Home » Jazz Articles » Bill Frisell
Jazz Articles about Bill Frisell
Save the Date - Aprile 2014
by Luca Canini
Come promesso il mese scorso, diventa fisso l'appuntamento con Save the Date." Riparte il viaggio su e giù per lo Stivale a caccia delle migliori proposte, dei migliori festival, delle iniziative più stuzzicanti. Una guida tascabile compilata seguendo solo e soltanto l'ispirazione e le tracce della musica che piace (a noi). 2 Aprile--Piacenza: Arriva in Italia Bill Frisell in versione Beautiful Dreamers, ovvero il trio completato dalla viola di Eyvind Kang e dalla batteria di Rudy Royston. ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Silent Comedy
by Ian Patterson
Only once before in a discography that runs to 35-odd albums has leader Bill Frisell released a solo guitar album--the brooding Ghost Town (Nonesuch Records, 2000). Thirteen years on, Frisell returns to the solo format, though the difference between the two offerings is like night and day. Whereas Ghost Town was a series of mostly acoustic compositions embellished with overdubs, Silent Comedy's real- time, loop-heavy electric improvisations employ no post-production. And, where Ghost Town was introspective and darkly poetic, Silent ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Big Sur
by Glenn Astarita
Heralded guitar maestro Bill Frisell combines his 858 Quartet and Beautiful Dreamers units to impart another watermark on his Americana legacy, featuring an organic acoustic-electronic sketch of this picturesque area of California coastline. The album comprises nineteen-tracks, spanning Civil War-era country-chamber, undulating ostinatos, layered strings, parts, and even snippets of surf music on The Big One." Frisell's aural snapshots of Big Sur tender an alluring vista melded with melodic content and occasional detours amid a polychromatic framework, mottled ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Big Sur
by AAJ Italy Staff
C'è qualcosa di epico in Big Sur, ultima fatica discografica di Bill Frisell. Sarà per quel suo scorrere placido come un fiume, dall'incidere maestoso tra morbide anse e paesaggi mozzafiato. Sarà per l'aria di contemplazione e di rinnovato stupore verso le la bellezza delle cose semplici che si percepisce dalla prima all'ultima nota. Sarà perché i diciannove brani si legano uno all'altro in una sorta di suite dell'anima e dei sentimenti che per oltre un'ora ammalia l'ascoltatore. Sarà.... ma Big ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Big Sur
by Troy Collins
Along with household names like Pat Metheny and John Scofield, Bill Frisell is one of the most distinctive American guitarists of his generation. Despite his penchant for abstraction, Frisell's phrasing, touch and tone are as singularly unique and readily identifiable as those of his more conventional peers. Though his vast discography includes bold experimental solo albums and erstwhile membership in John Zorn's infamous Naked City, Frisell's abiding fascination with Americana has found him fine-tuning his encyclopedic interpretations of American folk ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Big Sur
by Ian Patterson
Big Sur, the mountainous coastal region of California lends itself to various geographical definitions--it isn't easy to pin down definitively. So, it was an inspired idea by the Monterey Jazz Festival to put guitarist Bill Frisell in a cabin in the area and commission music, because with Frisell, musical borders are delightfully amorphous. The suite that Frisell premiered at the 2012 MJF provided the blueprint for this album, which inhabits a strangely alluring space somewhere between modern chamber and country ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Big Sur
by John Kelman
Most, if not all, musicians value the relationships--both musical and friendship--that they build over the years, but few are as loyal as guitarist Bill Frisell. One look at his various releases over the past couple of decades and it becomes instantly clear that, once he has established a successful working and personal relationship with another musician, he rarely ever calls on anyone else. With the exception of Rudy Royston--who, since first collaborating with the guitarist in 2007, has regularly split ...
Continue Reading





