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Jimmy KatzBill Frisell artist page: listen to interviews, features and music archived at NPR Music.
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It's true: Bill Frisell wears glasses, dresses casually and is modest and soft-spoken in person. But instead of stepping into a phone booth to put on a cape, he straps on his trusty Fender Telecaster and strides onstage at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater with his trio.
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Ron Miles plays a one-of-a-kind, brushed gold trumpet in G, not the conventional B-flat horn used by most players. He says the sound is a little deeper, and while it's more difficult to play, he loves the grace and control: Ron Miles sings through his horn. The jazz trumpeter leads an all-star set with legendary guitarist Bill Frisell.
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Paul Motian, Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano are all towering figures of modern jazz. They also happen to have played together for more than a quarter-century. They convene once again at the club where they sell out weeklong engagements every year.
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Jazz guitarist and band leader Bill Frisell is the focus of our third show. The former "house guitarist" for pioneering German modern jazz label ECM, Frisell has worked with artists as varied as Elvis Costello, John Zorn and classical composer Gavin Bryars.
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Guitarist Bill Frisell has been on the cutting edge of jazz guitar since his arrival on the scene in the early 1980s. With an amazing technique and creative mind, he has incorporated the whole of American music in his work, relying on country, blues, rock and jazz. Hear an interview and performance.
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Lyric soprano Renée Fleming is a familiar face on the world's greatest opera stages, but on her latest CD, Haunted Heart, she makes a leap to the worlds of jazz, pop and folk. She talks with NPR's Fred Child about her foray into non-operatic territory.
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Guest host Sheilah Kast speaks with singer Petra Haden , who has two new projects: "Petra Haden and Bill Frisell" (Sovereign Artists Records), a collection of standards played by the virtuoso guitarist, and "Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out" (Bar/None Records) in which she recreates the Who's music entirely with her voice.
()Bill Frisell is renowned as a versatile musician with a repertoire of blues, country, and rock — but he says he's a jazz guitarist at heart. Frisell describes his first foray into jazz, when he heard master guitarist Wes Montgomery. Marcie Sillman reports.
()Guitarist Bill Frisell tells the story of how his latest CD came to be. The album is called The Willies. It's a departure for Frisell, mostly filled with old-timey American music. In this musical essay Frisell tells us how he met Danny Barnes, a native of Texas and someone that grew up hearing and learning music in the oral tradition and how that brought the album about. (4:00) The disc is The Willies, by Bill Frisell. It's on Nonesuch records.
()NPR's Rick Karr profiles guitarist, band-leader and composer Bill Frisell who has three new recordings out this year, in addition to playing on several others. His music encompasses mainstream and avant garde jazz, country, and rock. Hist most recent collaboration was writing jazz improv for Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach.
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They call themselves The Monsters Of Folk: Jim James, frontman for the band My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, and singer-guitarist M. Ward. Also on the show: Jim James has recorded a solo tribute album to George Harrison; Swedish singer Kristian Matsson, a.k.a. The Tallest Man On Earth; John Davis, formerly of the band Georgie James, has a new project called Title Tracks; Phil Elverum of The Microphones returns with a new band he's calling Mount Eerie; guitarist Bill Frisell composes new music for a series of rural photographs from the 1920s; and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
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Mike Disfarmer was a small-town Arkansas eccentric who disowned his family and its lifestyle. He was also an incredible portrait photographer. Now, jazz guitarist Bill Frisell has assembled a 21st-century string band to record an album inspired by Disfarmer's work.
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In "Engine of Ruin," Earth plods through noir-Americana like outlaw jazz improvisers on their way to collect a bounty. The instrumental, desert-swept narrative sounds hauntingly evocative, but it's the thick, foreboding tone of a rusty Telecaster that links Earth's doom-laden discography.
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In Floratone's "The Passenger," Bill Frisell's guitar sits front and center, teasing out references to gritty desert rock, Spaghetti Western soundtracks and even the slinky upstroke strums of dub and reggae. Inventive studio tricks add languid, ethereal atmosphere.
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Given the proliferation of year-end Top 10 lists, it seems natural that Shadow Classics — which gives shelter to under-appreciated music — would feature its own list of 2006 recordings likely to become Shadow Classics down the line. Don't let these gems go unnoticed.
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As music director of Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR's Ned Wharton supervises music continuity for the show and keeps tabs on what's new and noteworthy in the music world. He looks at a pair of CDs designed to be appreciated with visual components.
()The latest invention from Bill Frisell; the experimental folk of Calexico; a mysterious soundtrack by Eric Bachmann; a new take on Chinese classics from Gary Lucas; the strange and beautiful Cat Power; jaw-dropping guitar work of Danny Gatton.
()As NPR covered the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, it was music that gave listeners time to reflect, to digest the events and the impact. So many letters came to NPR telling us how comforted they were by the music. In this special feature, we offer some of those songs, along with images from events following the attacks.
()Gustavo Santaolalla, Giovanni De Chiaro, Medeski Martin and Wood, Knut Hamre and Steve Tibbetts, Paul McCartney, Kaila Flexer, Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues, Wimme, Bill Frisell, The Beau Hunks Sextette, and The Cowboy Junkies.
()They call themselves The Monsters Of Folk: Jim James, frontman for the band My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, and singer-guitarist M. Ward. Also on the show: Jim James has recorded a solo tribute album to George Harrison; Swedish singer Kristian Matsson, a.k.a. The Tallest Man On Earth; John Davis, formerly of the band Georgie James, has a new project called Title Tracks; Phil Elverum of The Microphones returns with a new band he's calling Mount Eerie; guitarist Bill Frisell composes new music for a series of rural photographs from the 1920s; and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
()In "Engine of Ruin," Earth plods through noir-Americana like outlaw jazz improvisers on their way to collect a bounty. The instrumental, desert-swept narrative sounds hauntingly evocative, but it's the thick, foreboding tone of a rusty Telecaster that links Earth's doom-laden discography.
()In Floratone's "The Passenger," Bill Frisell's guitar sits front and center, teasing out references to gritty desert rock, Spaghetti Western soundtracks and even the slinky upstroke strums of dub and reggae. Inventive studio tricks add languid, ethereal atmosphere.
()Lyric soprano Renée Fleming is a familiar face on the world's greatest opera stages, but on her latest CD, Haunted Heart, she makes a leap to the worlds of jazz, pop and folk. She talks with NPR's Fred Child about her foray into non-operatic territory.
()Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews I Have The Room Above Her by the Paul Motian/Bill Frisell/Joe Lovano trio.
()As music director of Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR's Ned Wharton supervises music continuity for the show and keeps tabs on what's new and noteworthy in the music world. He looks at a pair of CDs designed to be appreciated with visual components.
()Tom Moon takes a listen to a series of CDs released by the German label ECM. The series is a retrospective look at the label's best-known artists, such as pianist Keith Jarrett, saxophonist Jan Garbarek and guitarist Bill Frisell. The series is called Rarum.
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