Pre-Release
- APR 19, 2024
- 16 Songs
- Music IS · 2018
- Four · 2022
- The Best of Bill Frisell, Vol. 1 - Folk Songs · 1998
- Valentine · 2020
- I Have the Room Above Her · 2004
- Songs We Know · 1998
- This Land · 1992
- Valentine · 2020
- Nashville · 1997
Essential Albums
- This 2005 album by drummer Paul Motion, guitarist Bill Frisell, and saxophonist Joe Lovano finds the trio 20-plus years into a singularly unique collaboration between three highly individual players. The elder statesman here, Motion is an elliptical player prone to playing melody and color rather than time, while Lovano’s dry saxophone melodies are a perfect counterpoint to Frisell’s liquid guitar textures. In this jazz trio, standard concepts of harmony and rhythm are handled by all with no formula for who does what and when. Thus, Motion’s songs (he's credited with all the originals) sound hard to pin down without ever being less than engaging. Indeed, there seem to be mysterious spells cast on tunes like “Osmosis Part III” and the swooping “Sketches.” Sometimes a cover can offer insight into a unique-sounding band, yet the dreamy version of the title track by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein (inscrutably) shows more ideas sublimated to the trio's vision.
- 1993
- 2022
- 2021
- 2020
- 2020
- 2019
- 2018
Artist Playlists
- There's nothing this guitar wizard can't play.
Singles & EPs
Compilations
- Crane Like the Bird
- Chantal Acda
- Crane Like the Bird
About Bill Frisell
Born in Baltimore in 1951, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell possesses a warm, big-sky sound that might reflect the childhood he spent in Denver, Colorado. After switching from clarinet to guitar in elementary school, Frisell discovered jazz through Wes Montgomery and studied with Jim Hall at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Pat Metheny recommended him for a Paul Motion studio date, beginning a long association with the legendarily mellow ECM label that continued with Frisell's 1983 debut album, In Line, a collection of solos and duets with bassist Arild Andersen. Frisell quickly developed a reputation as a versatile, collegial, and prolific individualist. His musical vocabulary includes neck bending, hybrid picking, and digital looping, and he has a knack for shifting among different styles in a single solo. Among his more than 40 releases, keynote albums include 1992’s eclectic Have a Little Faith and 1997's folksy Nashville, as well as his work amid the adrenalized squonk of John Zorn's Naked City combo. A gifted trio leader, Frisell is also known for his film music, collaborations with Brazilian singer Vinicius Cantuária, and pop-oriented releases, like his albums devoted to the music of John Lennon (2011's All We Are Saying…) and, with 2014's Guitar in the Space Age, the surf tunes of his youth.
- HOMETOWN
- Baltimore, MD, United States
- BORN
- March 18, 1951
- GENRE
- Jazz