Bill Frisell
Big Sur
OKeh **** RECOMMENDED
Think Big Sur and in the 1990s that meant in terms of jazz only one name: Charles Lloyd. Bill Frisell’s latest, more than 20 years on from the hippie jazz legend’s Notes From Big Sur, has its roots in a Monterey Jazz Festival commission, and was written while the influential guitarist was based on the sprawling Glen Deven Ranch in California west of the Ventana Wilderness in northern Big Sur. Frisell and Lloyd were of course not the first musicians or writers to find inspiration in Big Sur. Jack Kerouac made his way there, as famously did gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson as well as a host of New Age mystics and artists of every persuasion since the 1960s. For Frisell the solitude and scenery of his surroundings dug deep, but there is a warmth and feeling of community here, not a sense of isolation, on these 19 fairly short compositions. Beyond Americana, joining Frisell are long term violinist Jenny Scheinman, viola player Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts, and drummer Rudy Royston, and highlights of a highly endearing but thought-provoking album include the hippie, hippie shake hoedown of ‘The Big One’; the lovely strings setting on ‘Gather Good Things Part 1 and 2’; a certain indefinable rural charm on ‘Cry Alone’; and ‘We All Love Neil Young’ because of its naivety and humanity, and also just for the title. Frisell’s beautifully shaped guitar lines in the early part of ‘Far Away’ are also a small reminder of exactly why he’s a guitar great. MB
Released on 3 June. Apply for returns for the Meltdown show http://meltdown.southbankcentre.co.uk