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.