520 Etc.: Bill Frisell at the Bijou
You know you're good when the most respected names in music are knocking down your door to get a chance to collaborate with you. Since he tiptoed onto the jazz scene in the late 1970's, guitarist Bill Frisell has steadily been rounding up admirers inside and outside the whole music industry--not just the jazz world.
Known for his musical versatility, Frisell deftly combines many genres to create a unique and passionate sound. The result is a seamless blend of jazz, blues, country and rock. Spin Magazine describes his music this way: "Bill Frisell is the Clark Kent of the electric guitar. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, he apparently breathes in lungfuls of raw fire when he straps on his (guitar)...His music is not what is typically called jazz, though it turns on improvisation; it's not rock'n roll; and it sure ain't that tired dinosaur called fusion. In one of the biggest leaps of imagination since the Yardbirds and Jimi Hendrix, Frisell coaxes and slams his hovering split-toned ax into shapes of things to come...But besides being a guitar genius, he's turned into a terrific songwriter. Like Monk, Frisell's harmonic and melodic ideas form a succinct, seamless mesh with outer sonic and rhythmic ideas about his ax."
Frisell lists Bob Dylan, Aaron Copeland, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dale Bruning and Paul Motian among his main influences. "I suppose I play the kind of harmonic things Jim (Hall) would play but with a sound that comes from Jimi Hendrix", Frisell told Wire Magazine.
For those not familiar with Bill Frisell, his 1992 release "Have A Little Faith" is a great place to start. It's a brilliant representation of how he takes the music that influences him and makes it his own. On this record, Frisell re-works pieces by Muddy Waters, John Hiatt, Sonny Rollins, Madonna and even Charles Ives.
Bill Frisell brings his unique talents to the Bijou Theatre this Wednesday night at 8 p.m. Also on stage with him will be drummer Jack DeJohnette and bassist Jerome Harris. Opening for them will be the very gifted Mitch Rutman on solo guitar.
Mitch Rutman