Customer Reviews

Intercontinentals

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I saw a version of this band at the Earshot Jazz Festival here in Seattle a couple of years back. A wonderful evening of music. The group grew out of a collaboration between Frisell and Boubocar Traore (sadly the two occasions they were to play together were postponed; first by the post 9-11 environment and secondly fallout surrounding the Iraq war).

Anyway the CD adds Jenny Scheinman (violin) and Greg Liesz (pedal steel guitar to the mix and the result is a rich and incredibly satisfying blend of African, American, Macedonian, Brazilian etc. etc. influences creating a whole much much greater than the sum of its parts.

Astonishingly beautiful music. Otherwordly and exotic. Without a conventional rhythm section the music sustains a pulse which gives a sense of floating, a string ensemble essentially, the group sound is nearly transparent yet still with a momentum which engages and delights.

'We Are Everywhere' is a tremendous piece and 'Listen' is one of the most beautiful melodies Frisell has ever composed.

Gorgeous.

Bill Frisell makes music on the margins. Not that it is in any way marginal music. Quite the contrary. It is important precisely because it is on the margins but not marginal. What he excels at is taking folk-oriented musics and revivifying them through a process related to deconstruction but not entirely operating in that world; for example, it strikes me that there is little or no irony--the key component in deconstructionism--in his projects. Rather, there is genuine affection. But the way he organizes his projects, with authentic performers and musical textures, overlaid with a hip sensibility, resonates with post-modern approaches.

But he couldn't be farther removed from someone like, e.g., John Zorn, who imbues everything he touches with an ironic overlay. For me, the Frisell approach is generally much more effective. Indeed, it seems more in sync with some of my favorite world jazz performers such as Yusef Lateef, Cyro Baptista (who, ironically, often collaborates with Zorn), Ry Cooder, and Egberto Gismonti..

His latest project strikes me as really special. Apparently related to some of his earlier Americana explorations, it really uses those as a departure point, sailing (mainly) to points eastward, esp. Macedonia and Africa, but also downward (mapwise, at least) toward our other American neighbors to the south. There's a friendly exoticism all over this record that begins as esoteric and ends up as simply logical and beautiful. Take my favorite cut, "We Are Everywhere," with its strange affinity to many third- and fourth- world musics, its haunting melodicism, its eerie mix of pedal steel guitar, oud, bowed and pizzicato violin, and congas, all sounding perfectly natural. This is pure magic, at least to these ears. I thought I'd tire of this wildly eclectic approach, but this disc just grows deeper and more memorable with each listen.

In the end, Frisell mysteriously reveals the underlying elements linking music as seemingly divergent as North American country, Eastern European, Hispanic, and West African. His genius makes it sound entirely natural, even inevitable.

A record with an american guitarist as bandleader, and a diverse group of musicians drawn from all over the world is often a formula for disaster. The most obvious fear that comes to mind is that the guitarist will trample over any authentic feel these musicians may bring with endless soloing and noodling. The other likely direction is that it will be ecclectic yet trite - something suitable in a movie soundtrack or bank commercial, but not a rewarding listening experience.

But, of course, this is Bill Frisell. Usually Frisell's playing stays in the background, providing atmospherics through use of his trademark looping (which is heard more than in any Frisell record I can think of, though it's almost never prominent in the mix) or underscoring the melody, which is mostly provided by others.

No matter what he plays, whether background, soloing or driving the melody for a piece, it works. You'll hear blues or country inspired flourishes in a Brazilian or Malian inspired composition, yet he makes it sound completely appropriate. Logically, your mind will tell you that Frisell is an outsider, but he can somehow fool you into believing for a moment that his distincively American, whimsical playing just belongs.

This is probably one of Bill Frisell's finest works to date. Working with an eclectic group of international musicians, Frisell's signature guitar work subtly blends with instruments ranging from pedal steel guitar and violin to oud and African percussion. Somehow it all flows together into one seamless whole of beautifully exotic yet well grounded world music of the highest order. As in a jazz ensemble, each musician is given plenty of room to express themselves with the result being a truly group effort. A definite masterpiece.

On this 2003 release, Bill Frisell teams up with a group of world musicians. This album was nominated for "World Album of the Year" at the Grammmies, and I can certainly see why. The music is so textural, melodic, and at times quite breathtaking. This album is has a real open quality to the music. Even though this is Bill Frisell's world music album it still has the Frisell guitar sound in tact. The album is very eclectic yet very accessible. That's the thing that I admired about Bill especially in the last 4 years is that he's been making music that is VERY accessible and easy on the ear unlike his avant-garde jazz excursions in the earlier part of his career. The instrumentation on this album is strange, but it really works out well. This album should appeal to those already fans of Bill's music and those who just enjoy good music.

This album is, as my favorite cut is named, "Magic." Over sixty-five minutes of constant surprise: I get into the African groove and suddenly it's Greek; I sink into the Greek and a violin comes in and suddenly disappears; then there's an Appalachian twang, a Brazilian dance rhythm, and some sounds I didn't know existed till now, voices humming and wailing or incanting Portuguese or Senegalese, and everything blends, flows, and carries me somewhere I've never travelled. I sit down to listen to this with my earphones on and enter a new world. Absolutely mesmerizing. Haunting. Dreamlike. Beautiful beyond description. I'm going to move into this album and live in it till further notice.

"Tinker toy riffs" "United Nations Building". For a society that has contented itself with the mediocre, maybe. Then when the large visions hit, these works are dealt with in the same rigamaroll fashion that allows for slight expressions like those. People, this is a very large vision at work. What Bill Frisell accomplished here will be poked and proded by the finest adventure musicians from here on out. This is highly melodic - but like the finest in anything, it is slow to reveal its layers of beauty. Allmusic calls this a new watermark for Bill - this is just a flat-out new watermark.

Tapestries of stringed instruments coming from Frisell and friends. Sheer bliss indeed. This is a great accomplishment. Bill's compositions are just exquisite and lay out complex melodies that are better and better at each new listen. Add to this that with all the players the listener can latch on to just one of them and hear the music in a unique new way constantly. It's really great. I won't say anymore; just dig in - there's a lot to pull out here.

I am a huge fan of Boubacar Traore and a big fan of Frisell's, so I should LOVE this cd, but I only like it. The idea that this is "uncharted territory" for Frisell is silly. The best tracks are those which derive the most from Boubacar. Other tracks, like track 5, are not uncharted territory, they are virtually indistinguishable from any of Frisell's recent albums. Frisell again seems content to mostly play session and studio man rather than take chances creatively.

That said, it was wise to draw inspiration from the great Boubacar, and this cd is probably my favorite of Frisell's recent work, along with Ghost Town; and I'd recommend it over Blues Dream or Good Dog and some of the others.

UPDATE AFTER A YEAR: After a year, I'd have to say that I think it's not quite as ethereal as it wants to be. Again, the tracks that cut-and-paste some Boubacar are nice though not really better than the sum of the parts, but the other tracks (try track 3) are nondescript, unimaginative, and oh-so-how-familiar-Frisell. I remember Bruce Willis describing in an interview that his approach to acting in the movie "Unbreakable" was to do "as little as possible." That seems to be Frisell's approach all too often, and while it sounds like brilliant philosophy, it doesn't suit either's work. Frisell is not flamboyant or showy by nature, so toning down doesn't contain the fire, it extinguishes it. When he goes all out in either direction, he's better. But too often he sits in the middle, laying down a simple atonal progression of a few notes, and then meandering alongside (tracks 3 and 13). It works for me about as well as when classical compositions which front a Hungarian melody or something: it doesn't. Some tracks here are great. I think we need to get Ginger Baker to get him to actually do some lead guitar again.

At first I found this something of a disappointment. The initial cuts seemed alarmingly short on melody--just repeated Tinkertoy riffs with textural variations--and I couldn't believe a guitarist and vocalist as brilliant as Vinicius Cantuaria had been reduced to beating time on a bass drum. Slowly, though, it won me over. The second half is much stronger than the first. "Listen" is gorgeous, "Anywhere Road" has the classic, off-kilter shape of Frisell's best compositions, and "Procissao" is a percolating wonder, with a fine vocal from Cantuaria. So I was wrong--sort of. I still wonder whether the textural novelty here tends to overwhelm Frisell's (many) other strengths. But hey, I'd hate to be without it. Hence the four stars.