Guitarist and composer Bill Frisell is a revered musician and Grammy winner whose career spans more than 35 years and 250 recordings, including over 40 of his own. Recognized as one of America's most vital and productive performing artists, Frisell is currently the Guest Curator for the Roots of Americana series at Jazz at Lincoln Center (NYC) and a Resident Artistic Director at SFJAZZ (San Francisco). The Wall Street Journal says, "Bill Frisell is the most innovative and influential jazz guitarist of the past 25 years." He is a 12-time Best Guitarist winner in the DownBeat Critics Poll (including 2013), a 4-time Guitarist of the Year at the Jazz Awards (including 2013) and has collaborated with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, McCoy Tyner, Bono, Jim Hall, T-Bone Burnett, Paul Motian, Lucinda Williams, John Zorn, Paul Simon, Charles Lloyd and many more.
Bill is available for the 2014/2015 performing arts season in two separate projects:
Brought together for Bill Frisell's acclaimed June 2013 release Big Sur, the band features some of Bill's most trusted musical peers including Eyvind Kang (viola), Hank Roberts (cello), Rudy Royston (drums) and Jenny Scheinman (violin). Big Sur, a completely original work inspired by the 90 mile coastal region in central California and specially commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival where it had its premier in 2012, blends Chamber Jazz, Country, Classical, Folk and Rock in Frisell's inimitable and idiosyncratic fashion. Downbeat calls the album "more than just a musical recording. It's a sonic novel - instrumental storytelling of the highest caliber delivered by an amazing storyteller."
Always on the lookout for opportunities to "dig around for where I'm coming from," Bill Frisell presents an homage to the instrumental popular music made "right at the birth of the Fender Telecaster guitar" that, he recalls, "got me super fired up" about his instrument of choice. Frisell is joined by fellow guitar master Greg Leisz on electric and pedal steel guitars, and his trio partners Tony Scherr on bass and Kenny Wollesen on drums. Together they will be exploring music of the electric guitar in the space age inspired by artists such as Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant, Charlie Christian, Merle Travis, Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Dick Dale, The Ventures, The Astronauts, The Wrecking Crew, The Beach Boys and more. As on all Frisell projects, the proceedings will be, he understates, "rich with possibility."
