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Bill Frisell
Frisell playing with the B3 Trio at Jazz Alley,Seattle on April 24, 2004
Background information
Birth name
Born
Genres
Instruments
Years active
1973present
Labels
Website
billfrisell.com
Notable instruments
Fender Telecaster
William Richard "Bill" Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American guitarist, composer
and arranger.
One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches
on progressive folk, classical music,country music, noise music and more. He is known for
using an array of effects to create unique sounds from his instrument.
Contents
[hide]
1Biography
o
1.4Seattle years
22000 to present
3Selected discography
o
3.1Albums
4References
5External links
Biography[edit]
Early life and career[edit]
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.
Seattle years[edit]
In 1988 Frisell left New York City and moved to Seattle, Washington.[3] In the early 1990s
Frisell made two of his best-reviewed albums: first, Have a Little Faith, an ambitious survey
of Americana of all stripes, from Charles Ives and Aaron Copland (the entirety of Billy the
Kid) to John Hiatt (the title song), Bob Dylan ("Just Like a Woman") andMadonna (a
lengthy, psychedelic rock-tinged version of "Live to Tell"); and second, This Land, a
complementary set of originals. During this time he performed with many musicians,
including the more up and coming, such as Douglas September on album 10 Bulls. He also
branched out by performing soundtracks to silent films of Buster Keatonwith his trio, and
contributed to Ryuichi Sakamoto's album Heartbeat.
In the mid-1990s, Frisell disbanded his trio. He continued the trend marked by Have a Little
Faith by more explicitly incorporating elements of bluegrass and country music into his
music. His friendship with Gary Larson led him to provide music for the TV version of The
Far Side[4] (released on the album Quartet along with music written for Keaton'sConvict 13).
Since 2000, Frisell has lived on Bainbridge Island, Washington, near Seattle.[3]
2000 to present[edit]
Several of Frisell's songs, including his recording of "Over the Rainbow" and "Coffaro's
Theme", originally composed in 1995 for an Italian movie, La scuola, were featured in the
movie Finding Forrester in 2000.
In 1999, Frisell was commissioned by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota to
compose Blues Dream, which he premiered on November 15, 1999. He later recorded the
work for a 2001 release on Nonesuch.
Also in 1999, he released The Sweetest Punch, which featured a seven-piece jazz
ensemble reworking the tunes written and recorded by Elvis Costello and Burt
Bacharach on Painted from Memory.[5]
Between 2003 and 2005 Frisell acted as musical director for Century of Song, a series of
concerts at the German arts festivalRuhrTriennale (produced by Lee Townsend). Frisell
invited artists including Rickie Lee Jones, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Arto
Lindsay, Loudon Wainwright III, Vic Chesnutt, Van Dyke Parks, Buddy Miller, Ron
Sexsmith and Chip Taylor to perform their favorite songs in new arrangements.
In 2003, Frisell's The Intercontinentals was nominated for a Grammy award; he won the
2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for his album Unspeakable. His
2008 album History, Mystery was nominated for a 2009 Grammy award for Best Jazz
Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. Frisell was also a judge for the sixth
annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers.[6]
Frisell has united with Matt Chamberlain, Tucker Martine, and Lee Townsend in the
Floratone band, and they released an album on Blue Note (2007), featuring guest
performance of Viktor Krauss, Ron Miles and Eyvind Kang.
In 2008, Frisell performed as a featured guest on Earth's album The Bees Made Honey in
the Lion's Skull.
In 2009, Frisell featured in a duet rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" with singersongwriter Sam Shrieve. The recording was released on Shrieve's debut album Bittersweet
Lullabies.
In 2010, Frisell started working with the Savoy Jazz label and released Beautiful
Dreamers in August 2010, then a second release of Sign of Life in April 2011. Also, on
January 25, 2011, Frisell and Vinicius Canturia released Lgrimas Mexicanas on the E1
label.
In June 2011, Frisell, Lee Townsend, and their frequent collaborator, Vinicius Cantuaria,
participated in TEDx GoldenGateED's program, "Teaching Compassion" in Oakland,
California. Frisell and Cantuaria performed separately, and Townsend assisted with
technical aspects of the event.[7]
In September 2011, Frisell released All We Are Saying, a full-length offering of his
interpretations of John Lennon's music. Frisell's quintet includes violinist Jenny Scheinman,
pedal steel and acoustic guitarist Greg Leisz, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny
Wollesen.
Selected discography[edit]
Main article: Bill Frisell discography
Albums[edit]
Title
Year
Label
In Line
1983
ECM
Rambler
1984
ECM
1987
ECM
1989
Nonesuch
Is That You?
1990
Nonesuch
1991
Nonesuch
1992
Nonesuch
This Land
1994
Nonesuch
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
1998
Nonesuch
1999
Nonesuch
1999
Decca
Ghost Town
2000
Nonesuch
Blues Dream
2001
Nonesuch
2001
Nonesuch
The Willies
2002
Nonesuch
The Intercontinentals
2003
Nonesuch
Unspeakable
2004
Nonesuch
Richter 858
2005
Songlines
East/West
2005
Nonesuch
2006
Nonesuch
History, Mystery
2008
Nonesuch
Disfarmer
2009
Nonesuch
Beautiful Dreamers
2010
Sign of Life
2011
2011
Silent Comedy
2013
Tzadik
Big Sur
2013
Okeh
2014
Okeh
References[edit]
1.
2.
Jump up^ "Music Is Good: A Conversation with Bill Frisell". The Fretboard Journal:
Keepsake magazine for guitar collectors. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
3.
^ Jump up to:a b Seven, Richard (April 22, 2001). "The Sound of One Man
Dreaming". Pacific Northwest magazine. The Seattle Times.
4.
5.
Jump up^ [1] Archived May 29, 2008 at the Wayback Machine
6.
7.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Bill Frisell.
Official website
Naked City
John Zorn
Bill Frisell
Former members
Fred Frith
Wayne Horvitz
Joey Baron
Yamatsuka Eye
Naked City
Torture Garden
Grand Guignol
Studio albums
Heretic
Leng Tch'e
Radio
Absinthe
Live albums
Box sets