Bill Frisell
William Richard Frisell (born March 18, 1951) is an American jazz guitarist.[1] He first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader.[2] He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant in the Downtown Scene in New York City, where he formed a long working relationship with composer and saxophonist John Zorn.[3] He was also a longtime member of veteran drummer Paul Motian's groups from the early 1980s until Motian's death in 2011. Since the late 1990s, Frisell's output as a bandleader has also integrated prominent elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and Americana. He has six Grammy nominations and one win.[4]
Bill Frisell
William Richard Frisell
March 18, 1951
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Musician, composer, arranger
Guitar
1978–present
Biography[edit]
Early life and career[edit]
Frisell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, but spent most of his youth in the Denver, Colorado area.[1] He studied clarinet with Richard Joiner of the Denver Symphony Orchestra as a youth, but by his teens was more interested in guitar. He graduated from Denver East High School and went to the University of Northern Colorado to study music.[1] At UNC, he took a class taught by guitarist Johnny Smith. However, Frisell later reported the class effectively became private lessons from Smith because the emphasis on music theory "was too much for everyone else—they didn't want to be learning scales and inversions."[5]
His original guitar teacher in the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area was Dale Bruning, with whom Frisell released the 2000 duo album Reunion. After graduating from Northern Colorado, Frisell went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston,[1] where he studied with Jon Damian and Jim Hall.
ECM Records years[edit]
Frisell's major break came when guitarist Pat Metheny was unable to make a recording session and recommended Frisell to Paul Motian, who was recording Psalm (1982) for ECM Records.[6] Frisell became ECM's in-house guitar player through the 1980s and worked on several albums, including notably Jan Garbarek's 1982 Paths, Prints. Frisell's first release under his name was In Line (1983), which featured a solo guitar as well as duets with bassist Arild Andersen.[7]
New York City era[edit]
In the 1980s, Frisell moved to Hoboken, New Jersey and was active in the New York jazz scene.[8] He forged an early partnership with John Zorn—including as a member of avant-garde jazz band Naked City—and performed or recorded with many others. He also played in Paul Motian's trio, along with saxophonist Joe Lovano.[9]
Frisell organized a regular working group in the mid-1980s consisting of Kermit Driscoll on bass, Joey Baron on drums, and Hank Roberts on cello (later reduced to a trio when Roberts left). For studio projects, this group was regularly joined by other musicians.
Seattle years[edit]
In 1988 Frisell left New York City and moved to Seattle, Washington.[10] In the early 1990s Frisell made two of his best-reviewed albums: first, Have a Little Faith,[1] an ambitious survey of Americana of all stripes, from Charles Ives and Aaron Copland (the entirety of Billy the Kid) to John Hiatt (the title song), Bob Dylan ("Just Like a Woman") and Madonna (a lengthy, psychedelic rock-tinged version of "Live to Tell"); and second, This Land, a complementary set of originals. During this time, he performed with many musicians, including up-and-coming performers such as Douglas September on the album 10 Bulls. He also branched out by performing soundtracks to silent films of Buster Keaton with his trio and contributed to Ryuichi Sakamoto's album Heartbeat.
In the mid-1990s, Frisell disbanded his trio. He continued the trend marked by Have a Little Faith by more explicitly incorporating elements of bluegrass and country music into his music. His friendship with Gary Larson led him to provide music for the TV version of The Far Side [11] (released on the album Quartet along with music written for Keaton's Convict 13 ). Since 2000, Frisell has lived on Bainbridge Island, Washington, near Seattle.[10]