Customer Reviews

Disfarmer

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had the pleasure of seeing this work performed live last April in San Francisco, accompanied by a slide show of Disfarmer's photographs. The live show, which was stunning, featured Frisell playing entirely electric guitar, and the studio version is more acoustic. Consequently, this recording is more layered, subtle and nuanced. While Frisell and this remarkable group of musicians have been mining this particular hybrid of American roots and jazz for several years, to my ears, this work stands alone in depth and beauty. I have only one criticism and that is the next to last cut, which here is nearly three minutes, but live was about ten minutes and just kept building with layer upon layer of solos and loops until I could not stop crying with wonder and joy. My family is originally from the part of the country where the photos were taken and it's difficult for me to describe how deeply I am affected by the marriage of this music with those photos. I've been a huge Frisell fan for many years now, but this is my favorite work. It is as timeless as the photos; yet at the same time, entirely new and completely inspired.

The veteran avant-jazz guitarist Bill Frisell continues his exploration of Americana with a series of instrumentals inspired by the life and photographs of Depression-era Arkansas chronicler/photographer Michael Disfarmer, who documented the lives of pre-war rural southerners in vividly atmospheric portraits and vistas
With a band consisting of stand-up bass, steel guitar and fiddle, for the most part Frisell plays it pretty straight. He has recruited some fine country players - like bassist Victor Krauss and steel guitarist Greg Leisz - for the project.
Most of the pieces are plangent, haunting and fragmentary, as Frisell's delicately shimmering strings accentuate the psychological dread of Disfarmer's images.
The best tracks, such as "Little Gir", have a ragged edge to them, coming over like a genteel, dinner party-friendly version of "The Dirty Three".
He also throws in covers of Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" and Elvis's "That's All Right Mama".
A version of "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" is mysterious and lovely, and only the lightly rollicking "Arkansas Pt 1" interrupts the elegaic and lorn mood.
My favourite tracks: "Little Girl", the gentle waltz "Disfarmer Theme", the warm and subtle "Peter Miller's Discovery", the relaxed dance "That's Alright, Mama", treated treated as slinky Western Swing, with touches of intriguing mandolin/guitar interplay and the beautiful "I Am Not a Farmer".

I'll echo the reviewer that said Disfarmer is an American masterpiece. When I heard it for the first time while looking at Disfarmer's fotos in the liner notes, the music immediately resonated with me. I'm originally from the West Texas plains and was moved by the poignant starkness and humbleness of the people in the fotos. Frissell and the other musicians conveyed this sense of time and place masterfully. Also, there is indeed something very meditative about the music. If I do nothing but sit still and just listen with my eyes closed, these plaintive tunes take me to another level, one of beauty and sweetness and peace.

I highly recommend this outstanding CD.

This is truly a stunning piece of work. I saw the show live and enjoyed it. It was only later, when I bought the CD, that the music really hit me. Even after dozens of listens I still find new nuances and subtleties that had escaped my attention earlier. There is really no one else out there that makes music in this genre. I am not even sure what to call it, but I think for the sake of simplicity, I will just call it "American" music. Frisell seems to effortlessly combine early and late jazz with roots blues influences with modern composition and even a tinge of hard rock (as seen in 'I Am Not a Farmer'). Disfarmer is truly the amalgamation of all forms of "American Roots Music" into a modern jazz cd, truly incredible. Also, it is the best music for driving/road trips I had ever heard.

Incredible, truly incredible work.

"Disfarmer" was my first experience with Bill Frisell. Amazing. I have listened to it dozens of times and I am still enthralled. It has a very other worldy sort of sound, definately read the liner notes to get an understanding of who Disfarmer is.

I live in the town where the local arts center commissioned this piece, so I got to see an early performance of "Disfarmer." I remember enjoying it, but I also remember that it might get lost in translation should Bill Frisell and his little ensemble (Viktor Krauss wasn't there that night) try to record it.

The music accompanied a slideshow of obscure, depression-era photographs taken by some cantankerous man who gave himself the name Disfarmer. It was a strange thing to see. Frisell's modern take on Americana was imposed over something much more antiquated. It did not create a clash, rather it created a strange undercurrent somewhere between Aaron Copland and melancholia.

That's why I wish the visual component were released as well. Having Disfarmer photographs on the inside of the liner notes is a slight help, but I think it wouldn't been nice to have a DVD packaged with the album to give people more context. As an album unto itself without context, it is good. Very good. It's minimal, but not embarrassingly so. Many tracks, particularly the last two, are the kind to make me stop whatever I'm doing and take notice.

But the full visual context would make this very good product even better. At the same time, I don't want to complain about 72 minutes of gently composed music.

Bill Frisell is no stranger to mixed-media collaborations. Instead of a movie, he 'collaborates' with the photographs of Mike Disfarmer. Disfarmer took starkly realistic portraits of the Depression-era residents of his Arkansas town. Bill Frisell gathered Greg Leisz on steel guitar & mandolin, Jenny Scheinman on violin, and Viktor Krauss on bass to record this disc. Unsurprisingly, given the instrumentation and the inspiration, this is a very country album. 2008's "History, Mystery" is much jazzier, but in both you have a lot of songs, many of then short, that flow into each other and repeat. The song titles don't repeat, exactly, but the theme of "Farmer" reappears a number of times, and gets more and more haunting each time. Frisell's playing isn't very jazzy, but Leisz and Scheinman play backing notes that no country player would. The hypnotic nature of the music makes it more interesting than you might guess (or in different hands). Since it isn't very jazzy, I think this disc appeals more to Frisell fans than fans of regular jazz guitar.

Bill Frisell often plays some weird stuff. Disfarmer is a little less so. He creates a mood from the 1930's depression by playing themes from the country music of that time and later. Horses, hats and boots music, but the horses are pulling plows, the hats are sun burnt and beat to hell and the boots have holes in them. All this with Frisell's slightly otherworldly sensibilities.

I thought the album wasn't very interesting musically -- there wasn't much musical tension or variety. I had heard a couple of cuts of Bill Frisell's work before and thought they were all right. I didn't know him at all well, though, and the album disappointed me.