This Land

Bill Frisell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 15, 1994)
• Original Release Date: March 15, 1994
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B000002I2X
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #141,573 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bill Frisell Again Treads Americana Territory!, February 15, 2005

By 

J. Rich - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: This Land (Audio CD)

Let me start off by saying that if you are thinking about purchasing this album get the album "Have A Little Faith" first. What he plays on this album makes alot more sense to me thanks in part by me buying "Have A Little Faith."

Bill's group for this 1994 recording are the following musicians:

Joey Baron - drums
Curtis Fowlkes - trombone
Don Byron - clarinet and bass clarinet
Kermit Driscoll - bass
Bill Drewes - alto saxophone

All of these musicians help Bill create one his most memorable albums to date.

The guitar playing is very typical Bill Frisell. Unusual chord voicings, open stringed passages with volume swells, microtonal bends, and hip melodic phrasing that'll always grab your attention.

The music is a cross between bebop, heartland jazz, blues, country, and maybe some classical (e. g. the couterpoint of songs like "Unscientific Americans" and "Resistor"). This album really transcends genres. It can only be described as a Bill Frisell album. He breaks barriers and cliches and continues to amaze his peers and his fans with his chameleon-like musical personality.

Some of my highlights are "Strange Meeting" (originally from the 1986 ECM album "Rambler) "Jimmy Carter Part 1 and 2" (which appear later on the 2002 Nonesuch release "Blues Dream"), "This Land", "Is It Sweet?," and "Julius Hemphill."

All in all, this is a great album. Anyone who's a fan of Bill Frisell should really try to buy this album.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, October 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: This Land (Audio CD)

If you are familiar with Bill Frisell's work, you will know what I mean by "mixed bag". This album has Frisell's signature 'jazz with a slight country twang' tone, plus everything from latin to rag to rock to free improv. The ensemble is fantastic, based around Frisell's regular trio of the time, Joey Baron on drums and Kermit Driscoll on bass. He augments this with clarinettist Don Byron, alto saxophonist Billy Drewes and trombonist Curtis Fowlkes. All in all an excellent work, highlights including Frisell standards "Rag", "Amarillo Barbados" and "Resistor".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both playful and tightly wound, August 16, 2000

By 

Stephen (Virginia Beach, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Land (Audio CD)

This set is quite playful, show Frisell's love of oddball cartoons. I've never been sure but I asume the title "Unscentific Americans" refers to the work of Roz Chast. many tunes are quite playful in a strange way, but there is often a tension in this music that seems like its going to just burst out but never does. Checkout Frisell's solos on Is it Sweet? and Jimmy Carter pt 2 for examples. An interesting album that's not quite as "easy" as his more recent work.