Bill Frisell Live In New York, NY 10/12/92

SONG SAMPLES:

x.mp3 Monica Jane
x.mp3 Rag
x.mp3 Don's Fav
x.mp3 Is It Sweet?
x.mp3 Jimmy Carter (part 1)

MUSICIANS:

Bill Frisell - electric guitar
Curtis Fowlkes - trombone
Don Byron - clarinets
Billy Drewes - alto saxophone
Kermit Driscoll - bass
Joey Baron - drums

SONG LIST:

01 Monica Jane 8:08
02 Cartoon 10:52
03 Julius Hemphill 10:07
04 Rag 6:55
05 Don's Fave 5:17
06 Is It Sweet? 8:47
07 Jimmy Carter (part 1) 5:38
08 Resistor 18:03

total running time: 1:13:41

All tracks composed by Bill Frisell
* track 5 "Don's Fave" - Previously unrecorded and unreleased  

Recorded by Claudia Engelhart at the Knitting Factory in New York City
Frisell Archivist: Martin Lane
* A Martin Lane selection
Produced by Adam Blomberg

A Songline / Tone Field Production

REVIEW

All About Jazz
January 26, 2011
By John Kelman

Also from New York, but recorded four years earlier, Download Series #009 predates Frisell's 1994 masterpiece, This Land, but finds that album's sextet, Driscoll and Baron augmented by Fowlkes, Byron and alto saxophonist Billy Drewes performing the month before the album was recorded, and clearly working the material in preparation for its pending studio session.

 The 75-minute set brings together half of This Land's 14 tunes, and is a perfect lesson in the difference between what works live, and what works in the studio. In some ways, live recordings go against their being moments in time that, once past, are gone forever, as opposed to studio recordings, where the goal is to create music that intentionally stands the test of time. Of course, many live recordings do stand the test of time, and this, along with the rest of the Live Download Series, is one. But comparing the extended versions here, the knottily freewheeling, 18-minute version of "Resistor," at nearly triple the length of the take on This Land, makes a strong case for greater concision when aiming to create the definitive studio version.

The carrot of this download is "Don's Fave," a previously unreleased Frisell tune that appears nowhere else in the guitarist's extensive catalog. Why it didn't end up on This Land is a mystery, as its serpentine changes and powerful delivery would have easily fit on an album that, nearly 20 years later, remains a high watermark for Frisell as a composer and bandleader. Before he went the Americana route and began exploring roots music, This Land's references to quintessential American composers like Copland, Charles Ives, and Julius Hemphill, makes it equally a quintessentially American record. - John Kelman - All About Jazz

For the complete Download Series review visit All About Jazz here.

by All About Jazz / John Kelman

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