This long-awaited solo album from Bill Frisell, who has spent a considerable portion of his career collaborating with others, reflects just how far the guitarist has come since making his first recordings for ECM in the early 1980s. As a leader and sideman on more than 250 albums, Frisell has proven himself time and again to be an expert at engaging his fellow musicians in meaningful musical conversations and playful call-and-response. In short, he plays well, and often, with others—and that’s what makes his unaccompanied performances on Music IS so revealing. - DownBeat Editors' Pick

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REVIEW:

Since his debut recording 35 years ago, Bill Frisell has been remarkably prolific, resulting in 36 albums as a leader. On Music IS the guitarist re-examines some of his earlier works while showcasing five new compositions, all in an unaccompanied setting.

Frisell starts many tunes with an almost naive simplicity but gradually builds sonic cathedrals by using looped layers and gorgeously finessed chordal voicings; “Pretty Stars” and “Thankful” are examples of this approach. Another Frisell signature, the Monkian herky-jerky quirkiness in some of his rhythmic cadences, manifests on his sparse reworking of “Winslow Homer,” which he gradually builds up to a virtual guitar choir through overdubbing. “Change Is in the Air” is a fragile, chamber-like minor key lament that relies on multiple guitar tracks for lush effect. He makes judicious use of swirling loops and backwards effects on the somber “What Do You Want?” and the hypnotic “In Line” while the grunge element in Frisell’s playing rears its dissonant head on “Kentucky Derby.” Other intimate gems here include a haunting remake of the lonesome-sounding “Ron Carter,” an artful re-imagining of “Rambler,” and “Monica Jane,” a poignant ode to his daughter.

-- The Absolute Sound (Bill Milkowski, 8/2018)

Legendary jazz guitarist Bill Frisell's first release on OKeh Records, Big Sur, features all-new music commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival which premiered at their festival in 2012. While staying at the Glen Deven Ranch, Frisell was captivated by the beauty and grandeur of the Big Sur, California coastline which inspired him to write this transcendent new music. He is joined on the recording by the talented musicians of his Big Sur Quintet; Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Hank Roberts (cello) and Rudy Royston (drums).

2014 release, The Bad Plus' 10th studio recording and first collection of original material since 2012. INEVITABLE WESTERN continues the leaderless trio's committed belief in what they've dubbed avant-garde populism' the idea that serious music can be as engaging and accessible as it is forward-thinking and provocative. The album sees the group exploring the same set of aesthetic principles that fired their inception, a rigorous exploration of myriad musical forms born of Jazz but advanced using any sonic source material that forwards their own indefinable thing. The past 15 years have seen the genre-smashing band creating a distinctive and original repertoire of inventive and exciting original music, along with a series of iconoclastic covers of such divergent artists as Nirvana and Neil Young, Aphex Twin and Ornette Coleman.

On Slow Motion Miracles, Sachal delivers a full set of multilayered gems steeped in a variety of styles, including indie pop, hip-hop, electronic, Brazilian, Afro-beat, old-school jazz and new-styled jazz. The album is produced by Michael Leonhart, best known for his work with Steely Dan and its co-founder Michael Fagen. Slow Motion Miracles is Sachal's most accomplished recording as an artist.

For this 2014 album, GUITAR IN THE SPACE AGE, guitarist and composer Bill Frisell mines the catalog of guitar based music from the '50s and '60s that first inspired him to pick up the instrument. Joining Frisell for this album of musical memoriesare the members of his working trio, bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen, along with frequent collaborator Greg Leisz, a master of the lap and pedal steel guitars. This superb quartet explores the music of Pete Seeger, the Byrds, Junior Wells, Dick Dale, the Ventures, the Astronauts, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and others with Frisell's own compositions sprinkled in. The album offers a rare look into Frisell's formative influences, from a time when the electric guitar was in it's infancy and creating a startlingly new sound, pushing popular music into the future.

2016 holiday release. Kurt Elling's first holiday album, The Beautiful Day, is truly beautiful and festive in a swinging way! Elling sings these classic Christmas and popular holiday songs with an ease and confidence proving once more that he is the best jazz singer of our time. The first track, "Sing a Christmas Carol", swings lightly and gets you into the feel of the album and puts you in a jazzy holiday mood. Elling's versions of "We Three Kings" and "Same Old Lang Syne" exude cool as he makes these Christmas favorites truly his own. "Beautiful Day" is the perfect ending for an album that s destined to be a holiday jazz classic. Grammy winner Kurt Elling is among the world's foremost jazz vocalists. He won the DownBeat Critics Poll for fourteen consecutive years and was named Male Singer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association on eight occasions. An international jazz award winner, the New York Times declared, "Elling is the standout male vocalist of our time." The Washington Post added, "Since the mid-1990s no singer in jazz has been as daring, dynamic or interesting as Kurt Elling. He has come to embody the creative spirit in jazz."

This striking 2016 album from the Tunisian composer, singer, and oud player includes beaultiful melodies and heartfelt chanting over infectious grooves. Songs include "Fly Shadow Fly," "Diving in the Air," "Cheerful Meshuggah," "Delightfully Odd," "17th Flyways," "Of Beauty & Odd," and more.

This two-disc colllection features a selection of Nat King Cole songs, recorded by vocalist Hugh Coltman in live & studio settings. Disc one includes studio tracks, while disc two features many of the same tracks in a live setting, recorded at the Jazz à Vienne Festival. Tracks include "What'll I Do," Nature Boy," "Mona Lisa," "Are You Disenchanted," "Pretend," "Smile," "I Never Had a Chance," and more.