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Bill Frisell: The Intercontinentals
ByThe aptly-named The Intercontinentals is filled with deep memories of traveling through time and place. Overall, I am struck by the similarity between the feel of this album and, oddly enough, Brian Eno's Another Green World : as on Eno's masterpiece, Frisell's compositions tend to turn in on themselves to create individual sonic worlds composed of their own inner logic; and, like Eno's pieces, each compostion fits well with the others and creates a powerful song cycle that renders the entire album quite compelling. This recording could have been called "The Big Green Circle" because of the way it feelsvibrant, shimmering, inviting, and continually arcing in upon itself.
Frisell has always had a talent for picking the right people to join him, and most of the time he achieves great results from his particular brand of fusion. With the release of The Intercontinentals he has reached new ground and expanded his compositional nexus. He keeps pushing the limits of what he knows in his own quiet amicable fashion and continues to develop his musical voice in a brave and accessible direction. Frisell is a humble and unobtrusive 'guitar hero.' It is obvious from the inspired work of every musician on this recording that they can relate to what Frisell had written for themthey also cover tunes by Boubacar Traore, Gilberto Gil, Christos Govetas, and Vinicius Cantuariaand find plenty of room to express their individual voices within these structures. Every player weaves his part of this puzzle well, and the results are mesmerizing.
Frisell has given us an album where African percussion, Middle Eastern oud, Brazilian guitar, Portuguese song, American country twang, Classical violin, and "bent beyond repair" jazz harmonies live together in harmony. It is a joyful world view, one I am glad he decided to share.
Track Listing
Boubacar; Good Old People; For Christos; Baba Drame; Listen; Anywhere Road; Procissao; The Young Monk; We Are Everywhere; Yala; Perritos; Magic; Eli; Remember
Personnel
Bill Frisell
guitar, electricVinicius Cantuaria
guitar and vocalsSidiki Camara
percussionChristos Govetas
oudGreg Leisz
guitar, steelJenny Scheinman
violinAlbum information
Title: The Intercontinentals | Year Released: 2003 | Record Label: Nonesuch Records
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About Bill Frisell
Instrument: Guitar, electric
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