Jazz Articles about Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell: East/West

by Renato Wardle
August 22, 2005

Jazz musicians are relentlessly struggling to find a unique sound on their particular instruments. However, only a very few can lay claim to discovering their own voice, let alone engendering an entire genre. Bill Frisell is one such artist. His style of jazz exists at the crossroads between the disparate idioms of jazz, blues, and country. While many artists endeavor to be on the “cutting edge of jazz, Bill Frisell has withdrawn even further into his own realm. His latest ...

Cuong Vu: It's Mostly Residual

by John Kelman
August 14, 2005

Since relocating from Seattle in '94, trumpeter Cuong Vu has emerged as an important voice on the New York Downtown Scene. While his reputation has continued to grow with solo releases including '00's Bound and '01's Come Play With Me, his four-year relationship with jazz megastar Pat Metheny has seen his name grow familiar to an ever-expanding audience.

Vu has appeared on Pat Metheny Group's last two recordings--'02's Speaking of Now and this year's ambitious The Way Up--and two lengthy ...

Bill Frisell: Richter 858

by Mark Corroto
January 24, 2005

Commissioned to create music for a book project on the German painter Gerhard Richter, guitarist Bill Frisell opened his book of guitar techniques to enhance the painter's art.

Given instructions and eight Richter images, Frisell composed pieces for the 858 Strings Trio of Jenny Scheinman, Eyvind Kang, and Hank Roberts, a unit which can be heard on Frisell's 2004 release, Unspeakable. These eight pieces were recorded live in the studio without overdubs, remixing or post-production change. Like a ...

Bill Frisell: Richter 858

by John Kelman
January 21, 2005

For those who think, based on recent recordings, that guitarist Bill Frisell has lost his edge, two new recordings should go a long way to restoring faith in Frisell's inestimable abilities as a composer and performer. They also assert that, like them or not, the Americana, world music, and groove-centric concerns of his most recent Nonesuch releases are by no means the work of a man resting on his laurels. Frisell has always had a voracious musical appetite, as content ...

Bill Frisell: Richter 858

by Dan McClenaghan
January 11, 2005

Richter 858 is a commissioned work, setting guitarist Bill Frisell up with the job of creating music to accompany eight paintings for a book project on German painter Gerhard Richter. One of Richter's main techniques is to use a squeegee to smear paint over an aluminum surface. Frisell captures this sound--the squeak and squeal, the shrillness--perfectly in the disc's opening, a sound that gives the initial impression that one is in for one of those “daunting" listening experiences. But things ...

Bill Frisell: Unspeakable

by John Kelman
August 22, 2004

Some artists spend an entire lifetime within a narrow genre, honing their skill and working at stretching the boundaries of that style, while others transcend all definitions and labels, creating a music that defies categorization. Such is the case with guitarist Bill Frisell, who over a twenty-five year career has contributed to everything from the Nordic cool of Jan Garbarek's quartet to the downtown edge of John Zorn's Naked City. On his own records he has explored diverse landscapes including ...

A Fireside Chat with Bill Frisell

by AAJ Staff
February 21, 2004

Having spent most of my youth in the Reagan Eighties, I matured with the impression that bassists were all like Mick Mars and guitarists all mirrored The Edge. This was acceptable behavior in my youth, but would be considered juvenile now. And although I appreciate staying “young at heart," I am grateful to have been cultured by the likes of Derek Bailey and whom I consider the finest guitarist on this side of the Atlantic, Bill Frisell, who has defined ...