Review: Greg Phillips. Photos: Jason Rosewarne
It had been a busy day for the Bill Frisell Trio. Beginning with an outing in the park at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, playing to thousands of people, on a bill which included Harry Connick Jr, to trekking across town to perform two intimate club performances at the Jazz Lab in Brunswick.
Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than four decades and resulted in many celebrated recordings. He’s a Grammy-Award winner as well as twelve-time Best Guitarist winner in the DownBeat Critics Poll and often cited by his peers as one of the most influential guitar players in contemporary music.
At the Jazzlab last night, with a Custom-made JW Black (Fender Master builder) ‘Birds’ Telecaster strapped on, Frisell stabbed at two or three notes in an attempt to find the right starting point for the evening, much like stroking a ferro rod a few times before sparking a fire. He and his band featuring Thomas Morgan on double bass and Rudy Royston on drums then meandered into a gorgeous version of Moon River.
Bill took to the microphone to explain that he doesn’t usually speak during his concerts, they generally just play on through. However, while performing Moon River he thought of an interesting anecdote about the song and felt the need to share the story with us.
He told us that he had met the man who first played Moon River, a guy named first Bob Bain. Asking if we knew the name, he then light-heartedly played the lead line of the Bonanza TV show theme to give us context. Bain is also known as the musician who played the guitar on all of Henry Mancini’s film scores. Frisell continued his story and informed us that there’s a scene in the movie Breakfast at Tiffanys, where it looks like Audrey Hepburn is playing guitar but she is really just miming to Bain.
Apparently the producers of the film thought that “the song sucked” and wanted to ditch it. Audrey, however loved the tune and stood up for the music and said she’d quit if the song wasn’t used. Bill not only had the honour of meeting Bain but also got to play the Moon River 1952 Fender Telecaster you hear on the film’s soundtrack.
With that background information in mind, Frisell and band then returned to Moon River, this time introducing his looper into the sonic equation, creating some insanely wonderful backward loops and textures. Without even noticing time flying by, we’d spent 20 minutes or so with the song and come away with a deeper appreciation of its history.
As Frisell warned us, for the next 50 minutes he immersed himself in the music and never returned to the microphone again until the end of the show. One tune merged into another, triggered often on a whim. It was difficult to detect when one song ended and another began. I heard motifs of tunes from the Valentine album such as Baba Drame and Levees but whether it was his intention to play them as complete songs or just ingredients in the bigger pie, I’m not sure. It didn’t matter, the consequences were impactful.
Bill’s persona is one of an awkward science teacher, bending down to twiddle pedal knobs and configure loops as he presented his sonic experiments to the class, resulting in some mind-bending instances of sound. Occasionally, for a millisecond a notion didn’t seem to work and he’d simply move onto the next thought, looking to his confidants to offer other sonic options.
In regard to Morgan and Royston’s roles, Frisell afforded them the luxury of colouring in the blanks as they see fit, contributing their thoughtful brushstrokes, adding to the overall artistic piece and performing as a collective rather than merely following a band leader.
Throughout the night, Royston caressed his kit, changing sticks and brushes on an urge, ever-thinking, always listening and donating generously to the cause. Likewise Morgan leaned in and massaged his double bass neck, sometimes plucking strings, other times using a bow, in search of the perfect accompaniment. Meanwhile Frisell shifted between fingering pure, untainted notes to going full on Twin Peaks with his pedalboard concoctions.
Harking back to classic movies, to complete the night Frisell offered up a delightful version of People, the Barbra Streisand standard from Funny Girl, a tune he recorded back in 2005 for his East/West album.
All three musicians on stage were totally absorbed in the music they were creating, acknowledging each other with a smile if an impulse ventured into territory they weren’t expecting. It seemed as fresh for them as it was for us, it was all about living in the moment, being immediate and the results were exhilarating. At times it got quite esoteric yet out of the blue a flourish of perfectly executed notes delivered a passage of majestic tenderness that melted our hearts.
For those in attendance last night and for the lucky ones heading to the Jazzlab tonight for the trio’s two final sold out performances, the Melbourne International Jazz Festival has provided a unique opportunity to experience Frisell’s musical genius up close and personal, motivating us all to go back and investigate his extensive catalogue of inventive music.
For the nerds, Bill’s pedalboard for the night consisted of:
Strymon Flint Tremolo & Reverb
Strymon Ojai Power Supply
Line 6 DL4 mk2 Delay Looper Modeler
TC Electronics Polytune
Jam Pedals Rattler Distortion
MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay
