  
Bill Frisell draws inspiration from
historic California landscape
on new album, Big Sur, available June 18 via
Okeh
Project Debuted as 2012 Monterey Jazz Festival Commission
With Residency at Big Sur's Glen Deven Ranch
Resulting 19-Track Studio Album Presents New Big Sur Quintet,
Fusing Frisell's 858 Quartet with Beautiful Dreamers Trio
2012 Doris Duke Artist Award Recipient Currently Lending
Artistic Vision to SFJAZZ and Jazz at Lincoln Center
"After decades of trodding such a brave and singular path,
maybe Frisell deserves his own genre. How about 'friz'?" - JazzTimes
"Long one of my favorite artists, Bill never ceases to
amaze me. His reach seems limitless and his grasp so deep. Big Sur is shimmery,
evocative musical haiku as only Bill can do. Simply no one like him." - Bonnie
Raitt
OKeh will release guitarist-composer Bill Frisell's new album,
Big Sur, on June 18, 2013. The project marks his label debut as
well as the first album featuring the Big Sur Quintet (which combines his
858 Quartet and Beautiful Dreamers trio).
The region known as Big Sur occupies 90 miles of spectacular central California
coastline, midway between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, and extends inland to the
abruptly rising Santa Lucia Mountains. Over the past century, Big Sur's rugged
coastline and terrain, breathtaking vistas, and potential for communion with nature
have attracted and inspired a multitude of creative types, such as Robinson Jeffers,
Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, Ansel Adams, Charles Lloyd, John Adams, Hunter S. Thompson,
The Beach Boys, Death Cab For Cutie, and others.
Born of a Monterey Jazz Festival commission in 2012, Bill Frisell's
Big Sur features an hour of original music, 19 compositions that explicitly
reference the coastal-mountain environment. Titles such as "A Good Spot, " "Going
to California, " "A Beautiful View, " "Big Sur, " and "On the Lookout" evoke the
remote and pastoral setting with musical blends of chamber jazz, country, classical,
folk, and rock. Joined by violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang,
cellist Hank Roberts, and drummer Rudy Royston, the group premiered
the music at the festival in September 2012. Six months later, the quintet recorded
Big Sur at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, with longtime
Frisell collaborators Lee Townsend and Adam Muñoz producing and engineering, respectively.
The commission included a residency at Glen Deven Ranch, an 860-acre property
bequeathed to the Big Sur Land Trust. Glen Deven's beauty and quietude provided
Frisell with both inspiration and something even more rare: time to be alone with
his muse (for the first ten day stay in April 2012).
"I've been so lucky playing and working so much, " reflects Frisell, "but it's become
rare in the past 20 years to actually have time to reflect on things and to let
them percolate or simmer. In Big Sur, I never knew what time it was, my phone
didn't work, I slept whenever I wanted, and I woke up whenever I wanted. The idea
was to just write music.
"It was extraordinary. You're surrounded by forest, and there's a trail that you
can walk to the end of the bluff, where the land just drops off and you see the
whole panorama of the Big Sur coast and the Pacific Ocean, " says Frisell.
"That's what I woke up to every morning. It was incredible." When he wasn't writing
in his cabin, Frisell found himself meandering out the trail toward the lookout,
settling onto one of the benches with his pad of music paper, and writing down whatever
melodies popped into his head. "I filled up pages and pages, " he says. "The music
just kept coming."
Shortly before the Monterey Jazz Festival, Frisell returned to Glen Deven,
joined by his band mates. "When Jenny and Eyvind and Hank and Rudy came to rehearse,
they got a feel for where I'd been when I was writing. That's really when we became
the Big Sur Quintet - and when the music came to life."
Essentially combining the 858 Quartet with Beautiful Dreamers (given Royston's participation),
the new Quintet imparts exciting breadth and grandeur to Frisell's compositions.
"I think of 858 as having a very wide dynamic range, from intimate and quiet to
big and orchestral, " Frisell says. "But the drums bring out the power even more.
Rudy does unexpected things that inspire me, which is what everybody in this band
is doing all the time."
You can hear Frisell propelled by his collaborators throughout Big Sur,
notably the way his guitar grows increasingly edgy against the group's orchestral
sweep and rhythmic punch on "Gather Good Things, " or how it lifts and soars out
of swirling ensemble updrafts on "Hawks." This is a band that can conjure a striking
variety of moods and images, from nocturnal mystery ("Animals") and idyllic reverie
("We All Love Neil Young") to snaking curves of asphalt ("Highway 1") and crashing
waves (the surf-rock-tinged "The Big One").
"I always feel guilty when I say I write the music, " Frisell notes. "I do write
these melodies on paper-and I know that's important-but there's this huge step that
comes from the other musicians. For much of this album, they are playing
the actual notes that I wrote down, but the way they bring their own sound to it,
there's no way it can just be on the paper.
"This Quintet feels like family, " says Frisell, who titled one new piece "Sing
Together Like Family." It's evident in the way the musicians interact intuitively
to shape the music while playing. "You hear that sort of thing when the Carter family
sings together, " he explains. "For them, it's in the blood. With us, it comes from
putting in all those hours on trains and planes, and going through all this together.
When it turns into music, it's about how we're connected. Whether the notes are
written or improvised, all kinds of decisions are being made on the spur of the
moment, which I just love. It keeps the music fresh. Hopefully, every time we play
Big Sur, something new will happen."
About Bill Frisell:
Since launching his recording career as leader in 1983 on the ECM label, guitarist
Bill Frisell has spent much of the past 30 years in studios and on tour.
His stunning résumé includes solo work, such as the recent Silent Comedy
(Tzadik); duos with Greg Leisz, Vinicius Cantuária, Jim Hall, and Petra Haden; various
trios (Ron Carter and Paul Motian; Dave Holland and Elvin Jones; Tony Scherr and
Kenny Wollesen; and Beautiful Dreamers with Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston) and quartets;
and such genre-blurring projects as the Intercontinentals, The Willies, Buddy Miller's
Majestic Silver Strings, Floratone (with drummer Matt Chamberlain and producers
Townsend and Tucker Martine), The Sweetest Punch: The New Songs of Elvis Costello
& Burt Bacharach, All We Are Saying (a tribute to the music of John Lennon),
and Richter 858 (with Kang, Scheinman, and Roberts). A recipient of the inaugural
Doris Duke Artist Award in 2012, his distinctive guitar tones, colors, and harmonic
sensibilities make Frisell one of the most sought-after collaborators in contemporary
music. Additionally, Frisell lends his artistic vision to two major arts intuitions
in 2013: as a Resident Artistic Director for SFJAZZ and curator of Jazz
at Lincoln Center's new "Roots of Americana" series (the latter during the 2013-2014
season). For more information on Bill Frisell, please visit: billfrisell.com
Click Above to Watch The Making of Bill Frisell's Big Sur
Upcoming Bill Frisell Appearances:
Big Sur:
July 11 / Garana Jazz Festival / Garna, Romania
July 12 / TBA / Neuhardenberg - Berlin, Germany
July 13 / Koncerhuset / Copenhagen, Denmark
July 16 / Flassen Thetret Vart / Molde, Norway
July 17 / Mendizorrotza Sports Arena / Victoria, Spain
July 18 / Kulturzentrum Tollhaus e.V., Zeltival / Karlsruhe, Germany
July 20 / Stress Festival / Stresa Italy
Beautiful Dreamers:
May 1 - 2 / The Dakota / Minneapolis, MN
May 3 / Old Town School of Folk Music / Minneapolis, MN
May 4 / The Ark / Ann Arbor, MI
May 7 - 12 / Village Vanguard / New York, NY
Other:
June 2 / Charlie Haden Tribute - Healdsburg Jazz Festival / Santa Rosa,
CA
June 18 - 19 / Joni: A Portrait in Song (Joni Mitchell Tribute) - Massey
Hall / Toronto, Canada
June 22 / with Marianne Faithfull -The Meltdown Festival / London, UK
June 29 / Bill Frisell Solo - Montreal Jazz Festival @ L'Astral / Montreal,
Quebec
June 30 / Duo with Charles Lloyd - Montreal Jazz Festival @ PDA Jean-Duceppe
/ Montreal, Quebec
September 1 / All We Are Saying: Music of John Lennon - Detroit International
Jazz Festival / Detroit, MI
Big Sur - Tracklisting:
All compositions by Bill Frisell
1. The Music of Glen Deven Ranch
2. Sing Together Like a Family
3. A Good Spot
4. Going to California
5. The Big One
6. Somewhere
7. Gather Good Things
8. Cry Alone
9. The Animals
10. Highway 1
11. A Beautiful View
12. Hawks
13. We All Love Neil Young
14. Big Sur
15. On the Lookout
16. Shacked Up
17. Walking Stick (for Jim Cox)
18. Song for Lana Weeks
19. Far Away
Bill Frisell · Big Sur
OKeh · Release Date: June 18, 2013
Sony Masterworks comprises the Masterworks, Masterworks Broadway, OKeh, Portrait,
RCA Red Seal and Sony Classical imprints. For email updates and information,
please visit www.SonyMasterworks.com.
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