Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, the two-disc History, Mystery, is out today. The Financial Times gives it four stars, as does The Times, which finds it "hard to think of an electric guitarist who has explored so much musical territory and always claimed it as his own." The Independent names it Jazz Album of the Week, calling it "full of musical contrasts, rich textures, lengthening shadows, and unexpected turns" and "consistently engaging" with a closing guitar solo that's "just wonderful."
Bill Frisell's latest Nonesuch release, the two-disc History, Mystery, is out today. The Financial Times gives it four stars, saying "the austere drumbeats, plaintive strings and stark brass hang together brilliantly, welded by the leader's resonant guitar and cinematic vision." Reviewer Mike Hobart credits Bill's "off-kilter version of Americana" with having "the same delicacy, precision and grace as court music, though with bags more bite." To read the review, visit ft.com.
The Times (UK) also has a four-star review of the album, with John Bungey finding it "hard to think of an electric guitarist who has explored so much musical territory and always claimed it as his own," as Bill has. Bungey concludes:
Frisell's gently beautiful, wistfully offbeam scores predominate but there is a soulful cover of "A Change Is Going to Come." On "Struggle Part 2," his burning solo is a reminder that if someone gave him some tight trousers and a bad attitude, Frisell could even make a decent substitute for Keith Richards.
To read the review, visit entertainment.timesonline.co.uk.
The Boston Globe's Steve Greenlee echoes Bungey's evaluation, saying that "the coolest stuff" on the album includes Bill's "soul-jazz cover" of the Cooke tune "and a hot jazz-bebop hybrid version of Lee Konitz's 'Sub-Conscious Lee.'" The review can be found at boston.com.
The Independent names History, Mystery the Jazz Album of the Week, with the paper's Tim Cumming calling it "extraordinarily eclectic" delivered in "an all but seamless suite that's full of musical contrasts, rich textures, lengthening shadows, and unexpected turns." Cumming says "it's consistently engaging" with a closing guitar solo that's "just wonderful." His colleague Nick Coleman adds that on this collection, listeners will find the "Frisell who makes great soundtrack music; the one who rejoices in sieving the Hot Club de Paris out of Thelonious Monk." To read Coleman's review, visit independent.co.uk.
You can listen to Bill and his quintet's performance at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival from last Sunday, which first aired on BBC Radio 3's Jazz on 3 last Friday. It will be available online through Friday of this week at bbc.co.uk/radio3/jazzon3.
