Bill Frisell «» Silent Comedy (2013)

Bill Frisell — Silent Comedy
Birth name: William Richard Frisell
Born: March 18, 1951, Baltimore, Maryland United States
Location: Seattle, Washington
Instruments: Guitar, clarinet, tenor saxophone
Notable instruments: Fender Telecaster, Steve Klein Electric
Album release: February 26, 2013
Record Label: Tzadik/Savoy Label Group
Genre: Avant-Garde
Duration: 50:30
Tracks:
01. Bagatelle (3:11)
02. John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (8:51)
03. Babbitt (3:38)
04. Silent Comedy (2:02)
05. Lake Superior (4:34)
06. Proof (3:55)
07. The Road (5:20)
08. Leprechaun (3:41)
09. Ice Cave (6:38)
10. Big Fish (5:26)
11. Lullaby (3:14)
CREDITS:
• Heung-Heung "Chippy" Chin Design
• Bill Frisell Composer, Guitar (Electric), Primary Artist
• Marc Urselli Engineer, Mixing
• John Zorn Producer
• Bill Frisell - guitar and loops
* no overdubs were used in the tracking process
• All Music By Bill Frisell – Friz-Tone Music, BMI
• Produced (and nurtured) by John Zorn
• Recorded & Mixed by Mark Urselli on December 2, 2012 at East Side Sound
• Released by Tzadik (2/2013)
Website: http://www.billfrisell.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/billfrisellofficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/billfrisell
Description:
≡ "Bill Frisell, one of the most influential and respected guitarists in the world today takes a serious step toward the avant-garde to create a solo guitar CD unlike anything you’ve heard before. Filled with complex harmonies, bizarre voicings, rich orchestral sonorities, intense screams, delicate phrasing, wild noises and an incredible simultaneity, Silent Comedy raises the bar on what is possible from a solo guitarist. You will never think of Bill Frisell in the same way again—revelatory and absolutely riveting!"
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≡ Le fruit de la collaboration avec John Zorn, sans doute, toujours est-il que Bill Frisell signe un album sur le label Tzadik, et effectivement, il y a toute sa place. A découvrir.
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Early life and career:
≡ Frisell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of his youth in the Denver, Colorado area. He studied clarinet with Richard Joiner of the Denver Symphony Orchestra as a youth, graduated from Denver East High School, and went to the University of Northern Colorado to study music.
≡ His original guitar teacher in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area was Dale Bruning, with whom Frisell released the 2000 duo album Reunion. After graduating from Northern Colorado, where he studied with Johnny Smith, Frisell went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied with Jon Damian and Jim Hall.
Albums:
Title / Year / Label
≡ In Line 1983 ECM
≡ Rambler 1984 ECM
≡ Lookout for Hope 1987 ECM
≡ Before We Were Born 1989 Nonesuch
≡ Is That You? 1990 Nonesuch
≡ Where in the World? 1991 Nonesuch
≡ Have a Little Faith 1992 Nonesuch
≡ This Land 1994 Nonesuch
≡ Go West: Music for the Films of Buster Keaton 1995 Nonesuch
≡ The High Sign/One Week: Music for the Films of Buster Keaton 1995 Nonesuch
≡ Live 1995 Gramavision
≡ Quartet 1996 Nonesuch
≡ Nashville 1997 Nonesuch
≡ Gone, Just Like a Train 1998 Nonesuch
≡ Good Dog, Happy Man 1999 Nonesuch
≡ The Sweetest Punch, The New Songs of Elvis Costello & Burt Bacharach 1999 Decca
≡ Ghost Town 2000 Nonesuch
≡ Blues Dream 2001 Nonesuch
≡ With Dave Holland and Elvin Jones 2001 Nonesuch
≡ The Willies 2002 Nonesuch
≡ The Intercontinentals 2003 Nonesuch
≡ Unspeakable 2004 Nonesuch
≡ Richter 858 2005 Songlines
≡ East/West 2005 Nonesuch
≡ Further East/Further West 2005 Nonesuch
≡ Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian 2006 Nonesuch
≡ Floratone 2007 Blue Note
≡ History, Mystery 2008 Nonesuch
≡ Disfarmer 2009 Nonesuch
≡ Beautiful Dreamers 2010 Savoy Label Group
≡ Lágrimas Mexicanas with Vinicius Cantuária 2011 E1 Music/Naïve
≡ Sign of Life: Music for 858 Quartet 2011 Savoy Label Group
≡ All We Are Saying, Frisell Plays Lennon 2011 Savoy Label Group
≡ Floratone II 2012 Savoy Jazz
≡ Silent Comedy 2013 Tzadik
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Review by Thom Jurek (Editor rating: ***½)
≡ For all the self-generated hype that Tzadik releases carry on their spine inserts, the one that accompanies Bill Frisell's Silent Comedy is pretty close to accurate. This really is the guitarist as you've never heard him before -- at least on record. He's improvising live in a studio with no edits or overdubs. Some of the 11 pieces included here carry traces of his signature bell-like tone, but this is a very free recording. The set's longest cut, "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home," is a meld of spaced-out sonic effects, harmonic invention, skeletal phrasing, and aggressive skronk that moves from halting melody to pure dissonance. Despite "Lake Superior"'s pastoral title, the cut is anything but; it's a monstrous Wall of Sound with digital and analog effects meddling around on a drone and employing a full range of distortion and feedback. Using a very limited harmonic palette, Frisell's guitar alternately takes on the tones of a harmonium, a Wurlitzer, and chimes to offer elemental sound contrasts that almost feel like counterpoint -- all in a gorgeous wail. While "Proof" is more conventional, with Frisell's instantly recognizable tone investigating a vamp from all sorts of musical viewpoints, the very next cut, "The Road," utilizes a broad array of tools in his effects box to create a restrained drone as the tonal backdrop, while a wah-wah offers a repetitive bassline melody but then breaks it down to an alternating series of small, moment-to-moment chord voicings, shimmering single notes, spacious delays, and even rumbling lower-string cascades woven together in a seamless fit. In the title track and in "Leprechaun," those effects are used with a requisite warmth and sense of humor. While "Ice Cave" walks a little too close to ambience for its own sake, "Big Fish" combines it with an inherent sense of melodic invention to create a tune that is nearly hummable, but traverses a fascinating musical terrain. This set will most likely appeal to guitar and improv freaks, as well as Frisell's most devoted fans. That said, given its intimate nature, it should resonate wider and deeper than that. He is doing things -- on the fly -- with his electric guitar and effects boxes that feel more like a conversation with a listener than merely an expression himself for his own sake.

Bill Frisell «» Silent Comedy (2013)

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