Bill Frisell - Orchestras

Label: Blue Note Records, 2024

Personnel - Bill Frisell: guitar; Thomas Morgan: bass; Rudy Royston: drums + Brussels Philharmonic and Umbria Jazz Orchestra.

The incomparable Bill Frisell, whose remarkable guitar prowess and compositional genius have left an indelible mark on the jazz scene for over four decades, ventures into new territory with Orchestras, a double album that sees him expanding his trio sound with the accompaniment of two European orchestras. This ambitious project features arrangements of some of Frisell's most iconic original compositions, along with a jazz standard, a couple of American folk songs, and a piece by Michael Gibbs, who provides all the arrangements on this captivating release. Frisell’s trio, consisting of the adaptable Thomas Morgan on bass and the tastefully diverse Rudy Royston on drums, imbues each piece with an intimacy that lends emotional potency to the ensemble's performance.

The CD1, featuring the Brussels Philharmonic under the baton of Alexander Hanson, begins with the grandiose cinematic quality of Gibb’s “Nocturne Vulgaire”, later jazzified with bluesy guitar chops set against an airy accompaniment. The standard “Lush Life” by Billy Strayhorn follows, elegantly spreading glamour and romanticism. “Beautiful Dreamer”, an early folk piece by Stephen Foster, waltzes slowly in a richly layered communion impregnated with a deep Southern feel.

Another heart-rending waltz, “Throughout”, is nestled among a collection of Frisell’s old favorites. Tracks like “Rag” traverse from folk revivalism to jazz fanfare with refinement and excitement, while “Electricity”, a country-influenced number pelted with guitar harmonics, loose drumming, and unobtrusive bass lines, becomes slightly reggae-ish as a consequence of the horn section’s counterpoint. In turn, “Richter 858 No. 7”, solidly sustained by a rhythmic foundation based on an eight-note, six-beat cycle bass groove, culminates in a majestic orchestral crescendo with the strings on vivid display.

CD2 further captivated my ears, with the musicians coloring and texturing agreeable sonic landscapes, reaching a genuine universality in their musical commitment as they listen to each other so closely. Moreover, the repertoire contains two of my favorite Frisell tunes, both enhanced by magnificent arrangements and executions. They are “Strange Meeting”, here featuring a disarmingly simple guitar solo, and “Lookout For Hope”, a marvelous jazz-rock hybrid aggrandized by Royston’s fine drum chops by the end. There’s also “Levees”, a stress-free, ternary exercise with bold horn lines, while Frisell’s guitar counterpoints by exuding more sparky than mellow tones.

Armed with Gibbs’ impeccable arrangements, Orchestras showcases Frisell's enduring creativity and marks yet another significant chapter in his illustrious discography.

Favorite Tracks:
01 (CD1) - Nocturne Vulgaire ► 04 (CD1) - Rag ► 01 (CD2) - Lookout For Hope ► 03 (CD2) - Strange Meeting

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Bill Frisell - Four

Label: Blue Note Records, 2022

Personnel - Bill Frisell: guitar; Gregory Tardy: tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet; Gerald Clayton: piano; Johnathan Blake: drums.

The unmatchable American guitarist and composer Bill Frisell soars his six-string chords in the company of long-time collaborator Gregory Tardy on reeds, and recent partners: pianist Gerald Clayton and drummer Johnathan Blake. Four is Frisell’s third outing on the Blue Note imprint, and consists entirely of originals - nine newly composed and four taken from two previously recorded albums. They form a wonderful set of folk-rooted meditations on loss, renewal and friendship.

The record is dedicated to the late cornetist Ron Miles, but some specific tracks pay tribute to some of Frisell’s recently departed friends. The opener, “Dear Old Friend (for Alan Woodward)” is a solo-less, far-from-overwrought country song with a lullaby-ish melody. There’s also the gently persuasive “Waltz for Hal Willner”, and the wonderful collective work of “Claude Utley”, which celebrates the amazingly colorful painter of the same name, a native from Seattle who passed away in September 2021. This piece, carrying a post-bop leverage, incorporates the tenets of the bandleader’s style. Clayton gets the spotlight in the introductory section, after which an inducted three time feel stimulates Frisell and Tardy (on clarinet) to provide counterpoint.

The 3/4 time signature dominates great part of the album, and besides two of the above-mentioned pieces, you can also hear it on the expressively bluesy “Monroe”, the softly brushed “Wise Woman”, and also “Good Dog. Happy Man”, a folk piece that sports a jubilant optimism. Both latter tunes, together with the Americana-soaked ballad “The Pioneers” were previously recorded, just like the classic “Lookout For Hope”, here re-sculpted with a dreamy feel that binds the tearfully intoned bass clarinet and the warm sounds of guitar and piano.

“Invisible” navigates tranquil waters with silken melodicism, while “Holiday”, more playful, has the group tossing in organic doses of slight funk, whose freedom starts in Blake’s nimble snare rhythms.

The members’ attentive listening to one another are not hard to find, but “Dog on a Roof” is definitely special. It closes out the album in absolute delight, going from abstraction - made of relentless ostinatos, drones and other surprising effects - to an hypnotic melody-driven passage that vamps and waltzes in the background.

Displaying intelligent, anti-show-off conversations delivered with controlled intensities and precise color combinations, Four reaffirms the depth of Frisell’s musical vision.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Claude Utley ► 06 - Lookout For Hope ► 13 - Dog on a Roof

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Bill Frisell - Valentine

Label: Blue Note Records, 2020

Personnel - Bill Frisell: electric and acoustic guitars; Thomas Morgan: acoustic bass; Rudy Royston: drums.

The unmatchable guitarist Bill Frisell caresses our ears with another set of good-natured, ultra-refined songs delivered in trio. For this disc, he summoned longtime associates, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston, to perform 13 serene compositions, eight of which he penned.

Mixing pastoral and lounge atmospheres, the album starts with a revisitation of “Baba Drame”, a beautiful, warm piece by Malian guitarist Boubacar Traoré, which Frisell first recorded in 2013 for his album The Intercontinentals. The present rendition follows an uncluttered arrangement containing enough latitude to let the music breathe and a renewed sense of groove. From here, the trio makes a seamless transition to the spaciously textured “Hour Glass”.  

Veering the tone, the title cut is a relentlessly delightful blues with a strong Monk-ian riff at the center, which often repeats during Morgan and Royston’s personal statements. The guitarist, a natural storyteller, shows how to deliver a masterful improvisation with absolutely no fuss and no place for fireworks.

Both “Levees” and “Wagon Wheels” bring that Western mood under their wings, conjuring vast American landscapes through country jazz sonorities and bluesy tones. The former is an original that Frisell wrote for the documentary The Great Flood, whereas the latter, a song from the early 1930s, comes from the pen of Billy Hill and Peter DeRose.

The ballad “Winter Always Turns to Spring” is harmonically interesting and driven by emotion, an attribute that also applies to Billy Strayhorn’s popular “A Flower is a Lonesome Thing”.

My favorite track is Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now is Love”, which emanates rays of light over our heads. Fully expressed from the heart, and with Morgan and Royston enlacing their sounds tightly, the tune finds Frisell propagating a fluid and logic narration with a slight R&B feel. 

The trio pulls down the curtain after navigating a pair of tranquil compositions, both immersed in soothing tones and emotional vulnerability. They are “Where Do We Go?”, retrieved from the 2001 album Blues Dream and conducted by the bucolic tranquility of Frisell’s acoustic guitar, and “We Shall Overcome”, a traditional gospel piece that became an anthem for the civil rights movement.

Frisell’s discography reflects a distinguished four-decade career, and Valentine is another strong entry.

Grade A-

Favorite Tracks: 
01 - Baba Drame ► 03 - Valentine ► 11 - What the World Need Now is Love

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Bill Frisell / Thomas Morgan - Epistrophy

Label: ECM Records

Personnel – Bill Frisell: guitar; Thomas Morgan: acoustic bass.

Epistrophy marks another beautiful encounter between guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan. The follow up to Small Town boasts a formidable repertoire captured live at The Village Vanguard in March 2016, having Jerome Kern’s “All is Fun” opening it in a marvelously relaxed atmosphere. Frisell’s fascinating melodicism is knee-deep in rhythmic ideas, and Morgan, who lightly swings for a while, assures not only a superior foundation but also constructs it in an interactive way.

In addition to the aforementioned opener, it was the bassist who suggested The Drifters’ “Save The Last Dance For Me”, an R&B hit from the early 60s that comes affiliated to “Wildwood Flower”, the folk song that serves it as an intro. On many occasions, Morgan communicates with Frisell by responding to his thoughtful guitar work. It’s not uncommon to hear exquisite guitar harmonics adorning the tunes and Billy Strayhorn’s sweet ballad “Lush Life” doesn’t let me lie. Another example is Monk’s “Pannonica”, which also does a great job in highlighting the instrumentalists’ soulful lyricism and sharp tonalities. It’s a joy to experience all these magnetic chords brimming with delicious extensions.

Since only top-notch musicians have the ability to make knotty passages sound simple, don’t be surprised if the rendition of Paul Motian’s whimsical “Mumbo Jumbo” surfaces natural and uncomplicated. The rubato approach invites us to freer, non-linear flights and the song is given a totally different perspective after the infusion of tasteful machinelike effects inflicted by Frisell’s sound-altering pedal.

If the duo performed “Goldfinger” in their previous outing, then they picked another James Bond theme to be part of this new work - “You Only Live Twice” is jazzified with an impressive atmospheric radiance, engrossing textures, and a dreamy sound that lingers. It’s one of the most beautiful moments on the album, which gains a tantalizing dimension with the confident gestures in the bass accompaniment.

The title track is another Monk classic whose telepathic and freewheeling interpretation includes melodic fragmentation, blues sparkle, and swinging flair. Frisell’s comping is smart and fun, and the original melody only shows up at the end in all its clarity.

In the aftermath of the traditional “Red River Valley”, an obvious folk ride, the album comes to an end in balladic gorgeousness with “In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning”.

Owners of an immeasurable musicality, Frisell and Morgan embark on impeccable narrations of well-known gems, in a clear demonstration of their interactive dexterity. It’s mind-boggling how they put such a fresh spin in so many familiar songs, and all we want to do is play them over and over.

Grade A

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Mumbo Jumbo ► 04 - You Only Live Twice ► 06 - Epistrophy

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Mary Halvorson - The Maid With The Flaxen Hair

Label: Tzadik, 2018

Personnel - Mary Halvorson: guitar; Bill Frisell: guitar.

Pursuing fashionable sounds, Mary Halvorson joins forces with her fellow guitarist Bill Frisell on The Maid With The Flaxen Hair, where both follow their natural stylistic impulses to interpret nine ballads associated with Johnny Smith. The idea came from saxophonist John Zorn, who opened the doors of his record label, Tzadik, to these guitar-centric duets with abundance of melody and experimentation.

Electronic seasoning confers a 21st-century presentation to timeless standards shaped with hints of folk and country, cases of the languid “Moonlight in Vermont”, which even swings a bit in its B section after a few slow dissonant bends; “In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning”, sculpted lightly with an uncompromising posture; “The Nearness of You”, limned with rhythmic staccato attacks and introductory melodic divagations to obtain a marvelously fresh sound; and “Misty”, whose unadulterated voice leading goes along with buzzing and sliding rusty drones.

Wry sounds spread throughout and sometimes the sound of the guitarists blend in such a way that it’s hard to say who’s doing what, especially when Halvorson doesn’t use that descendant pitch shifting effect that characterizes her playing. The title track, a classical prelude by Claude Debussy, exhibits echoing phrases and follows a necessary synchronization with a contemplative country-jazz propensity.

The duo pushes the envelope of the American folk idiom on both “Scarlet Ribbons For Her Hair”, a popular song, and “Shenandoah”, dated to the early 19th century.

The fanciful orchestrators end this session with Smith’s 1954 hit “Walk, Don't Run”, in which swinging jazz segments cohabit with Bach's innuendos.

This is a fun, accessible disc from two openminded sound-shapers who bring interesting ideas to songs from the past.

Grade A-

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Moonlight in Vermont ► 02 - The Maid With The Flaxen Hair ► 06 - The Nearness of You

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Bill Frisell - Music Is

Label: Okeh, 2018

Personnel – Bill Frisell: electric and acoustic guitars, loops, ukulele, bass, music boxes.

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.

Far more adventurous is “Winslow Homer”, whose progressive posture bears audacious tones while the rhythm suggests a swinging flow that is never explicitly established. Frisell’s remarkable command of the guitar is extensible to every register and the tasteful effects aptly modernize this tune, which first appeared on the album Beautiful Dreams (Savoy Jazz) in 2010. 

Other classic pieces were added such as the relaxing “Ron Carter”, the neatly layered “Monica Jane”, the entrancingly acoustic “The Pioneers”, and two compositions from his early ECM records: “In Line”, designed with a durable ostinato, ruminative electronics, and assertive attacks within an electric setting; and a chiming rendition of “Rambler”, here suffused with loops and adaptable fresh melodies, and incorporating the ukulele into the final section. An alternate version of this tune, discarded of effects, closes out the record, with the guitarist showing an incredible capacity to articulate single-notes and chords in a polished incantation. 

The vulnerability and graciousness that dominate the record are shaken with a pair of short pieces: “Kentucky Derby”, a succinct statement whose stalwart rock chords feel ZZ Top-ish, and “Think About It”, where the guitarist combines strident bluesy chops with prolonged strapping chords.

Among the new songs, I would highlight “What Do You Want”, a nice, reflective exercise with drones underneath, and the darkly toned “Miss You”, a vehicle of uncertainty and a little sorrow.

Frisell is an inveterate drifter whose musicality leans toward introspection rather than spectacle. He knows how to sculpt a candid melody and make it the pounding heart of a song. Very personal, this is a novelty act of pure Frisellian atmospheres.

        Grade A

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Winslow Homer ► 04 - What Do You Want ► 16 – Rambler (alternate version)

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Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan - Small Town

Label/Year: ECM, 2017

Lineup – Bill Frisell: guitar; Thomas Morgan: bass.

The re-encounter of two contemporary jazz giants and virtuosos in the handling of their respective instruments spawned an ECM album recorded live at the gorgeous Village Vanguard and entitled Small Town. The gentlemen in question are guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan, who have been working and recording together since 2011. Their sounds have interlocked outstandingly in Jakob Bro’s December Song and Time, Paul Motian’s The Windmills of Your Mind, and Frisell’s last work, I Wish Upon a Star.

The musical symbiosis that results from their interplay couldn’t have been more elucidative than in the opening tune, “It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago”. This airy piece is one of the most beautiful compositions by the late drummer Paul Motian, who first recorded it in 1984 with a bass-less trio that comprised Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano. Morgan speaks a language of his own, whether connecting with Frisell’s voicings and harmonics or roaming freely and with no apparent destiny. The clarity, weightlessness, and transparency of this piece sent me into a levitating state where gravity wasn’t enough to pull me down. It gave me such a peace of mind as I kept embracing its idleness with all my strength. 

While the rendering of “Subconscious Lee” pays homage to its auteur, the saxophonist Lee Konitz, by combining happy bass hops with folkish infiltrating sounds and making the tune lose its original post-bop feel, “Song For Andrew No 1” is a recent piece composed by Frisell for drummer Andrew Cyrille. It was written for and featured in the drummer’s latest album The Declaration of Musical Independence. The duo version maintains the dreamy atmosphere, but finds even more room to breathe, conveying a lovely melancholy that could be compared to the Portuguese Fado.

From this point on, the versatile duo deliberately plunges into the folk genre, giving it their own touch and taking us to the vastness of American prairies and savannahs. While “Wildwood Flower” shows a typical narrative affiliated to its bluegrass roots, Fats Domino’s R&B “What a Party” carries something funny in its melody and rhythm, bringing to mind the farcical moves of Chaplin and Keaton in those classic silent movies.
 
Brimming with charisma, Frisell’s idyllic title track increases the sense of uncertainty through enthralling guitar voicings, differing from “Poet/Pearl”, the only composition by the duo, whose harmonic/melodic passages feel more familiar and some of them quite reminiscent of the popular “My One and Only Love”.

The record ends in a somewhat noirish mood with the furtive “Goldfinger”, a 007 theme that became popular in 1964 through the voice of Shirley Bassey.

This is a meritorious record by two high-flyers who already showed what they got. On every tune, one gets the impression of moving in an immense space and this music, at its purest artistic form, gets so easily under your skin.

        Grade A-

Favorite Tracks:
01 – It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago ► 03 – Song For Andrew No 1 ► 05 – Small Town

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