Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
Bill Frisell, Sony Music 2018.
I have previously reviewed one of Bill Frisell’s albums, When You Wish Upon A Star, which was released a couple of years ago.
I commented at that time about Frisell’s amazing creativity and about his exemplary guitar playing.
In Music Is, Frisell has chosen to play solo pieces.
He has a natural and prodigious talent for writing melodies and this album is his first solo release in 18 years.
In preparation for this recording Bill played for a week at The Stone, in New York, each night attempting new music from the many piles of staff paper he has accumulated over the years.
He was deliberately trying to put himself off balance and exposed. He was seeking out places where he felt unsure and uncomfortable so that he couldn’t fall back on things that he knew were safe.
Being unaccompanied presents challenges for all musicians, even supremely gifted ones, and especially so for an instrumentalist.
Bill, like most musicians, has always enjoyed the process of playing with other people.
Having a musical conversation; the push and pull and call and response of musical improvisation, especially jazz, has been his natural territory.
In Music Is he has tried to keep the recording process light and spontaneous.
For some pieces he performed the tracks live on one instrument, while others are more orchestrated through overdubbed layering and his remarkable use of looping.
The term virtuoso is often overused but in Frisell’s case it is entirely appropriate.
His ability to find the new and unusual is incredible.
The way he shifts between keys and scales while making it feel so natural is outstanding.
Frisell appears on over 250 recordings and his pool of creativity seems endless.
He says he gets up in the morning, has some coffee, and writes music.
He says he doesn’t know where the melodies come from, he tries not to judge but just let them be.
And that’s what music is for Frisell.
“It’s something I can say that’s always true. It’s so perfect.”
Everything he needs to know is in the phrase told to him by his close friend and great banjo player Danny Barnes “music is good.”
