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Bill 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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ReadingBill Frisell: Live Download Series #14-17
by John Kelman
DS#001-013 | DS#014-017 In a previous All About Jazz article, the first thirteen installments of guitarist Bill Frisell's remarkable Live Download Series were reviewed. Beginning in 2009, Frisell and Songline/Tonefield Productions began making available high quality, download-only (but in formats including 320K MP3 and lossless FLAC) live performances dating as far back as 1989, when the guitarist was on the road to support his Elektra/Musician debut, Before We Were Born, released the same year. What has made this ...
Continue ReadingBill Frisell: Live Download Series #1-13
by John Kelman
DS#001-013 | DS#014-017One of the biggest problems facing contemporary jazz musicians is that they often have far more projects on the go than could ever be recorded and released commercially by conventional record labels--even small and relatively responsive indie labels. Special projects abound, or personnel changes for a tour are forced when members of a regular group are unavailable, the plight of the 21st century working musician being how to remain viable and available. Of course, it's not ...
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