Bill Frisell, Highlight of Cheltenham Festival, "Trumps Again" with New Album
Bill Frisell introduced his new quintet to European audiences at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival this past Sunday, and, writes The Times (UK)'s Alyn Shipton, it was "the highlight" of the four-star event. "A musician of eclectic tastes," says Shipton, Frisell "explored swing, South African rhythms, and old-style bebop with freshness and invention, as the drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Larry Gernadier pushed the group into ever-more exciting ingenuity." Read the Cheltenham review at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk.
The Telegraph's Ivan Hewett writes that snagging Bill and his quintet was "quite a catch" for the festival. Frisell offered his trademark "beautifully shaped lick," bringing the set into focus with his "favourite territory of musical Americana, with blues and bluegrass and Miles Davis alongside Frisell's own compositions," a repertoire mix similar to that of his forthcoming two-CD Nonesuch release, History, Mystery, due out next week.
Hewett says of Bill's "equally engaging" quintet members:
There was bassist Larry Grenadier [also of the Brad Mehldau Trio], shooting up and down the finger-board with pinpoint accuracy; drummer Rudy Royston, elegant and sharp; saxophonist Chris Cheek, conjuring a sound of Ben Webster-ish softness; and cornet-player Ron Miles, who was like one of those dinner guests who doesn't have much small talk, but when he says something it's really worth hearing.
Read the review at telegraph.co.uk.
Ron Miles joined Bill on cornet for the History, Mystery recording, as did violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts, clarinetist/tenor sax player Greg Tardy, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen.
All About Jazz Senior Editor Chris May, says Bill "comes up trumps again" with History, Mystery, an album that mixes "bop, post-bop, Malian desert blues, Delta blues, 1960s soul, urban groove and low slung rock ... woven together by Frisell's attractive string arrangements."
May calls this "engrossing, grown-up music---but, crucially, grown-up music in which the memory of teenage kicks lives on ... It's a delight of the first order." History, Mystery, he concludes, is "serious, substantial stuff---and a whole lot of fun too."
To read the review, visit allaboutjazz.com. The review points to a number of highlights on the album, including the Frisell original "Probability Cloud," which you can hear at nonesuch.com/historymystery.
Click here to pre-order Bill Frisell's two-disc History, Mystery for $17 and download the album MP3s, at no extra charge, on release day, May 13.
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