ShareThisBy WAYNE BLEDSOE
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Guitarist Bill Frisell doesn't refer to a pivotal moment in his art as an epiphany. Instead, he points to it as one of several "moments of despair that ended up being good for me."
Frisell says that years ago he went to see guitarist John McLaughlin in concert.
"I just loved his playing," says Frisell in a call from his home in Seattle. "You wouldn't know it from the way I play (now)."
Frisell tried and tried to learn how to play McLaughlin's quick-fingered pieces, but was never happy with the results. And when Frisell actually watched the guitarist perform, he was even more discouraged.
"I had this one moment of almost feeling like I was going to quit playing," says Frisell. "But in the next moment, this thing came (to me) that was, 'Well, I know I can't do that, but I'll just do something else. I've been playing long enough. I'll just do something with whatever it is that I have!' It's not about how fast or how slow (you play) or anything. It's just about trying to say something about how you feel."
Today, Frisell is one of the most acclaimed guitarists in music. Although he comes from a jazz background, his style skirts any clear genre. While he occasionally turns the volume up and plays with distortion, generally Frisell keeps things low-key. His original songs and interpretations can be adventurous, but he isn't afraid of simple beauty.
He's performed with folk, rock, country, jazz and rock artists and adapted music from all of those genres into his own distinctive style.
"For me, music has always been the place where anything is possible," says Frisell. "All the labels and walls and boundaries that are up around things, it's all artificial. Whenever you get together with people to play, all that disappears. It doesn't make sense to me to just think that I have to do one thing. There's no boundaries on it. There's no rules _ or if there are rules, it's cool to break 'em. You can break those rules and nobody gets hurt."
Born in Baltimore in 1951 and raised in Denver, Frisell began his music journey at the age of 9 as a clarinetist. Two years later he began playing guitar. Although Frisell also learned saxophone, at 20 he decided to concentrate solely on guitar.
In the 1970s Frisell studied at some of music's most prestigious jazz schools and workshops, and by the 1980s he had established himself as one of jazz guitar's brightest young lights. After recording for the jazz label ECM, Frisell signed with Nonesuch Records in 1987.
It turned out to be the perfect label for Frisell, who has released collaborations with everyone from jazz greats Elvin Jones, Dave Holland and Ron Carter, to acoustic and bluegrass virtuosos Jerry Douglas, Adam Steffey and Viktor Krauss, folk and rock singers Elvis Costello, Loudon Wainwright III and Petra Haden, and avant-garde jazz artist John Zorn.
"That's how I learn," says Frisell. "Getting to play with new people, in five minutes I'll learn more than I would spending a year with some instruction book or whatever. I just sort of thrive on that."
He seems to have a special relationship with drummers _ drawing inspiration from playing with studio ace Jim Keltner and jazz greats Jack DeJohnette, Elvin Jones and Brian Blade.
"I just get so much (from drummers)," says Frisell. "I can generate melodic ideas from standing next to a drummer. And Jack is one of those super-inspirational people. He could just be standing there, not even touching his instrument, and something magical would still happen."
Doubtless, though, Frisell still finds moments of despair that lead to greater things. He hasn't, he says, mastered the guitar as yet.
"That's the point that I'll never get to," says Frisell. "I still feel like it's just this, coming from the inside of it, it feels pretty much like it did when I first picked up the instrument. It's infinite... . No matter how much ... you do, you cannot get to the end of it. So from my vantage point, it feels like I'm just starting."
