Miles Okazaki and Bill Frisell at the Miller Theater

Miles Okazaki and Bill Frisell
The Miller Theater, Columbia University
New York, NY
April 15, 2025

When musicians collaborate for the first time, the setlist usually settles around shared music they love and often play. For guitarists Bill Frisell and Miles Okazaki, in their debut as a duo on Tuesday, that common ground turned out to be the compositions of Thelonious Monk.

Although a generation apart—Frisell is 74 and Okazaki is 50—the two stringmen occupy similar perches within the world of (more or less) jazz. Both are adventurers who are difficult to pigeonhole by genre; their collective oeuvre spans Americana, free improvisation, Brazilian music, ECM chamber jazz, Charles Ives, and more. While too quirky and individualistic to regularly play with mainstream jazz figures, each is experienced and comfortable inside the tradition.

In particular, both are passionate about Monk. Okazaki has self-released a series of recordings of the eccentric pianist's works. He described Frisell on Tuesday as not only "my guitar hero" but "the standard bearer when it comes to playing Monk on guitar."

More than half of the selections at their Columbia University appearance—one of the free, happy hour Pop-Up Concerts at the campus's Miller Theater—were Monk compositions. True to form, Frisell and Okazaki skirted the likes of "Round Midnight" in favor, mostly, of deeper cuts in the Monk songbook.

Playing different brands of sunburst-colored semi-acoustic guitars, Frisell and Okazaki played a lot of the Monk selections less than straight. A case in point was "Pannonica." It began unrecognizably, in a long cloud of atmospheric harmonics and out-of-time noodling, before the familiar theme finally emerged.

Frisell is one of jazz's most self-effacing figures. So in the Monk pieces—and for much of the rest of the set—Okazaki was the dominant soloist, playing fluid and propulsive lines imbued with the warmth of his resonant, hollow-body instrument.

Still, Frisell is no ordinary accompanist, and it was hard to take one's ears off him. His support was full of his signature start-and-stop eccentricity—which was a perfect match to Monk's rhythmically off-kilter compositions.

Frisell's off-center invention emerged in other pieces as well, like his arrangement of "Hot House" by Tadd Dameron. He further intensified the be-bop standard through writing a second melody, which Okazaki played in tandem as Frisell played the main theme.

Successful duos are about close listening and selfless playing. Both guitarists were highly attuned to one another's artistry; this was an amiable, agreeable musical conversation in which no voices were raised. Based on their smiles and relaxed body language, the two guitarists were as comfortable personally as they were musically. Let's hope this debut was not a one-off. The Frisell/Okazaki duo deserves to endure.