BILL FRISELL
Unspeakable
Nonesuch Records
· Bill Frisell goes jazz.
Bill Frisell has made a long, prolific career out of doing unexpected (if not downright obtuse) collaborations. One of his closest brushes with mainstream approval was 2002’s The Intercontinentals, a moody and low-key blues affair. There was another collaboration last year with punk-classical sweetie Petra Haden, but Unspeakable is a Frisell love affair with stringed things and avant-garde jazz. Yes, folks, he’s gone and made an entirely instrumental album.
The good news is that when Frisell makes any sort of album at all, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be of the highest quality and feature some of the best musicians. He’s an impeccable studio musician and collaborates more unexpectedly, and to better effect, than anybody in jazz music today.
Unspeakable is a moody and haunting album, with such obscurely-named tracks as "1968" and "Gregory C." that Frisell noodles softly and improvisationally for up to seven minutes. While he was thumbing his nose at the mainstream, Frisell decided to go all the way, and has included several experimental tracks, including the atonally brilliant "Stringbean" and "Hymn for Ginsberg." There’s a funky and weird James-Bond-meets-Calexico number called "Alias" and a lounge-a-riffic track called "Who Was That Girl," just to mix it up some more. He’s brought in an avant-garde string trio named 858 Strings, and they add eerie cello and viola sounds to complement Frisell’s fuzzed-out guitars, the James Brown-sharp horn backup and the drum loops circling underneath everything. The total effect is unspeakably good and the production values are brilliant to the point of invisibility (the best kind of production there is).
This isn’t an album for everybody, but if you love all things stringed and have a healthy taste for the odd, you might find Unspeakable hitting a spot you didn’t even know you had.
|
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.