Bill Frisell: Unclassifiable, Versatile Guitar

Grammy-winning guitarist Bill Frisell views himself as a jazz musician, but I think a better tag for what he plays is “ultimate Americana”—eclectic, imaginative, unclassifiable music that draws from jazz, country, blues, roots rock, bluegrass, gospel, swing, world music and more. Frisell has recorded in just about every imaginable style, producing a body of deeply rooted, genre-crossing instrumental music that’s “modern in the best sense of the word” (Musician).

Born in Baltimore and raised in Denver, Frisell first made his mark in New York City in the late 1970s, playing with John Zorn and other avant garde musicians and recording as a leader and as house guitarist for the jazz label ECM. He has since recorded and performed with a truly dazzling an array of artists including Paul Motian, Elvis Costello, Ginger Baker, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Rickie Lee Jones, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Marianne Faithful, John Scofield, Jan Garbarek, Vernon Reid, Julius Hemphill, Robin Holcomb, Jerry Douglas, Ry Cooder, Jim Hall and Fred Hersch.

It can be tricky to get a handle on Frisell’s music because of his range and versatility. “I feel real uncomfortable being put in any kind of label,” he says, and his music is definitely hard to pigeonhole. What is without question is his stature as a guitarist. “Frisell is a revered figure among musicians,” notes the Philadelphia Inquirer. “His signature is built from pure sound and inflection; an anti-technique that is instantly identifiable.” The New York Observer went even further: “Frisell belongs to a post-bop generation of jazz guitarists that have made the instrument sing by making it strange.”

Frisell’s extraordinary guitar playing gets most of the attention, but Frisell is also a very gifted composer. His compositions span the stylistic gamut—what a surprise!—but Frisell says that when he writes, “It just sort of comes out. I’m not thinking, ‘Now I’m going to write a cowboy song.’ It just happens. When I sit down to write something in a certain style, it doesn’t work. I don’t know if that’s important or if it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. I’m just thankful something comes out.”

Bill Frisell won a Grammy Award in 2005 for “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” for the Hal Willner-produced Unspeakable. In 2006, Frisell was named a USA Rasmuson Fellow and received a grant from United States Artists, a privately funded organization dedicated to the support of America’s finest living artists. The man casts a big shadow indeed: the BBC says that Frisell stands at “the very epicenter of modern American music.”

Frisell’s duet partner for his show at Canal Street Tavern on March 17 is Greg Leisz, a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist known for his work with k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris, Dave Alvin, Willie Nelson, Beck, Gillian Welch and Lucinda Williams. Leisz is a master of a variety of string instruments, including pedal and lap steel guitar, dobro, National steel guitar, Hawaiian Weissenborn guitar and mandolin. He plays on several of Frisell’s albums including Blues Dream, Good Dog, Happy Man and The Intercontinentals.