Live

Kermit Driscoll, Joey Baron, Bill Frisell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 14, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hannibal
• ASIN: B000E6ETIO
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,742 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Frisell redefines jazz & guitar, April 27, 2000

By 

Phillip Hintze (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

Bill Frisell is by no means a traditional guitarist. He stretches the guitars timbral palette by using a myriad of effects processors including phrase samplers and his trademark volume pedal. This is not to say that he is overly reliant on toys to make his sounds, these are simply tools that allow him to use his unique voice.

The music found on LIVE with Frisell, Joey Baron, & Kermit Driscoll is hard to pigeonhole. There are elements of jazz, folk, rock, and other kinds of music, but the combination never seems forced or contrived. This CD is an absolute must-have. Any collection is empty without it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A memorial to a great band, September 25, 2001

By 

N. Dorward "obsessive reviewer" (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

This recording seems to have taken an odd path through the record corporations to reach CD. It's a recording of a 1991 concert from Seville by Frisell's basic trio of those years--Kermit Driscoll on bass & Joey Baron on drums. The CD was issued only in 1995, & by Gramavision rather than Frisell's usual label, Elektra/Nonesuch. I'm guessing that the reason for this contractual oddity is that the music wasn't necessarily recorded with commercial release in mind: the sound-quality is acceptable if a little wayward, but it's certainly not up to Elektra/Nonesuch's glossily high standards. Presumably the release of the album was a testament to the music's high quality, & also intended as a memorial to a band that had in the mid-1990s just broken up to pursue different aesthetic directions.

I've often felt that Frisell's studio albums were too cloistered & often just too _nice_; it's a great pity that he's rarely released live material, as he is a truly great live performer (as witness, e.g., the Paul Motian Trio's Vanguard recordings). I would count this album as among Frisell's best: hard to find a better capsule summary of what he does. "Crumb/No Moe", for instance, starts with a bit of indescribably strange mayhem--slithering, bubbling lines, blasts of Hendrixian noise--, then settles into Sonny Rollins' tune, a standard 1950s-style "I Got Rhythm" variant that anticipates "Oleo". Frisell throws scouring distorted guitar at it, whimsical melodies, straight blues playing, surf guitar, writhing electronic loops..... Throughout the album Frisell combines an invincible melodic sense with a collagist aesthetic that draws on all the possibilities of the guitar & of American music. Yet he also delivers some memorable ballad performances: "Have a Little Faith in Me" is a gorgeous rendition of John Hiatt's melody, for instance. A special word for "Strange Meeting", a staple of Frisell's repertoire since his early work with the Power Tools band. The version here is one of the most moving performances Frisell's ever delivered; rather than the more stylized, arranged version for the larger group on _This Land_, this version is stripped bare: a simple, inexorable lament that is restrained but chilling. I assume the title is a reference to Wilfrid Owen's famous WWI poem of the same title, & Frisell's song & especially this rendition perform a fittingly sombre tribute.

The material on this album was later released in "official" versions on Frisell's two 1992 albums _This Land_ & _Have a Little Faith_. Fine as those albums are, the versions here are equally strong, & anyone interested in Frisell should give this album a listen. It's more abrasive than those two albums--Frisell's electronic looping, used sparingly on the studio albums, is extensively employed on _Live_--but is highly enjoyable.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible Performance, January 31, 2005

By 

Thano J. Lomiento (poughkeepsie, ny United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Live (Audio CD)

I own frisell's complete discography and this is without a doubt a cut above the rest. I loved this band and while I will always wish that Frisell will work with this trio again in the future...at least we have this recording. If you only buy one Frisell disc to see what this guy is all about...this is the one.