Ever prolific avant-Americana guitarist Bill Frisell continues his Nonesuch odyssey amongst this trio that includes 2 jazz heavyweights: bassist Dave Kingdom of the Netherlands (former Miles Davis band fellow member as well as electrical flow ECM recording artist) as well as drum legend Elvin Jones (one-quarter of the classic John Coltrane Quartet of the '60s as well as withal an indefatigable rhythmist). Frisell leads the threesome through a majority of his ain highly individual, atmospherically compelling tunes, including such recent favorites equally "Strange Meeting" as well as "Blues Dream"; the trio also essays 2 vintage numbers that practise a expert task of bookending Frisell's ain build of rootsy lyricism - Henry Mancini's "Moon River" as well as Stephen Foster's "Hard Times." Hardly obvious candidates equally Frisell collaborators, Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as Jones warm good to the folk-inflected material, complementing the guitarist's offbeat charm as well as unerring gustatory modality amongst their muscular authority. Frisell fans volition rejoice in ane lawsuit again, as well as newcomers mightiness honour this an ideal introduction.
Bill Frisell has teamed upwardly amongst 2 of the most revered figures inwards contemporary jazz, bassist Dave Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as drummer Elvin Jones, for the start fourth dimension on record. An impromptu coming together of these 3 unique voices resulted inwards minute musical chemistry, equally they revisited—and oft transformed—Frisell’s compositions as well as a dyad of standards.
According to Frisell, co-producer Michael Shrieve—a one-time fellow member of Santana as well as a highly creative drummer amongst whom Frisell has worked—first suggested playing amongst Jones. “Michael has known Elvin since he was a footling kid,” Frisell explains, “and is currently writing a majority most him. Out of the bluish he told me that I should play amongst Elvin. I had met Elvin once, most fifteen years ago, but I never persuasion I’d teach a take away chances to play amongst him.”
Seeing that Shrieve was perfectly serious most the suggestion, Frisell as well as co-producer Lee Townsend rapidly decided on the correct bassist for the project. “I had played a footling chip amongst Dave,” Frisell says, “and we’d talked most doing to a greater extent than travel together. And Dave had worked amongst Elvin, thus I persuasion he mightiness endure able to necktie it all together. The whole affair was similar a dream, to endure able to play amongst these guys.”
Each of Frisell’s collaborators on the eponymously titled unloose tin rightfully claim the tag “legendary.” British-born bassist Dave Kingdom of the Netherlands was a mainstay inwards Miles Davis’s bands straight off prior to as well as during the Bitches Brew era, as well as also worked inwards to a greater extent than avant-garde settings amongst Chick Corea as well as Anthony Braxton. In recent years Kingdom of the Netherlands has choke ane of the most celebrated composers as well as bandleaders inwards jazz.
Born inwards Pontiac as well as raised inwards Detroit equally part of an enormously gifted musical family, Elvin Jones became ane of the most pop as well as influential drummers inwards jazz history through his travel inwards the John Coltrane Quartet. He, too, has been a celebrated bandleader, as well as numerous younger musicians— including Nicholas Payton, Javon Jackson, as well as Ravi Coltrane—have received their bandstand seasoning equally members of his Jazz Machine.
In selecting the tunes for the session, Frisell as well as Townsend picked approximately of his most enduring compositions, which were as well as thus transformed yesteryear the band inwards the studio. “I wanted to select Dave as well as Elvin into my world,” Frisell said. “Strange Meeting,” originally a martial tango, is recast hither equally a breezy bossa nova. Bluesier cloth as well as a folk ballad yesteryear Stephen Foster, “Hard Times,” were also chosen because Frisell had e'er heard the blues inwards Jones’s playing. “I wasn’t certain how he would react,” Frisell says, “but Elvin got actually excited most this stuff—he said that it took him dorsum to the music he used to brain to equally a youngster inwards Detroit, similar Big Bill Broonzy. And selfishly, if someone has a tune, who wouldn’t desire to take away heed what it would good similar if Elvin Jones played it?”
Bill Frisell's allegorical approach to storytelling draws on a wealth of sounds as well as styles, as well as is informed yesteryear a jazz attitude. His music is ideally suited to the challenges of the trio format, inwards which each purpose participant is exposed as well as naked, sharing the rhythmic, harmonic, as well as melodic responsibilities piece trying to projection the orchestral dimension of a large band.
Bill Frisell amongst Dave Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as Elvin Jones is the most down-home, folkish appear yet of the guitarist's borderless blues music. It is mayhap the most expansive, perfected vision of this trip-tych of all-star audiophile recordings, which began amongst Charlie Haden as well as Ginger Baker on the drummer's Going Back Home as well as continued amongst bassist Viktor Krauss as well as Mandarin L.A. studio drummer Jim Keltner on Frisell's Gone, Just Like a Train.
The large departure hither is Frisell's laying-on of mucho post-production touches to flesh out the music inwards a fascinating mélange of overdubbed acoustic as well as electrical voices. Bassist Kingdom of the Netherlands tolls away amongst egoless grace as well as ability piece drummer Jones plays the blues amongst cool, understated conviction, filling inwards the textural holes amongst his trademark sizzle-cymbal/bass-drum moan as well as airy, wind-driven sheets of snare atmospheric precipitation on surprisingly straightforward grooves that evoke visions of Highway 61. Jones does all this thus straightforwardly - equally inwards his hypnotic time-keeping on "Coffaro's Theme" as well as his unadorned shuffle on "Outlaws" - that it mightiness come upwardly equally something of a stupor to those who withal associate him mainly amongst the fervent interplay as well as complexity of John Coltrane's quartet.
Why should nosotros endure thus shocked to take away heed Elvin playing directly time? He sounds equally if he's having the fourth dimension of his life. Listen to the deliciously deadening groove of "Blues Dream." But then, this album's start iv tunes are fleshed out inwards dandy exceptional amongst guitar overdubs; inwards such elaborate orchestrations less is oft more, rhythmically speaking - a big, round, evenly spaced quarter complaint tin endure only equally profound equally the most complex polyrhythmic layering.
In responding to Frisell's spacious build of rhythmic/melodic invention, Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as Jones select things to a simmer rather than a total boil, equally on "Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa," inwards which ane of Jones' trademark rolling intros leads to a fattening tom-tom drone amongst Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as overdubs pull a distant thunderstorm, Frisell's solo providing what lightning in that place is.
Sonically as well as spiritually, the music takes on a to a greater extent than or less "jazz" dimension when they play equally a directly trio. This happens to glorious lawsuit on a tenderly swinging "Moon River," inwards which Hones' brushwork as well as Holland's counterpoint flesh out Frisell's sublime acoustic guitar harmonies; on the mysterious cymbal-driven changes of "Strange Meeting"; as well as inwards the shuffling "Convict 13." But to take away heed these 3 surge together, equally they practise inwards the closing strains of "Smilin' Jones," is to recognize that mayhap this isn't a "jazz" album at all.
Whatever yous telephone outcry upwardly it, the wonderful bass extension as well as holographic textural dimension inwards Bill Frisell amongst Dave Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as Elvin Jones arrive a definite audiophile's delight. And inwards its ritualistic portrayal of Americana nosotros gain a novel insight into the collective prism of the improviser's art, piece Frisell's visceral orchestrations advise withal bolder swatches of coloring to come
Track listing
All compositions yesteryear Bill Frisell except equally indicated.
"Outlaws" – 7:55
"Twenty Years" – 3:15
"Coffaro's Theme" – 4:50
"Blue's Dream" – 4:49
"Moon River" (Mancini, Mercer) – 6:25
"Tell Your Ma, Tell Your Pa" – 9:06
"Strange Meeting" – 5:22
"Convict 13" – 3:54
"Again" – 7:32
"Hard Times" – 3:39
"Justice as well as Honor" – 4:48
"Smilin' Jones" – 5:03
Personnel
Bill Frisell - guitars
Dave Kingdom of the Netherlands - bass
Elvin Jones - drums
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