Album Reviews

Last year, producer Lee Townsend brought guitar-great Bill Frisell’s trio, fresh off the road and shortly after concluding two weeks at The Village Vanguard where almost 60 years ago another famous trio made an indelible record or two, into Tucker Martine’s Portland, Oregon studio for three days of recording.

The result is a first for Frisell—a trio recording with long time accompanists, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston that is simultaneously densely packed with musical ideas and yet throughout, window wide open to the spaces between the notes.

The heavily syncopated set of melodic tunes flows with bell tone precision forged by years together on the road, though surprise and invention seep from every rhythmic and harmonic twist.

If you didn’t read the notes, you’d surely know that the title track was a Thelonious Monk influenced shout-out, though after the first play the album as a whole struck me as one a less rhythmically “straight-ahead” Chet Atkins might have managed—and surely one he’d have greatly enjoyed.

The melodies of familiar tunes (some of which Frisell has previously recorded in radically different versions) sometimes hide within the folds, creases and lurches of the harmonic and rhythmic structure.

Repeated plays fully reveal the tunes (even the familiar ones can sometimes hide in the syncopated, melodically deconstructed spaces) but if you want immediate access to all, begin with side four’s opener, a cover of the “What the World Needs Now Is Love”, the Bacharach-David classic Jackie DeShannon first made famous (Dionne’s was later). Grasp that one and the entire album’s musical game plan reveals itself—at least on the surface (much like the Evans’ Vanguard sessions). Or try “Keep Your Eyes Open”, which has a relaxing, tropical Ry Cooder-ish feel.

I’ve been streaming this one waiting for the double 33 1/3 vinyl. The Qobuz stream sounds crystalline-clear but cannot compare to what Kevin Gray did for the vinyl. You can wax (no pun intended) philosophical about the file’s “purity” and the vinyl’s being a “revisionist’ version but every step from the live performance is a “revision” and a form of signal processing.

Clearly Mr. Martine produced a record you will love listening to and Greg Calbi’s mastering is his usual great and respectful “touch up” (if one was required), but whatever happened in lacquer cutting produced a transient vibrancy, bottom end articulation, clarity and extension the stream can’t come close to matching.

Instrumental separation has been purposefully minimized to create a compacted sense of the trio playing close to one another. Frisell’s guitar is enhanced with a minimal and rapidly decaying reverb halo, leaving whole the delicate yet precise transient string attack floating willfully up front. Morgan’s bass lines are cleanly and forcefully rendered and Royston’s drums behind the other two add accents that surprise with each play. The sound of this record—the forceful bass set against the cleanly rendered, shimmering guitar lines will excite your senses and bring to life even the most moribund audio system.

Nicely gatefold packaged and at least my copy was dead quiet and perfectly pressed. Even if you have many of the 60+ year old guitarists records, this is a “must have”. And if you have none, start here, but note that the first one is not free.

The album closes with “We Shall Overcome”, which Frisell says he plays a great deal and will continue doing so “…until there is no need anymore”. Well, Bill, for now play on!