July 30, 2019
Acclaimed guitarist Bill Frisell has signed with Blue Note Records and will release the first album under his own name for the legendary label with the arrival of his newest project HARMONY this Fall. Though his association with Blue Note stretches back nearly 3 decades to his appearance on John Scofield’s 1992 album Grace Under Pressure — and has included invaluable contributions to Blue Note albums by Don Byron (Romance With The Unseen), Ron Carter (Orfeu), Norah Jones (“The Long Day Is Over” from Come Away With Me), the collective project Floratone, and Charles Lloyd & The Marvels (I Long To See You & Vanished Gardens featuring Lucinda Williams) — HARMONY is Frisell’s bona fide Blue Note debut, an opportunity for jazz’s most storied label to document the work of “the most significant and widely imitated guitarist to emerge in jazz since the beginning of the 1980s,” according to The New York Times. Stream the playlist Bill Frisell on Blue Note.
If one concept can be said to define Frisell’s expansive, unprecedented career it might be that of connection. He can’t help but draw lines between the landmarks of his life in music, and his own music consistently honors the totality of American music and represents his personal history with integrity. Frisell likes to think about the rich commonalities among the jazz, roots, rock and pop music he grew up immersed in. (Or, as Blue Note President Don Was puts it, “I love the way that Bill annihilates the concept of genre. He’s a versatile conversationalist who speaks many languages—and makes it all work.”) He smiles when he chats about the enduring relationships he’s formed with his fellow musicians over the years—how old friends cycle in and out of his fold, and how one chance introduction can lead to a profound, decades-long rapport. He’s also astonished by how the jazz culture he grew up admiring from afar—the iconic players, the monumental labels, the venerated festivals and clubs—has become the place where he makes his living.
“It’s wild, at this point in my life, thinking back all the way to high school and all these strands of things coming together,” Frisell reflects. “And here I am now—I have an album coming out on Blue Note. Is it possible that I could be part of all this?”
The guitarist’s work in The Marvels (“Frisell is just right for Lloyd,” wrote JazzTimes, “Frisell’s flicking, lingering tones deepen Lloyd’s spell”) is only the most recent chapter in his Blue Note story. He grew up in Denver, and among his earliest LP finds was Volume 1 of Blue Note’s Three Decades Of Jazz, a compilation celebrating the label’s 30th anniversary that contained the universe: Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Jimmy Smith with Kenny Burrell, Art Blakey, Horace Silver and more. His study of the Blue Note catalog continued until he began making his own important contributions to the label’s legacy as a sideman. In 2007, he teamed up with drummer Matt Chamberlain and producers Lee Townsend and Tucker Martine to release the self-titled Blue Note debut by the collective Floratone—an experimental project that transformed extended improvisations into multi-layered studio creations that NPR called “some of the most riveting instrumental music to emerge this year.”
