Bill Frisell

I've been thinking about Bill Frisell's playing since I saw him on Thursday. His playing and musical aesthetic is something I admire greatly - he's obviously a musical omnivore, devouring and processing massive amounts of music and putting it all into his unique, postmodern blend that is equal parts jazz, americana, rock and roll, and pop melodic sensibility.

He possesses a keen harmonic and melodic sense, and I am always particularly impressed and fascinated by his use of harmonies in vamps/pedals, his ability to give them a sense of motion while orbiting around that central tone. I think it's time for me to sit down and really take the time to pick apart what he's doing and how he does it. I had a great seat at the show so I could really see his hands and he's an impressive technician on the guitar.

His use of delays is fantastic, the ways he sets up the future and then interacts with the past through his delay pedals, morphing his sound forwards and backwards, slowed down and sped up.

One more additional note for the show review I posted. I was listening to the Beach Boy's version of Surfer Girl and I realized that he must have either added sections or it was a medley. I'm thinking he might have added in the melody from the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" - although I could have imagined that.

I realized I really need to pick up News for Lulu - I'm fascinated to hear him in that grouping. I'm a huge, unabashed fan of George Lewis and an occasional John Zorn fan, so I'll be interested to see what that trio of musicians can do. I hope it lives up to its promise.

I had the pleasure of seeing Bill Frisell, Jenny Scheinman, and Greg Leisz in a trio last night at the Steppenwolf theater, a nice small theater on the north side of Chicago. Before the show I thought I had been there once before to see Peru Negro several years ago, but when I arrived I realized it must have been one of the other 'tiny theaters' on the north side of Chicago.

I was excited to see Frisell in this configuration - previously I'd seen him with the Unspeakable band, which was a fantastic show musically, overcoming the setting of the cavernous Symphony Center. I also saw him with Lee Konitz's band at the Symphony Center, a show that I found quite disappointing, with the only redeeming highlight being a duo encore with Konitz and Frisell that made the show worth the price of admission.

Seeing him with a violinist and a multi-instrumentalist pedal steel/lap steel player in an intimate setting was everything I hoped it would be. There was an incredible balance of improvisation and composition, with the former providing interesting and creative segues between the latter.

They opened with an extended improvisation that led into a brief theme, and then back into improvisation. From the first noise made on stage to the first round of applause, there was about 30 minutes of continuous music, which generally followed this format of weaving from what sounded like free improvisation, into at theme, into improvising around that theme, and back into free improv.

Frisell started the show on his acoustic, switching later to his trusty telecaster. It's amazing how his tone is so instantly identifiable no matter what the instrument or context; he is truly an artist who has found their own voice.

I'm not great with names of tunes, but some highlights and songs that I remember from the setlist were: Misterioso (which was given a very different treatment from the version on the recent album with Ron Carter and Paul Motian), an absolutely gorgeous version of "Shenandoah," his always brilliant version of Bob Dylan's "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," and in one of the most beautiful songs of the night, an extended treatment of the Beach Boys' "Surfer Girl."

It took me a minute to realize it was "Surfer Girl" he was playing, and I'm still not sure if it was a medley with some other melodies and themes in there. It made me have one of those "why didn't I think of that" moments - something that I find happens often when I listen to Frisell.

Scheinman and Leisz were great counterparts for Frisell. Scheinman provided a lot of melodic content along with a surprising amount of rhythmic support. That was one interesting aspect about the trio - they shared all responsibilities equally, melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically.

All in all, a fantastic show. I hope they document this trio in a recording sometime in the near future - a great balance of sounds, timbres, personalities that deserves to be recorded.