Guitar affishynados...Bill Frisell

Posted by: samo7 on 09 September 2001

Any anybody a fan of Bill Frisell?? This is a guitar players, guitar player...his interpretation of music and his playing are unequalled...

Posted on: 09 September 2001 by fred simon

I'm a rabid fan of Frisell, ever since first hearing him on Eberhard Weber's beautiful album, Fluid Rustle. I have most of his records.

Lately, I've especially been digging Bill's recent Blues Dream, one of his very best.

Do a "search" for Frisell ... he's been mentioned here frequently, often by me!

Posted on: 09 September 2001 by Martin D

Just wanted to say i'm new to him, Blues Dream is my first which I love. Any recomendations? I know its all down to taste. How does the latest compare to his older stuff. Comments appreciated.
Cheers
Martin

Posted on: 09 September 2001 by samo7

Lately I've been listening to "Nashville" quite a bit, I saw him in concert about a month ago and was blown away by the way he submerged himself in his guitar and also some kind of loop or tape machine which was both peddle and hand operated???
He never made eye contact with the audience at all until just before he finished and was about to leave the stage...how weird was that??...he might as well been on the moon...totally mesmerized, both him and the audience.
Have you heard anything by him playing with Ginger Baker?? I think there are two albums out both by Ginger with Bill on guitar...

Posted on: 09 September 2001 by Former member

My wife and I are big fans of Frisell. We saw him with P. Motian and Joe Lovano at the Village Vanguard a couple of years ago. His music with this trio tends to be a bit more abstract.

Amongst the numerous Frisell albums which we have, I can recommend Gone, Like A Train and The Sound of Summer Running (under Marc Johnson, together with Pat Metheny). These are more in the vein of "americana" -- very enjoyable. Summer Running really conjures up the carefree days of summer with kids running around and playing in the yard, skinny dipping and strolls in the evenings.

It seems like all the jazz musicians doing interesting stuff these days are guitarists -- Pat Metheny, John Scofield, John McLaughlin, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jim Hall, Charlie Hunter, Wolgang Muthspiel.

But not Forcione.

Hockman

Posted on: 10 September 2001 by fred simon

quote:
Originally posted by Martin D:
Just wanted to say i'm new to him, Blues Dream is my first which I love. Any recomendations? I know its all down to taste. How does the latest compare to his older stuff. Comments appreciated.
Cheers
Martin

If you dig Blues Dream check out Good Dog, Happy Man, similar in some respects (acoustic-electric folk-jazz-rock-quirky Americana, including beautiful rendition of Shenandoah), dissimilar in others (no horns, little or no rocked-out distorted wah-wah). These are two of my most favorite Frisell sides. Lately I keep returning to Blues Dream because it seems a summation of Frisell's musical journeys thus far.

I feel likewise about Marc Johnson's album Sound of Summer Running, a joyous, fresh breeze of an album with Metheny and Frisell combining to make one big-ass contrapuntal Americana guitar. A great, great, album. I would equally recommend Johnson's Bass Desires, with Frisell, Scofield, and Erskine.

Here's the thing ... you just can't go wrong with pretty much anything Frisell does; here are some of my favorite gems:

In Line, his first leader date

Rambler

Have a Little Faith, a masterpiece on which Frisell covers, in the way only he can, Aaron Copland, the standard When I Fall In Love, Bob Dylan, John Philip Sousa, Charles Ives, Muddy Waters, John Hiatt, and Madonna ... yes, you read that right.

Where in the World?

Is That You?, originals plus covers of Mancini and Aretha

Songs We Know, standards in duo with the great pianist Fred Hersch

And, as I wrote before, I strongly recommend Fluid Rustle, the Eberhard Weber masterwork which introduced the world to Frisell (also Gary Burton on marimba and Bonnie Herman, Norma Winstone on wordless vocals). Even on this early recording Frisell had a completely formed personal voice.

Posted on: 10 September 2001 by Pete

I have Nashville and Gone, just Like a Train. One's great, and the other one's great!

Nashville is a really good one for the "all country music I've ever heard is awful" crowd, it's really quite beautiful stuff, and very mellow.

GJLaT is more of a mixture, and is good fun. It also features one of my favourite CD artwork packages.

Pete.

Posted on: 17 September 2001 by Keith Mattox

I would like to add his guitar playing on Ginger Baker's "Going Back Home". Wonderful stuff.

Cheers

Keith.

Posted on: 17 September 2001 by Former member

I know Ginger Baker is a rock icon, but I've had difficulties warming to this album. It sounds like he has taken some very talented jazz musicians (Haden, Frisell) and turned out an instrumental album with a homogenised rock beat.

I'm a jazz freak and am not a fan of most 70s-80s rock (or Cream) but I will try listening to it again.

Hockman

Posted on: 24 September 2001 by Former member

One album I haven't seen mentioned here is the stunning album by the short-lived group Power Tools called "Strange Meeting". This was released on Antilles records (in the UK) around ten years ago.

The musicians are Bill Frisell, Melvyn Gibbs on bass and the peerless Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. It's not one of Frisell's quieter dates; some of the tracks are definitely neighbour-unfriendly. However, there are moments of delicacy to match his later Americana-themed works, and there's a version of "When We Go" that is (IMHO) far better than the version on "Rambler". My only gripe about the album is that it doesn't reflect how good this band were live. I don't know if the album is still available though - I saw it appearing in the bargain bins a couple of years after its release. It's well worth buying if you can find a copy.

As Fred Simon remarked, pretty much anything with Frisell is worth a listen. Here are a couple of person favourites he didn't mention:

Before We Were Born - his first post-ECM album
Later That Evening (Eberhard Weber album with some fine playing from all concerned)
Robin Holcomb (Frisell guests on a few tracks)

Enjoy !

Nigel

Posted on: 24 September 2001 by DenisJ

I'm new to Frisell but just love his music-thanks for all the great recommendations-think this is where the forum is such a unique resource.

Regards

Posted on: 24 September 2001 by Keith Mattox

quote:
I know Ginger Baker is a rock icon, but I've had difficulties warming to this album. It sounds like he has taken some very talented jazz musicians (Haden, Frisell) and turned out an instrumental album with a homogenised rock beat.
I'm a jazz freak and am not a fan of most 70s-80s rock (or Cream) but I will try listening to it again.

Actually, his only foray into rock was with the few albums that he made with Cream; he was a jazz drummer before that and always considered himself to be a jazz drummer and gets cranky around people that focus on his short stint in rock

The album has a powerful beat, to be sure, but I certainly distinguish from the simple 4:4 beats that you find in 99% of rock these days. To me the drumming has a very improvisitional feel. As ever, different horses for different courses.

Cheers

Keith.

Posted on: 10 November 2001 by samo7

I just picked up another. "Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones"...not bad at all, I recommend it. For some reaso I keep going back to "Gone, just like a train"..a little more upbeat perhaps??

Posted on: 12 November 2001 by Pete

Anyone else tried the Stew Cutler disc out on naim? It's guitar/bass/drums, and I find it quite reminiscent of BF in the overall tone and style. Not a slavish copy, by any means though. Haven't had time for an exhaustive listen yet, but I'm enjoying it a fair bit when it gets on (lots of things keeping me away from the stereo right now, and also a box of goodies from Caber Music to compete against!)

Pete.