Jazz Articles about Bill Frisell

About Bill Frisell

Album Review

Tom Collier: Across The Bridge

Read "Across The Bridge" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 5, 2016

Ruminations on the past, musical or otherwise, are often weighed down by the sediment of sentiment. But it certainly doesn't have to be that way. Looking back can provide an outlet for the imagination to take control, and vibraphonist Tom Collier seems well aware of that. On Across The Bridge, Collier revisits his youth, delivering nine original numbers that touch on a childhood spent on the opposite side of the West Seattle Bridge from where he currently resides. It's a ...

Album Review

Bill Frisell: When You Wish Upon a Star

Read "When You Wish Upon a Star" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
March 3, 2016

Bill Frisell's America is a true land of musical opportunity. It's a place where portraits of bucolic beauty can mingle freely with reflections on gritty urban jungles, giving voice to anything and everything from the lighter side of life to the dark underbelly of existence. This inimitable guitarist's body of written work, along with his priceless interpretations of the music of Aaron Copland, Hank Williams, Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Thelonious Monk, George Gershwin, Willie Nelson, and ...

Extended Analysis

Bill Frisell: When You Wish Upon a Star

by John Kelman
February 1, 2016

While jazz and interpretation are hardly strange bedfellows, few musicians have managed to be both as deeply reverent to his source music and profoundly personal and in his approach as guitarist Bill Frisell. That's not to suggest his re-imaginings of other composers' works have been anything remotely approaching predictable; as early as his first “covers" record, Have a Little Faith (Elektra/Nonesuch, 1993), Frisell managed to create a congruent program out of disparate sources ranging from Aaron Copland, John Phillip Sousa ...

Live Review

Bill Frisell Trio at Peace Center

by Mark Sullivan
November 25, 2015

Bill Frisell Trio Peace Center Greenville, SC November 22, 2015 The promotional description for this Bill Frisell Trio show promised “music from Frisell's entire, and quite versatile, repertoire." A bold claim, given the guitarist's huge, varied discography, which ranges from experimental jazz with John Zorn to reinterpretations of pop songs. But although the program wasn't quite that far-ranging, it definitely had that spirit, showcasing several sides of Frisell's playing, as well as a wide ...

Live Review

Umbria Jazz 15

by Libero Farnè
July 27, 2015

Perugia, vari luoghi 10--19 luglio Oltre 35.000 biglietti venduti con un incasso di 1.500.000 euro, 450.000 presenze in città nei giorni del festival: i numeri danno ragione dell'enorme successo di pubblico di Umbria Jazz 2015. La manifestazione, come sempre articolata in appuntamenti gratuiti nel centro storico e in concerti a pagamento, all'Arena Santa Giuliana con nomi di grande richiamo e al Teatro Morlacchi con proposte più finalizzate, darebbe adito a non marginali considerazioni di carattere socio-culturale. Un'analisi ...

Rediscovery

Bill Frisell: This Land

by John Kelman
December 27, 2014

Bill Frisell This Land Elektra Nonesuch 1994 Today's Rediscovery? This Land, guitarist Bill Frisell's landmark 1994 album with Don Byron, Curtis Fowlkes, Billy Drewes, Kermit Driscoll & Joey Baron. Coming on the heels of 1993's eclectic covers record Have a Little Faith (Elektra Nonesuch), This Land is as much about Frisell the writer of distinctly American music—informed in equal parts by Charles Ives, Aaron Copland, Julius Hemphill and Robert Johnson, all filtered through the ...

Live Review

Bologna Jazz Festival 2014

by Libero Farnè
November 24, 2014

Bologna e Ferrara 28.10-22.11-2014. Il Bologna Jazz Festival non è certo un festival che perlustra il fermento dell'attualità, che espone le proposte più “forti" e innovative della ricerca americana ed europea, ma non si può nemmeno definire un appuntamento di mainstream nel senso stretto della parola. Salvo rare eccezioni, l'ottava edizione del Bologna Jazz Festival ha puntato con decisione su protagonisti indiscussi, soprattutto americani, su nomi ben noti di varie scuole, cercando e raggiungendo il consenso ...