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Bill
FrisellBorn
in Baltimore, Frisell grew up in Denver, CO. He began playing the clarinet in
the fourth grade. Frisell took up guitar a few years later for his personal amusement.
He continued with the clarinet, playing in school concert and marching bands.
Frisell briefly considered playing classical clarinet professionally. He played
guitar in rock and R&B bands as a teenager (high school classmates included
Philip Bailey, Andrew Woolfork, and Larry Dunn, future members of the funk group
Earth, Wind, and Fire). He discovered jazz in the music of Wes Montgomery, and
began to study the music. Dale Bruning, a Denver-based guitarist and educator,
fed his fascination with jazz. Frisell decided to make guitar his primary instrument.
After briefly attending the University of Northern Colorado, he moved to Boston
in 1971 to attend the Berklee School of Music. There he studied with Michael Gibbs
and John Damian. While at Berklee, Frisell connected with other like-minded players
(Pat Metheny was a classmate). He also studied with Jim Hall, who became an important
influence, especially in terms of harmony. In the mid-'70s, Frisell began moving
away from pure bebop and began fusing jazz with his other musical interests. At
about this time he began developing his atmospheric, quasi-mictrotonal style.
He discovered that, by using a guitar with a flexible neck, he could manipulate
the instrument's intonation.
A combination of experimental techniques
and signal processors like delay and reverb gave Frisell a sound unlike any other
guitarist. In the late '70s he traveled to Belgium. There he met Manfred Eicher,
the founder of ECM Records. Beginning in the early '80s, Frisell recorded prolifically
for the label, as leader and sideman with such musicians as Paul Motian and Jan
Garbarek. He continued with the label throughout the decade, earning a reputation
as ECM's "house guitarist." Frisell became much acclaimed by critics
for his sophisticated yet accessible work. Frisell moved to New York in the '80s,
where he worked with many of the most creative musicians active on the city's
"downtown" jazz scene. In the '80s and '90s he would record and perform
with a huge variety of artists, not all of them jazz musicians. Collaborators
would include rock and pop musicians (drummer Ginger Baker, singers Marianne Faithfull
and Elvis Costello), experimental jazz musicians (saxophonist/composers John Zorn
and Tim Berne), and at least one classical composer (Gavin Bryars). Frisell composed
soundtracks for the silent films of Buster Keaton. His 1996 album Quartet won
the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the German equivalent of the Grammy.
Frisell became an annual winner of various magazine polls for his solo work and
recordings. By the end of the '90s, Frisell was one of the most well-known jazz
musicians in the world, with an audience and an aesthetic that transcended the
boundaries of any given style. It should be mentioned that, while Frisell is best
known for his somewhat "ambient" guitar technique, he is a swinging,
harmonically fluent jazz player when the occasion warrants. Frisell moved to Seattle,
WA, in 1989, where he lives as of this writing.
Visit
the official Bill Frisell website here |
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Bill
Frisell: Intercontinentals
Bill
Frisell took the Downtown New York jazz scene to Nashville, and Marc Ribot did
the same thing for Cuba with his Los Cubanos Postizos and Muy Divertido. But until
Frisell's The Intercontinentals the robust, haunting sound of Malian blues guitar
was largely untouched by six-stringing jazzoids. The aptly named Frisell ensemble
here includes Brazilian guitar and vocal great Vinicius Cantuaria (playing solid
drums half the time), Mali's premier percussionist Sidiki Camara, Greek oud and
bouzouki virtuoso Christos Govetas, pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz, and violinist
Jenny Scheinman. Rather than cover all the band's continents, though, the focal
point is largely singular: "Boubacar" (in honor of Malian guitar pioneer
Boubacar Traore) opens the set and has its vibe continued with a cover of his
"Baba Drame," and everywhere the notes are hit and moods invoked as
if Ali Farka Toure were looking on from Timbuktu. This is, though, still Frisell.
An American earthiness crops up in Leisz's steel, as does the Mediterranean in
Govetas's oud. And Frisell's sampled loops create an atmospheric cloudiness grounded
by Camara's calabash and djembe and Cantuaria's drumming. In the constant sonic
middle ground are the trifecta of oud, violin, and bass, merging the melody and
rhythm brilliantly. Rootsy and undeniable, The Intercontinentals is yet another
Frisellian work of genius - Andrew Bartlett Order
here from Amazon.com |
"Play
What You Hear" author Chris Standring has a brand new album out on Ultimate
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with Blue Bolero, but it's one his fans will certainly embrace as they follow
Standring's ever-evolving career. - Brian Soergel, Jazz Times Listen
to & purchase Blue Bolero
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