The Power Tools album was the one that got me into Bill Frisell. Just found this on YT
This popped up the other day.
I did not see this tour on Frisell's site.
It was initially advertised with just Sam Amidon's name.
Sam Amidon
with Bill Frisell and Shahzad Ismaily
Revolutionary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell teams up with rising folk artist Sam Amidon for a showcase of timeless Americana.
October 16 at the Barns of Wolftrap
http://www.wolftrap.org/Home/Find_Pe...016show14.aspx
It might be a one off.
There were great tickets available last Thursday.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Bill in 2014 for Fretboard Journal. No words on how beautiful this is. Every note he plays, he conveys the essential beauty of the song. George G. would be damn proud. Now, I'm gonna go practice this tune. How does Bill practice? As he said, he plays the melody over and over and over again. And over and then some. Until the song becomes like a second skin, in which he can impart his own personality upon it. Whereupon, he and the song become inseparable.
He is such a different guitarist in an age where there are so many technically gifted people typing to play every possible note they can within the span of a few seconds. I would love to see what would happin if Frisell and Mike stern ever got together and did a record. They take such different approaches to the guitar, but it could be interesting.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
I also really like his "East/West" live album. Funny story though - I bought this many moons ago when I was part of the Columbia music group. The "East" album actually contains the West songs, and visa versa. I notified them and they sent me a replacement, but it was the same thing. Does anyone else who owns this album have the same issue, or was the regular commercial version put together correctly?
Hey, I wonder if this is a collectable now or not?
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
East / West reviewed here.
They did on Stern's 1999 album, Play,on which John Scofield also guests on some tracks. Honestly, as hard a working guy as Stern is, I find that he kinda gets same too quickly....one clean tone, one overdriven tone; solos often start clean, then he kicked in overdrive, then delay, build to a climax.....I like his album Jigsaw for the writing, and Play isn't bad, but is really think that he is outranked by Sco and Frisell....
If you like FT 1, you'll like 2. Reviews of FT 1 and FT 2,, FYI.
Also, you may be interested in how these were recorded - with two musicians and two producers, doing a modern version of Teo Macero's collage-like approach to early '70s Miles Davis, but expanding the idea by passing back and forth for a couple iterations....so Bill and Mike record, pass music to Tucker and Lee, who do their studio wizardry, pass it back to Bill and Mike who add more plus contribution from some additional guests, then send back to a Tucker and Lee for final mix.
Reactions were mixed critical,y but personally I quite enjoyed them...groove-centric, with some wonderful sound ideas and Mike Chamberlin is a great drummer with whom Friaell collaborates all too rarely.
You can find reviews of pretty much everything Bill has released since 2004 at All About Jazz by yours truly if you search the review section, highly recommended is his Live Download Series, if I've not already mentioned, which is up to #19 and I have reviewed 1 through 17. Some real gems there....many projects that never had commercial albums release, like his trio with Sam Yahel and Brin Blade, as well as existing projects but expanded with additional band members...and much, much more. I will cover 18 & 19 after 20 & 21 are issued as, after the first 13, I decided to do them in groups of four.
Strangely, I appear to be the only writer who has ever covered this series...period, and it surprises me as there are so many gems - all from soundboard recordings made by his sound engineer, Claudia Engelhardt, who has been mixing his live shows for 30 years, and does a great job,; the sound on all these shows - available as either MP3 or FLAC, btw - is impeccable. You can read all the reviews (in two internally linked articles) here, I love this stuff!
Also, two interviews I did almost a decade apart: Bill Frisell - Ramping It Up, from 2011, and Bill Frisell - The ECM Years, a 2001 interview I conducted for an aborted project and unearthed when I was doing the new interview in 2011 only to disconcert was full of great info. Hope y'all think so too.
Last edited by jkelman; 08-19-2014 at 01:05 AM.
Floratone II arrived in last night's mail. First spin was positive -- possibly not as solid as I but several really fine tracks. More listening required.
John Scofield keeps turning up in these discussions and on my Frisell Pandora station. I have a couple old things of his -- what's essential?
Also, Frisell has an album called something like "Happy Dog Happy Man". Heard one track on pandora and it was wonderful. Is the rest that good?
For Sco 'A Go Go' and 'Loud Jazz' are pretty good. His work with Metheny and is also nice. He is very prolific and I have only a few.
"Good Dog, Happy Man" is one of my desert island disks. It IS That Good. 'That Was Then' and 'Shenandoah ', 'My Buffalo Girl' It is Americana with subversive Frisell-ness sprinkled throughout.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Good Dog is also one of my faves. Here are a few others;
This Land - compositionally, still my favorite;
Have a Little Faith - Bill's "covers" album, but with everything from Charles Ived to Madonna, like none you've ever heard
Sign of Life - best of two albums with his "858 quartet," a string quartet where he takes the role of one of the violins. Magic
Ghost Town - a solo record, but again, with loops and overdubbing, considerably more ambitious
Blues Dream - thing Good Dog with horns. Saw this band, wonderful.
As for Sco? A few recs:
A Go Go - with Medeski, Martin & Wood, Sco goes jam band but with much better material than most MMW
Live (Enja, 1977) - first album I ever bought by him, and still one of the greats. With Richard Beirach, George Mraz & Joe LaBarbera
Rough House (Enja) - the studio album that followed, almost as good, with pianist Hal Galper. Smokin'
Blue Matter - fusion funk with a young Dennis Chambers
Loud Jazz - same group as BM
Pick Hits Live- live album from BM group. Can you tell I love this band?
Quiet - now for something completely dif. An acoustic record with Sco on nylon string guitar, with a small horn section, making some beautiful music with hints of Gil Evans. Wayne Shorter also guests
This Meets That - with his trio with Steve Swallow & Bill Stewart, but plus horns, this is my favorite of his more recent stuff.
Enjoy! There's some great music in there!
That's a good list of Scofield recommendations, John! Though I generally prefer to hear Sco in straight-ahead jazz mode, I love the group that did "Blue Matter" and "Loud Jazz;" one of the most overlooked/underrated fusion bands imo. Great writing on those albums! "Rough House" was the first album of his that I bought and I consider it a jazz classic. "Meant to Be" with Marc Johnson, Joe Lovano and Bill Stewart is also a nice one. I don't like Sco's funk/jam band stuff as much; for one thing, I don't think his back-of-the-beat phrasing works so well in that context. But that's just me! Scofield is rather prolific and there's a lot of albums to choose from. I certainly haven't heard them all. One of his more recent albums is all Ray Charles music. He definitely likes to change up his thang (like Frisell), and I guess the context you prefer to hear him in is up to you. But he's a modern jazz player at heart and for me, he shines most brightly when he doesn't stray too far from there.
If you're a Miles fan, you might want to give Scofield's Still Warm a listen. And the Bass Desires albums which feature both Frisell and Scofield. I also share J. Kelman's enthusiasm for This Meets That. It's my favorite of his more recent efforts. All four Blue Note albums he recorded in the early 90s are also superb. I'd recommend Time On My Hands for starters. Sco's original material is brilliant, and it's a great sounding quartet w/ Joe Lovano, Charlie Haden, and Jack DeJohnette.
I don't share the same enthusiasm for some of Frisell's albums. I just don't find drummer Jim Keltner very interesting to listen to. I prefer Frisell's earlier stuff with Joey Baron.
I kept the list purposely short..and grief to be broad. Time on my Hands is another fave and Bass Desries? Left out only because focusing on albums where Sco was a leader. Love both of them and agree that This meets That is one o his best recent records
I agree Baron is a more versatile drummer, but for that lazy behind the beat thing Frisell wanted for albums like a Good a Dog and Gone, Just Like a Train, you can' the at Keltner. It's why, I think, that after the core trio with Joey and Kermit Driacoll disbanded in 1995, that's after a time, Frisell found and sticks,largely with Kenny Wollesen. He can play pretty much anything, from swing to avant to flat-out rock 'n, roll..and that Keltner-esque behind the beat backbeat. So the best of all worlds.
But a recent Frisell live download series installment, from a brief tour with Keltner and Viktor Krauss, is pretty darn sweet. I love Keltner's work with RY Cooder, and I am certain that's what compelled Bill to enlist job for those two records, which were most definitely informed, Bill's own idiosyncratic way, by Cooder's claasic '70s work.
Some of the best show I have seen are with Viktor Krauss and Kenny Wollensen.
So far I have yet to be disappointed by any lineup.
Although the weakest was the 'Unspeakable Orchestra' group ( 2006 ).
For some reason it it not gel as well as his more recent 'big bands' like the Big Sur touring group.
It did not include Hal Willner turntable beats.
Unspeakable is a favorite album. I guess I am easy to please.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
New Album out today:
Guitar in the Space Age
http://spaceage.billfrisell.com/
Lots of tour dates
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
It took me a long while to get into Frisell's "Americana" style. I bought his album Nashville and played it, then played it some more, and couldn't figure out what the hype was about. It layed around for a while, occasionally being played, then one night ... I got it. Other albums followed but I was a true fan from then on but this album remains one of my faves.
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A gentleman is defined as someone who knows how to play the accordion, and doesn't.
I was digging through the bargain bin of my local record store last week and found a promo of Frisell's "History Mystery" with no liner notes. Hey, for a couple of bucks it's worth putting in my portable disc player and having a listen on headphones. It sounds interesting from what I've read about it.
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