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a stretch for someone of my generation, and
the music that I grew up with, to be referring
to this music the way Charlie Parker referred to
Broadway show tunes. It’s the same process.”
Frisell discovered Wes Montgomery’s records
during high school; a guitar teacher later introduced
Frisell to Jim Hall, with whom he studied
briefly in 1971. Shortly thereafter, Frisell
immersed himself in Hall’s recordings. “I shaved
my head to try to be exactly like Jim Hall,” he
recalled. “I had a guitar that was just exactly like
his [a Gibson ES-175 archtop]. I was just totally
trying to mimic everything that he played.”
In doing so, he lost his way. So he began circling
back. For Frisell, jazz was a detour—a
genre he discovered only after becoming passionate
about other music styles. He subsequently
began using solid-body guitars. He eventually
chose a Gibson SG, a model emblematic of rock
and blues, in conjunction with several effects
devices. And he focused on his early influences,
particularly rock, r&b and folk music.
“I did hear the Beatles, and I went to hear
Jimi Hendrix,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I was
being really true to where I was coming from.
I was pretending like it was 1956—and it was
1975. That’s when I got a solid-body guitar. In
a way, it was sort of reverting back again. It’s
so weird because, after all this time, I’ve gone
through hundreds of guitars and I probably
could have just kept my first guitar [a Fender
Mustang] and my first amp [a Fender Deluxe].”
For the last decade, Frisell has performed
mostly with Fender Telecaster guitars, or models
based on the prototype. Since the mid-’90s
his other instruments have included an assortment
of Stratocasters, archtops and custom models.
He typically tours with one guitar, and uses
just a few effects for delay, distortion and loops.
Frisell earned a degree from Berklee College
of Music in 1978. He then spent an eventful year
in Belgium, where he met his future wife, Carole
d’Inverno, before moving to New York. “I really
started writing my own tunes and playing them
with this band,” he said. “That was where I got
the confidence to keep doing that kind of stuff.”
In New York Frisell received exposure with
drummer Paul Motian and on numerous sessions
for ECM Records. He also established a
reputation on the Lower East Side’s “downtown
scene,” where the musicians looked beyond the
mainstream for inspiration. Free improvisation
and the influence of music from overseas flourished;
nothing was considered off-limits.
Frisell acknowledged that his penchant for
folk music and other unusual repertoire had
precedents. He singled out Gary Burton’s
Tennessee Firebird, a 1967 release recorded in
Nashville that included the city’s premiere musicians,
notably guitarist Chet Atkins and pedal
steel guitarist Buddy Emmons. The set featured
tunes by Bob Wills and Hank Williams. Frisell
also spoke of Sonny Rollins’ album Way Out
West (1957), which included the cowboy songs
“I’m An Old Cowhand” and “Wagon Wheels.”
“I’ve never met anyone with such a reverence
for country music like Bill [has],” said
Carrie Rodriguez, a violinist and singer who performed
with Frisell in March during a European
tour. “When he played a Hank Williams tune, he
had learned the way Hank sung the lyrics to a T.
When he’s playing the head, he can play it exactly
how Hank sings it.”
In addition to Frisell’s adventurous spirit, John
Abercrombie praised his knowledge of the jazz tradition,
especially with regard to Great American
Songbook standards. “That’s what gives his playing
this deep foundation,” Abercrombie said.
“You can feel that this is not just somebody
doing [unusual repertoire] for effect. He’s doing it
because he really wants to do it, and he’s informed
by a jazz language underneath it all.”
“Everything I always
dreamed of is
happening.... I just
want to try and get
in as much as I can.”
As Frisell continued to branch out, the press
began attaching his name to various trends and
movements. Frisell bristled at the almost compulsive
categorizing, the sound bite-worthy
pigeonholes. “First I was like the ECM house
guitar player, whatever that is,” he recalled. “And
then I was a ‘downtown guy’ because I played
with John Zorn; and then I went to Nashville.
So now I’m sort of stuck with this ‘Americana’
thing. I’m a little uncomfortable—it’s kind of an
easy way out. Sometimes I think, ‘Are you really
listening’ It’s stuff that’s been in my music
[from the beginning].”
In 1989, Frisell not only decided to leave
ECM, but also New York. He signed with
Nonesuch, and formed a working relationship
with Lee Townsend, a San Francisco Bay area
producer. “He was covering every angle of the
guitar in New York,” said guitarist Nels Cline, a
former roommate. “[But] he was running himself
ragged.”
Frisell originally went to Seattle to work
with keyboard player Wayne Horvitz, who
produced the guitarist’s second album for
Nonesuch, Is That You (1990). “I had been in
New York for 10 years. It was soon after my
daughter [Monica] was born, and I was really
getting pretty burnt on the whole thing,” Frisell
said. “I just wanted to be in a quieter place.”
In addition to Frisell’s oeuvre as a leader, he
recorded the recent duo album Lágrimas
Mexicanas with Brazilian guitarist Vinicius
Cantuária and did some session work on
Nashville guitarist Buddy Miller’s The
Majestic Silver Strings. He also plays on recent
jazz releases by bassists Scott Colley and
Kermit Driscoll, and on Bonnie Raitt’s forthcoming
album. Frisell also will appear next
30 DOWNBEAT SEPTEMBER 2011