Why doesn't everyone love Bill Frisell?

I mean, of currently recording artists. It's up there anyway.

Btw, what's his new album all about?

Oh and I also wanna get 'The Sweetest Punch' where Frisell interprets Costello and Bacharach's entire 'Painted From Memory' record, hear it's pretty good.

But maybe he's not more loved because he's a little too 'easy listening' at times or interpreted as MOR, there-by enjoys by default a level of commercial appreciation (certainly as guest artist on other people's records) without being obsessed over by cultists.

I do think he does fairly well though, commercially, for someone in those particular fringes.

Definitely. I guess I was thinking more in terms of why he doesn't seem to cross over so much to, say, the GYBE/Mogwai audience since e.g. the first GYBE album seems to me to mine territory similar to chunks of the three BF albums before this new one but to be less successful at it. (Or maybe the qualities that make it seem less successful to me would make it more successful than BF to a fan of the album.)

But maybe he's not more loved because he's a little too 'easy listening' at times or interpreted as MOR, there-by enjoys by default a level of commercial appreciation (certainly as guest artist on other people's records) without being obsessed over by cultists.

This makes sense in a way.

I'll comment more on the new album after I've had more time to digest. (I just got it and played it once). It seems more loud and energetic, much less Americana, with lots of guitar noise and feedback and effects and some really spacious ambient parts (but not in his cinematic way quite so much) and more sprawling structures. But there's a quality to anything he plays, including the Norah Jones - well, maybe not Naked City so much - that just makes me want to sit back and listen all starry-eyed without thinking. It's weird - it's like he has all these engrossing layers but it's so subtle that it doesn't feel overwhelming, it's just your natural response to it, I dunno.

They did in a trio with Ginger Baker, and on John Scofield's Grace Under Pressure - probably some other discs as well.

It always struck me that nobody really treated him as being "important" - you never heard a mean word, but he was rarely viewed as essential. That was always a bummer to me. For a while Frisell really struck a hard path between being easy/fusion on one side and totally noisy on the other - in the '80s, he was both the nicest-sounding thing in a Zorn game improv piece and one of the noisiest players on the ECM roster. I guess if he were Derek Bailey or Pat Metheny, I think he'd have a larger fan base.

Reasons to like - even admire - Frisell:

- I think he brings out the best in other people in an egoless and easy way. In most of his work he gives his sidemen a ton of room, and establishes a very organic collaboration with them: Guy Klucevsek on Have a Little Faith, Hank Roberts on Lookout for Hope, Eyvind Kang on various bootlegs (like the Willies Barbican concert) - some of my favorite moments by these musicians came when they were soloing in a Frisell line-up. I saw Frisell lead a trio with Sam Yahel and Brian Blade this spring and not only was Frisell in top form, but Yahel and Blade just smoked! None of the recordings of them that I could find touched it. I also think he was kind of the lungs of the Marc Johnson Bass Desires group - he just helped move the air with his presence.

- He loves melodies, and it's rewarding to hear him play a melody that he loves so much that he justs recite it note for note.

- I actually LIKE the fact that he's in such an individual space, genre-wise, voice-wise, noise-content-wise - instead of following a genre, or splicing genres, I think he lets different styles come to him.

- His tone, especially when it was a little more electric and warbly - 1993 and before - is really, really, really pretty.

Last, anyone who thinks of him as being pastoral-except-with-Zorn should check out his second solo album, Rambler, with Kenny Wheeler, Paul Motian, Jerome Harris, plus Bob Stewart on tuba - at least "Tone" and "Resistor." It's rambunctious, chaotic and extremely enjoyable.

I wonder if fans of those bands would see it as a different beast because of the improvisation? And he doesn't hit enough of the criteria to appeal to jam band followers, I think - unlike John Scofield, who has tapped that base very effectively.

that's what genre boundaries can end up doing -- even if they have its uses e.g. organizing record shops.

the one frisell solo album i think is close to a masterpiece is his dark, dark "where in the world," where his americana tendencies actually produce something of real weight. i recommend this one as the one to own if you want just one. it's very, very good.

don't like him as much as scofield. both are into that jazzbo bullshit and i find them both tiresome over the long haul, but scofield at his best really bites down.

Other than those Paul Motian albums, the disc he's on that I still enjoy most is that trio thing he did with Ronald Shannon Jackson and Melvin Gibbs called Power Tools. It's not all brilliant, and Jackson's kind of overbearing, but it's great hearing Frisell in a somewhat more outre and astringent context.

Out of modern jazz guitar trinity, I like Scofield the best just because he's the most grounded, and he loves New Orleans music. Possibly more traditional that Metheny and Frisell, but more fun as well.

I would second eddie hurt's comment here. This album really holds up. The guitar tone is still more disturbing than simply pretty, and it's just windswept and bleak bleak bleak.

It was the followup to "Is That You?" -- the first one he put out after joining Naked City, and seemingly the template for the later releases on Nonesuch. It's got some beautiful melodies. These are the two albums by him I've held onto.

however i never told him where this was so it's more my fault than his i guess

I do like his playing on Strange Liberation but again that already feels like a record I liked when it came out but have no burning desire to hear now.

But right now I'm valuing simplicity and accessibility over complexity and adventurousness in the music I'm listening to. I go through phases.

His organ trio with Sam Yahel and Brian Blade was fantastic when I saw them in Boston last year - that was probably my favorite Frisell band in years. Lots of r & b covers, and Yahel was way, way out there on most of his solos.

I guess what I'm saying is that if I had to listen to the same damn key over 45 mins on a record, I'd probably chuck it.

Doing a southern swing with Ron Miles, Tony Scherr, Kenny Wolleson in May -- going to shoot for both Memphis and Oxford shows I think.

I think ever since he abandoned the skronk and started absorbing more folk and bluegrass that his work grew pretty ... milquetoast? I love the style he's more or less invented, but he's flooded the market with too many laid back explorations of Americana that lack the surprise and excitement of, say, "Have a Little Faith," the only album with both an awesome cover of "The Washington Post March" and Madonna's "Live to Tell" (that sort of eclecticism really set the stage for folks like Brad Mehldau).

Anyway, like the guy, wish him well, good player solo and in groups and collaboration, but hasn't really captured my interest or attention since the Buster Keaton score. Which is a shame, because he works with some ace guys.

Good but not great show in Oxford last night. Miles and Wollesen brought a lot more fire, focus and invention than Frisell did, frankly. But now I can say I've seen Frisell live. They closed with a really beautiful, emotional "Old Man River," a nice choice considering the flooding situation.

This is my wife's favorite dude, like, ever. As for me, I like Good Dog Happy Man, Disfarmer, and one I can never remember the name of.