Pi Recordings
9) LARGE ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR
Darcy James Argue Secret Society
Maria Schneider Orchestra
Mingus Big Band
10) MIDSIZE ENSEMBLE
Jamie Baum Septet
Steve Coleman & Five Elements
Wayne Shorter Quartet
11) TRIO OR DUO
Craig Taborn Trio
Randy Weston-Billy Harper
Vijay Iyer Trio
12) MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Andy Bey
Gregory Porter
Kurt Elling
13) FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Cecile McLorin Salvant
DeeDee Bridgewater
Tierney Sutton
14) TRUMPETER OF THE YEAR
Dave Douglas
Kirk Knuffke
Terence Blanchard
Wynton Marsalis
15) TROMBONIST OF THE YEAR
Roswell Rudd
Steve Turre
Wycliffe Gordon
16) MULTI-REEDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Anthony Braxton
James Carter
Joe Lovano
Scott Robinson
17) ALTO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR
Lee Konitz
Miguel Zenon
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Tim Berne
18) TENOR SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR
(Sonny Rollins named Emeritus, Beyond Voting in 2013)
Chris Potter
Joe Lovano
Wayne Shorter
19) BARITONE SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR
Gary Smulyan
Mats Gustafsson
Ronnie Cuber
20) SOPRANO SAXOPHONIST OF THE YEAR
Dave Liebman
Jane Ira Bloom
Wayne Shorter
21) FLUTIST OF THE YEAR
Charles Lloyd
Jamie Baum
Nicole Mitchell
22) CLARINETIST OF THE YEAR
Anat Cohen
Ben Goldberg
Ken Peplowski
23) GUITARIST OF THE YEAR
Bill Frisell
Mary Halvorson
Pat Metheny
24) PIANIST OF THE YEAR
Craig Taborn
Keith Jarrett
Matthew Shipp
25) KEYBOARDS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Dr. Lonnie Smith
Gary Versace
Joey DeFrancesco
26) BASSIST OF THE YEAR
Christian McBride
Dave Holland
William Parker
27) VIOLINIST/VIOLIST/CELLIST OF THE YEAR
Eric Friedlander
Jenny Scheinman
Regina Carter
28) PERCUSSIONIST OF THE YEAR
Adam Rudolph
Dan Weiss
Kahil El'Zabar
Pedrito Martinez
29) MALLETS INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Gary Burton
Jason Adasiewicz
Warren Wolf
30) TRAPS DRUMMER OF THE YEAR
Eric Harland
Jack DeJohnette
Matt Wilson
31) PLAYER OF INSTRUMENTS RARE IN JAZZ
Bela Fleck (banjo)
Gary Versace (accordion)
Gregoire Maret (harmonica)
Scott Robinson (winds, reeds, Theremin)
32) ELECTRONICS PLAYER
DJ Logic
George E. Lewis
Jason Lindner
Rob Mazurek
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Bill Frisell set to headline this year's 'Bellevue Jazz Festival'
Posted At : March 6, 2014 12:00 AM
Seattle-based guitarist Bill Frisell was among the headliners announced Wednesday by the Bellevue Jazz Festival, which takes place May 28-June 1. Others artists featured in the four-day bash include Poncho Sanchez; the East-West Trumpet Summit, with Ray Vega, Thomas Marriott and pianist George Colligan; and salsa specialistas Carlos Cascante Y Su Tumbao. Complete festival information and ticket prices for all 40 performances will be announced in May. SEE THE Seattle Times - Paul de Barros POST.
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Bill Frisell appointed affiliate professor@University of Washington Jazz Studies program
Posted At : January 20, 2014 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell recently joined the University of Washington with his appointment as affiliate professor@UW's School of Music / Jazz Studies program. Although Mr. Frisell has been touring quite a bit, this appointment should keep him around campus more.
"This will give me the opportunity to make my roots here in town deeper," Frisell said. "And I feel like I can learn as much from the students as they can learn from me. Music is such an overwhelming thing. That's one of the first things that I tell students - that there's not a point you reach where you're finished."
READ THE FULL UW Daily Story
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Bill Frisell: Big Sur / Seattle Weekly review
Posted At : July 16, 2013 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell, Big Sur (out now, Okeh Records, billfrisell.com): The most striking thing about this record is that the guitarist whose name appears on the cover remains quite content to be just another member of the band. There are exceptions in which Frisell's iconic reverby guitar is allowed to shine-like "The Big One" and "A Beautiful View"-but overall the string section dominates the show. CR
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Bill Frisell: Big Sur. Review: theguardian
Posted At : July 12, 2013 12:00 AM
In 2012, the Monterey Jazz festival put composer/guitarist Bill Frisell in a cabin at a remote ranch on the Big Sur coastline, and left him there to come up with his reactions to the landscape. The project – combining the guitarist's chamber-musical 858 Quartet and more country-tinged Beautiful Dreamers trio – produced a festival performance and this abundantly varied 18-track studio album. Like all Frisell's inimitable impressions of America, it's joyous, mournful, bluesy, minimal, intricate, direct as a pop song and impressionistically mysterious by turns. In a highly diverse tracklist, the almost Sgt. Pepper-like Going to California rubs shoulders with The Big One's typically Frisellian rocking-blues feel, followed by the wistful, echoing melody of Somewhere and the Celtic-sounding Cry Alone. Eyvind Kang's quivering viola melody and Jenny Scheinman's dark cello chords make a desolate drama out of The Animals, and Shacked Up a wonderful bleary blues. Frisell's consistent inventiveness is remarkable, and Big Sur sounds as close to essential as most of his recent work. SEE THE REVIEW PAGE
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LA TIMES Review: Bill Frisell's evocative, fruitful visit to 'Big Sur'
Posted At : July 11, 2013 12:00 AM
Is there an artist as well-suited to record an album inspired by Big Sur as Bill Frisell? Having spent much of his long career working a fertile seam in the jazz world that shares ground with Americana and folk, Frisell and his often twang-dusted tone seems tailor-made for sweeping vistas and pastoral wonders. READ MORE
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Business Day Live: Big Sur might be among the very finest Bill Frisell records
Posted At : July 8, 2013 12:00 AM
Big Sur, which feels right now as if it might one day be counted among the very finest Bill Frisell records, is named after the breathtakingly beautiful Californian coastal region to which Frisell retreated to write this music, on commission from the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Consisting of 19 short pieces arranged in a suite whose parts interrelate not only musically but by virtue of the fact that they share the same sense of place, the result is a melodically rich tone poem whose moods drift easily from pensive to elegiac, from playful to awestruck.
It captures Frisell's solitude during his stay and the internal reflection that must have been as much of an inspiration as the visual splendour all around him. It ultimately works best, notwithstanding the undeniable charms of virtually each one of its separate parts, as a single majestic whole. READ FULL STORY
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WSJ: Bill Frisell's 'Big Sur.' An Album Born Out of Focused Isolation
Posted At : July 8, 2013 12:00 AM
The 90 miles of Central California coastline known as Big Sur, midway between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, extending inland to the abruptly rising Santa Lucia Mountains, has inspired writings by Henry Miller and Jack Kerouac, photographs by Ansel Adams and music from sources as varied as John Adams and the Beach Boys. When guitarist Bill Frisell arrived at Glen Deven Ranch there in April 2012, in the dark of night, he could scarcely sense the beauty of the 860-acre property bequeathed to the Big Sur Land Trust in 2001. READ MORE
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Bill Frisell's Big Sur: Echoes Special on July 3rd
Posted At : July 3, 2013 12:00 AM
Special Echoes Programs This Month include:
Wednesday July 3rd
Bill Frisell: Big Sur
Echoes is Syndicated Radio Show on Public Radio International.
Here are the Affiliate Stations that will be airing this broadcast.
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Bill Frisell's Big Sur goes #1 at CMJ-Jazz
Posted At : July 2, 2013 12:00 AM
Bill Frisell's first release on OKeh Records Big Sur has catapulted to #1 on this week's CMJ Jazz Top 40. Joined on the recording by Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Hank Roberts (cello) and Rudy Royston (drums), Big Sur features all-new music commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival.
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TD Montreal Jazz Festival: You could hear a pin drop during Bill Frisell's set
Posted At : July 1, 2013 12:00 AM
It was back to mystical reverence indoors last night at the TD Montreal Jazz Festival– this time for Bill Frisell's 9p set at L'Astral. It's so quiet during Bill Frisell's first solo set, you can hear a pick drop. That's the kind of respect you get, I guess, when you've been the go-to axman since the 1970s for greats like Paul Motian and Jan Garbarek, Frisell's early collaborators on the ECM label. Here, the veteran West Coast artist wows with fancy foot-pedal loops and free-association riffing on his "mutilated" Telecaster, adding layers of sound to an extended improvision on The Beatles' You've Got to Hide Your Love Away that has you thinking Oldfield's Tubular Bells or ELP's Tarkus. Then he clears the air with Body and Soul – how sweet. A second guitar – an Island, made in Montreal – sits unused on stage. Maybe next time.
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Bill Frisell's first release on OKeh Records is Big Sur
Posted At : June 18, 2013 12:00 AM
Legendary guitarist Bill Frisell's first release on OKeh Records is Big Sur, and features all-new music commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival. While staying at the Glen Deven Ranch, Frisell was captivated by the beauty and grandeur of the California coastline which inspired him to write this music. He is joined on the recording by Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Hank Roberts (cello) and Rudy Royston (drums).
Bill Frisell is one of the leading and most innovative guitarists of our time. His work covers a wide range of color and he has carved out a niche by virtue of his sound. A Grammy® winner for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2005, Bill is one of the most singular musicians of his generation and has released over 30 albums since his debut recording in 1983.