Jazz Articles about Bill Frisell

About Bill Frisell

Album Review

Iconic guitarist-composer Bill Frisell has chosen to primarily emphasize the Americana side of his music for his debut as a leader for Blue Note Records. When Frisell organized his new band with vocalist Petra Haden, cellist Hank Roberts and guitarist-bassist Luke Bergman he was struck by the fact that all of the band members but him sang, so their vocal blend became the group's signature sound as well as the inspiration for the name Harmony. Upon first hearing, the album ...

Live Review

Empoli Jazz Summer Festival 2019

by Neri Pollastri
August 12, 2019

Empoli Jazz Summer Festival 2019 Giardino del Torrione di Santa Brigida Empoli 9, 17, 23.7.2019 Programma di grande prestigio e qualità per Empoli Jazz Summer Festival 2019, che tra le diverse date ne includeva tre con protagonisti di primissimo livello della scena statunitense. Ha iniziato la serie, il 9 luglio, il trio di Bill Frisell, che vedeva il chitarrista a fianco del contrabbassista Thomas Morgan e del batterista Rudy Royston, suoi abituali ...

Album Review

Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan: Epistrophy

Read "Epistrophy" reviewed by Mario Calvitti

by Mario Calvitti
April 22, 2019

Il ritorno di Bill Frisell nel 2017 in casa ECM come titolare, anche se in coabitazione col contrabbassista Thomas Morgan, era stato accolto con entusiasmo, e il loro disco Small Town, registrato dal vivo al Village Vanguard di New York, unanimemente considerato uno dei migliori album dell'anno. Viene pubblicato ora, preannunciato dallo stesso chitarrista nel corso di un'intervista che ci aveva concesso nell'estate 2017, un altro album con materiale tratto dagli stessi concerti, il che non potrà che far piacere ...

Album Review

Bill Frisell | Thomas Morgan: Epistrophy

Read "Epistrophy" reviewed by John Kelman

by John Kelman
April 5, 2019

When ECM Records released Small Town in 2017, beyond capturing the profound intimacy and musical ability to “finish each other's sentences" shared by the first recorded document of guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan in a duo setting, one of the biggest walk-aways was the hope that this would not be a one-off. Two years later, Epistrophy captures another 68 minutes (running literally 34 seconds longer than Small Town) of intimate interaction, culled from the same March, 2016 run ...

Live Review

Big Ears Festival 2019

by Mark Sullivan
April 3, 2019

Big Ears Festival Knoxville, TN March 21-24, 2019 The major focus of this year's Big Ears Festival was a celebration of ECM Records' 50th anniversary, which included a number of live performances (representing both the main label and the classical music imprint ECM New Series) as well as a panel discussion “ECM @ 50" (covered in a separate article here). There were about 20 concerts, the largest group of ECM artists under one banner ...

Live Review

Bill Frisell Trio at Dublin's National Concert Hall

by Ian Patterson
March 7, 2019

Bill Frisell Trio National Concert Hall Dublin, Ireland February 21, 2019 It was a swift return to the National Concert Hall stage for Bill Frisell, following his guest appearance in May 2018 at the finale of fiddler Martin Hayes' residency. This time Frisell was leading his trio of Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen, long-time collaborators in the guitarist's on-going quest to celebrate music without borders. This concert was just that--a celebration of music pure ...

Album Review

Skuli Sverrisson with Bill Frisell: Strata

Read "Strata" reviewed by Karl Ackermann

by Karl Ackermann
September 5, 2018

On their two previous third-season releases, Andy Zimmerman's Half Light and Lionel Loueke's Close Your Eyes (both 2018), Newvelle Records pushed the envelope just a bit away from the deeply melodic formula that they have favored across seventeen albums to date. While those vinyl releases incorporated more elements of improvisational complexity, they were hardly foraying into the avant-garde. On Strata the duo of bassist Skúli Sverrisson and guitarist Bill Frisell bring us back to the purely melodic model.