Bill Frisell "History, Mystery"
On his new album, Bill Frisell explores a fuller palette of orchestral colors and timbres than any he has previously written for. "History, Mystery" features an Octet of strings, horns and rhythm section with some of his closest collaborators - Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang, (viola), Hank Roberts (cello), Ron Miles (cornet), Greg Tardy (clarinet and tenor saxophone), Tony Scherr (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drums).  Employing a symphonic sensibility of recurring thematic elements, "History, Mystery" premieres many new Frisell compositions as well as a few of his arrangements of favorite pieces by other songwriters.  Producer Lee Townsend and engineer Shawn Pierce recorded the group in various combinations and contexts, live and in the studio, to construct and shape the album.

"Some artists, as they grow older, have a tendency to retreat into a safety zone that displays their skill but doesn't expand their repertoire or provide impetus for keeping up. Not so guitarist Bill Frisell ... [H]e's been refining and expanding his palette with every release.... The whole album stands as yet another testament to the man's place at the very epicenter of modern American music. Yes, he's done it again." - Chris Jones, BBC.

The Guardian, in a four-star review of History, Mystery, says the album is "studded with gems," featuring a line-up of musicians that reviewer John L. Waters calls "a kind of roots-jazz-classical chamber hybrid, though with none of the hang-ups that might imply." Waters sees "a genuine thoughtfulness" from Bill, who, he writes, "has the surest touch as a musician." It is an attribute "that is true for his playing, where he can invest a single note with meaning, and it's true in the way he organizes his music and musicians."

The Independent calls History, Mystery the Jazz Album of the Week, with the paper's Tim Cumming calling it "extraordinarily eclectic" delivered in "an all but seamless suite that's full of musical contrasts, rich textures, lengthening shadows, and unexpected turns." Cumming says "it's consistently engaging" with a closing guitar solo that's "just wonderful." His colleague Nick Coleman adds that on this collection, listeners will find the "Frisell who makes great soundtrack music; the one who rejoices in sieving the Hot Club de Paris out of Thelonious Monk."

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock) “I've always admired (Frisell’s) spirit of adventure, his willingness to experiment and the depth of his talent and ambition... There's something about History, Mystery that just sucked me in right away..... It's artful, but warm and accessible. There are smatterings of jazz, blues, a little country, some tango and reverb rock ... but the seamless, natural-sounding integration of these diverse influences is engaging and often majestic.  The music has a spacious, cinematic scope that is enriched by a superb group of musicians... The sound is vintage and modern, warm and inviting.” - Ellis Widner

“All Hat”
Bill scored “All Hat”, a new film by Canadian director Leonard Farlinger and producer Jennifer Jonas, based on Brad Smith’s novel of the same name. It recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival.  The film crosses genres – part comedy, part cowboy, part horse racing, part con-job – and features Luke Kirby, Keith Carradine, Lisa Ray, Rachel Leigh Cook and Ernie Hudson.   Bill recorded the score with a group musicians including Greg Leisz (steel guitars and mandolin), Jenny Scheinman (violin), Viktor Krauss (bass), Scott Amendola (drums) and Mark Graham (harmonica).  The music was produced by Lee Townsend and engineered by Shawn Pierce.  The film is scheduled for release in 2008.

“This original score for Canadian film maker Leonard Farlinger's All Hat sees Frisell accompanied by familiar associates.... not for nothing does All Hat sound like a proper group outing.

Frisell has always been able to mine the simplest tune and extract unexpected riches; the main theme, for example, is visited four times and yet sounds radically different each time, going from the beautiful acoustic guitar version with shuffling drum beat and Scheinman's train-rhythm violin, to a Johnny Cash-style chug-along romp, to a most graceful Southern waltz.

There are thirty one pieces ranging from thirty seconds to four minutes long, but there is a powerful continuity about this score. Frisell's music is often pictorial, and these sixty minutes are like an uninterrupted journey through changing landscapes, as sun and moon slowly chase each other's tails. One can easily imagine the wide plains and prairies, fields of wheat and small, nondescript towns either side of endless, straight highway. It's not all pastoral reverie however, and there are several interludes where Frisell's dark guitar-distortion rumbles, brooding and foreboding, like storm-heavy skies.

In many ways Frisell is ideally suited to cinema composition as it is remarkable how much he can weave in one minute, seemingly without breaking sweat....  On All Hat the music rocks and grinds at times, burns slowly at others, and melts into the sunset, accompanied by Frisell's loops and ringing single note lines.

Producer Lee Townsend (as much a part of the Frisell posse as any of the musicians) has, as ever, done a beautiful job with this wonderful soundtrack, music which is outstanding in and of itself..... All hats off to Frisell.”

Ian Patterson, All About Jazz

Songtone is offering six black and white portraits of Bill Frisell - archival sliver gelatin prints on fiber based paper printed to museum standards by Michael Wilson.  The color portrait is a "giclee" print which is a very high resolution ink-jet print on 100% rag art paper using archival pigmented inks.  All prints are available in two sizes.

Michael’s celebrated work is reflected in an extensive list of illustrious musicians as subjects as well as a series of beautifully conceived books.


About the Photographer:

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1959, Michael Wilson has lived there ever since. Over the years, he has developed a singular approach to portraiture with a distinctive group of subjects that includes such musicians as B.B. King, Randy Newman, Bill Frisell, Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Phillip Glass, Emmy Lou Harris, Doc Watson, Richard Thompson, The Neville Brothers, Dawn Upshaw, Leo Kottke, Viktor Krauss, Loudon Wainwright III, Clarence "Gatemouth” Brown, Paolo Conte, Danny Elfman, Waylon Jennings, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Willie Green, Buddie Miller, Kelly Joe Phelps, Frederic Rzewski, David Sanborn and many others.

In 1985, Wilson published his first book of photographs and writing entitled, "Heads Bowed Eyes Closed, No One Looking Around".  In 1999, "First Kind Sight" was published.

In describing his artistic journey, Michael says, "A providential conspiracy seems to have been at work in the convergence of friends and events that led me to photography and to the college in Kentucky where I wound up studying photography. This is where I came to love pictures."

Musical Portraits from Heber Springs: Bill Frisell¹s Disfarmer Project
In the small mountain town of Heber Springs, the Arkansas artist known as Disfarmer captured the lives and emotions of the people of rural America between 1939-1945. Critics have hailed Disfarmer's remarkable black and white portraits as "a work of artistic genius" and "a classical episode in the history of American photography.Disfarmer's work has captivated the imagination of the celebrated guitarist and composer Bill Frisell, who has been inspired to write and perform music in concert with multiple projected images from this treasure trove of period portraits. Two long-time musical collaborators, violinist Jenny Scheinman and steel guitarist Greg Leisz, will share the stage in interpreting Frisell's music. Set and lighting designer Alex Nichols is on board to spearhead the visual treatments of the program.

This piece was premiered at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio in March, '08. Tours will follow in Fall, "07 and Spring..

“Stories from the Heart of the Land”
Bill composed the music for a five-hour series for NPR entitled “Stories from the Heart of the Land”, produced by Atlantic Public Media and curated by Jay Allison and Emily Botein.   The music was performed by his 858 quartet featuring Frisell on guitar, Jenny Scheinman on violin, Eyvind Kang on viola and Hank Roberts on cello.  It was produced by Lee Townsend and engineered by Shawn Pierce.

Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian
Lee has finished "Bill Frisell, Ron Carter, Paul Motian", Frisell's new trio record on to be released on August 29th on Nonesuch Records. It includes songs by each band member plus compositions by Thelonious Monk, Hank Williams and new Frisell arrangements of such traditional songs as "Pretty Polly" and "You are My Sunshine". James Farber engineered the recording with Greg Calbi mastering.

As a departure from his forays into twisted Americana and world music, the inventive guitarist delivers a bona-fide jazz album. The all-star threesome performs like a seasoned band, and Frisell remains the only six-string poet of his generation. - Steve Futterman, The New Yorker Best of 2006"Guitarist Bill Frisell is a master of reflective, quiet but subtly quirky lines that flow from the lyrical to the angular. He can also sling arrows into the mix, but here in the company of two of jazz's greatest rhythm players, Frisell steers away from sudden blasts and settles into the fluidity of cliché-free improvisation. What's remarkable is how untethered the leader and trio play. Ron Carter steers with his unpredictable bass runs, countermelodies and motifs as Paul Motian flicks the cymbals in dance-like support while Frisell muses soulfully through pop standbys like Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "You Are My Sunshine," ironically sketched in a melancholic mood. It's significant that the trio delectably covers two Monk tunes ("Raise Four," "Misterioso") given that Frisell is the Thelonious of jazz guitar." —Dan Ouellette, Billboard

What, I've often wondered, sets Bill Frisell so far apart from the jazz-guitar pack -- besides his inimitable watery tone, sonic escapades, genre-hopping and depth of melodic and harmonic ingenuity? The answer, as far as I'm concerned, is quite simple: Frisell brings far more emotion and mood to his playing than his contemporaries and most of his forebears....
While last year's double live set displayed the many sides of his eclectic musical personality, this one hews closer to jazz, albeit through Frisell's fisheye lens.... Motian's loosey-goosey drumming provides the trio plenty of room to roam, while Carter's bass brings a distinct muscularity. Frisell judiciously sprinkles in loops and effects, which easily transcend gimmickry; his phrasing is at turns fluid, contemplative and bracingly choppy. Frisell's playing is devoid of stuntwork, all but free of showiness -- this is a musician of the highest order whose instrument happens to be the guitar. 4 stars -- Eric Snider, CreativeLoafing.com