By: Evan Desaulnier
Bill Frisell’s unique guitar work and musical excursions in his installment of Solos: The Jazz Sessions are nothing short of awe-inspiring and unconventional. As with much of Frisell’s output, he has demonstrated again and again how he has become a master of his own guitar idiom.
With a healthy compliment of guitar effects pedals and loops, Frisell has developed an individual musical voice that has progressed and matured over recent years. From his acclaimed East-West trio series, to various bluegrass-folk-meets-jazz projects, and finally to other collaborations with jazz greats such as Elvin Jones, Dave Holland, Ron Carter, and Paul Motian, Frisell’s style knows no genre-boundaries.
It somehow straddles American folk music, jazz standards, traditional blues, free improvisation, and yet seems to absorb each one in a way befitting Frisell’s musical genius and eccentricities. It becomes pointless to try and put Frisell’s music into easily-understood boxes because with one listen of Solos it’s easy to see and hear why.
The Solos: The Jazz Sessions DVD series is the product of the efforts of Daniel K. Berman and Paul McNulty through Bravo! Canada Broadcasting. The series is essentially a short-list of living jazz luminaries who are each showcased in an intimate atmosphere while playing completely unaccompanied, or rather – you guessed it – solo.
In addition to Bill Frisell’s own chapter in the series, other artists to be handpicked by the Solos series include Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Mark Turner, Kevin Breit, Brad Mehldau, Mike Murley, Lee Konitz, Greg Osby, John Abercrombie, Andrew Hill, and Charlie Hunter, just to name a few.
Throughout the concert, it is simply Frisell onstage with his guitar and effects pedals. He presents us with washes of guitar loops and effects that organically shift and transform throughout the duration of the set. He seems to effortlessly paint new musical landscapes out of ideas and themes that gradually fade out of existence only to be artfully replaced by new scenes and sounds.
The concert was filmed in Toronto’s Berkeley Church and its cavernous, gothic architecture lends itself well to Frisells sound-washes and lyrical melodies. Shot from multiple camera angles and pans and filmed in High Definition, the concert footage is crisp and intimate. Effectively, the visual aspect of the concert itself bolsters the otherworldliness of Frisell’s music.
The selection of tunes in this concert spans Frisell’s various projects and musical interests. For instance, he covers a Hank Williams Sr. classic, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Here he melds American Country with his unique stamp of blues and folk-guitar licks, along with a healthy dose of loops and effects. Other covers include Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War” and George and Ira Gershwin’s “My Man’s Gone Now.”
Some of his original compositions also appear on the concert set that were previously released on some of his other recordings. These include the dark and heavily effect-laden “Boubacar” from The Intercontinentals (2003), as well as the wistfully melodic “Poem for Eva” from Good Dog, Happy Man (1999). Whether or not you are familiar with these tunes, in the Solos concert Frisell delivers them with a sense of freshness and creativity that is surely fulfilling for even his most experienced listeners.
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ping-pong (8 years ago)
I love it! But am I the only one to notice that “My Man’s Gone Now” is really the “Days of Wine and Roses”?