Bill Frisell Interview by Ken Gallo of Meet the Composer Guitarist/Composer Bill Frisell Is Looking for That "Thing."
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Bill Frisell interview by Ken Gallo of Meet The Composer Guitarist/Composer Bill Frisell is looking for that "thing." He always has been. The quest started in high school with the clarinet, brought him to NYC in 1979, and passed through Nashville, Tennessee in 1996. He hasn't found it yet, and he probably never will. Why should he? Searching for it has made Mr. Frisell's eclectic career what it is today. That "thing" is what he believes is at the core of art, the layers of subtext behind what we see and hear. Mr. Frisell, who cemented his reputation as the "downtown" New York City avant- jazz guitarist in the late 1980s (most notably with John Zorn's Naked City) would have seemed quite out of place in Nashville, Tennessee, but it was there that he recorded one of his biggest triumphs: the critically acclaimed Nashville. Although recorded with many local country/bluegrass musicians, the recording, as with most of his work, is of an unidentifiable genre, just like Mr. Frisell himself. More recently, Mr. Frisell recorded The Willies (2002); a trio record with jazz legends Dave Holland (bass) and Elvin Jones (drums), Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones (2001); as a sideman on vocalist Norah Jones's Come Away With Me (2002); and scored music for films (including Wim Wenders' Million Dollar Hotel and Gus Van Zant's Finding Forrester). He was commissioned by Meet The Composer's Commissioning Music/USA 2002 for the multi-media suite Mysterio Sympatico, a collaboration with the "alternative" cartoonist/visual artist Jim Woodring (who has done the art work for the covers of Mr. Frisell's releases Gone Just Like a Train and Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones). "When we got together and worked on material for the show, I would listen to the compositional elements he came up with and draw what they inspired," explains Mr. Woodring. "I would then mention some very rudimentary ideas, scenes, objects, and moods and we went from there." Mysterio Sympatico previewed in June 2002 at Brooklyn's St. Ann's Center for Restoration and The Arts, and in July 2002 at the University of Washington. The Final project will be presented at St. Ann's in Summer 2003. We spoke with Mr. Frisell via phone from his home near Seattle. MTC: I read about this dream you had where you're in a library surrounded by little men in hoods. They show you colors and then they say something like "we know you're a musician…we are going to show you the essence of music." Could you explain? BF: Not really. (laughs) I can try though. In the dream I could hear this "thing." I don't know what is was. It was like I was hearing everything I had ever heard simultaneously. But, what would seem like confusion and noise was one crystal clear sound. MTC: What is music then? BF: I can't express it in words. It's all around really. We see it, we hear it, we speak it. For me it's my voice. When I play my guitar, I can say what I need to say. MTC: Are you constantly trying to find that sound? BF: (laughs) It's a struggle when you try to find the unreachable. It's weird. I can never finish anything. Whatever I achieve, there's always something just past it. I can never go far enough. That's what is amazing about being an artist. You spend your whole life just going and going, trying to find that "thing." MTC: One of your current projects is Mysterio Simpatico a collaboration with the artist/cartoonist Jim Woodring. What's your connection with Jim? BF: His work is really inspiring for me. Jim's trying to bring something to the surface that I can relate to, that "thing" I mentioned. It's what he's trying to express, not so much what you see on the page. Every time I write or play something, I'm trying to bring some of that vibe to my music. Jim's been successful at making it happen. MTC: When your trio split up (w/Kermit Driscoll on bass and Joey Baron on drums), how did it change your thinking about music? BF: It was a frightening time for me. I hadn't played my own music with anyone else to that point, but I had to jump off and see what would happen. I still play with them on occasion. A few weeks ago I played in Joey's band, at the Blue Note, with Ron Carter (bass) and Arthur Blythe (saxophone). MTC: What happened when you went to Nashville? BF: The Nashville record was more of a risk than anything I had done. I was scared. The musicians down there had a different language than me. Some didn't read music, so I couldn't use charts. I didn't know how it would turn out. As soon as we started playing though, it felt natural. It was a great experience. MTC: Before the record came out, were you concerned what your critics and fans would think? BF: One of the criticisms of the record was that I was "selling out" because the record was so unlike anything I had done; it didn't have some of the "noise" people were accustomed to from me. I tried not to think about it too much at the time, but I did anyway. I have a great situation with my record company (Nonesuch). As an artist, I'm able to document this path I'm on. Each record is a step. I hope my audience can follow my journey, even though I might travel in big circles to get somewhere. MTC: The Guitar is a major part of country/bluegrass music. How has collaborating with those players changed the way you look at the instrument? BF: I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what they're doing. I still can't play like Doc Watson (laughs). I'm thinking of my guitar as the vocal part when playing with those guys, who, for the most part, are accustomed to accompanying singers. MTC: Your body of work could be called "American Eclectic." Whether it's Nashville, your scores for Buster Keaton films, re-working Aaron Copland, Stephen Foster, or Madonna, you've been inspired by American culture to create music. How do you choose what to work on? BF: Part of it is the search for where I'm coming from as an artist. In High School, I listened to jazz, which is the backbone of everything I do. The more I got into it, the more I wanted to look back at its origin. I'm into finding the intersections in music between what is known and what isn't. Categorically, music is either black or white, country or blues, pop or rock…and so on. I'm interested in the music that can't be categorized. For example, sometimes, looking back at the history of American music, you can't say this is blues, this is country, this is bluegrass, this is jazz…you can't explain anything. I'm trying to bring that sort of mystery to my music. MTC: In the 80s you and other downtown musicians defined NYC avant-jazz. What was that scene like? BF: It was an exciting time in New York. There was all this new stuff going on. When the Knitting Factory opened, that became the center of it all. It was a place to play and hang out. It's easier to look back at it now. We weren't thinking about defining anything it at the time. We just wanted to make music. MTC: Assuming that Eric Clapton was a big influence, what was it like when you played with Ginger Baker on his trio recordings Falling Off the Roof and Going Back Home? (Mr. Baker was the drummer for the classic rock trio Cream, which featured guitarist Eric Clapton) BF: That was a trip. I think Ginger got off on my playing. There were a couple of moments when we played that I could hear this sound in my own playing that was influenced from hearing Cream as a kid. It was wild. That sound is in me somewhere. Some images courtesy of Jim Woodring .