Preview: Bill Frisell

Part of Jazz Dock's three-night European Jazz Festival, Bill Frisell's upcoming appearance at Jazz Dock is likely to be the jazz highlight of the year.

An American guitarist and composer, Frisell last performed in Prague on Old Town Square in 2006, a great concert and an unforgettable event. At the beginning of the group's set, which was in the early evening, the audience was talking, seemingly oblivious to Frisell and his band.

Then the quintet turned away from the audience, forming a loose circle, and dug deep into their own introspective, yet interactive improvisation. Their eclectic and experimental use of effects and loops during melodious, meandering songs soared, and the audience gradually became silent-amazed by the dreamy sounds.

This time, Frisell returns to an appropriately intimate stage. He will be performing with his long-term collaborators, the 858 Quartet, violinist Jenny Scheinman, viola player Eyvind Kang, and cellist Hank Roberts. Essentially they are a traditional "European" string quartet, with Frisell on electric guitar, giving it a very playful, intriguing edge.

Roberts first recorded with Frisell in 1988, on Frisell's third and last album for ECM Records, Lookout for Hope. This is among Frisell's best recordings, for its melange of country-swing, sparks of metal and post-rock, all intertwined in expansive compositions by Frisell's inimitable guitar sound.

The 858 Quartet was formed in 2002, when the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art commissioned Frisell to compose music inspired by German artist Gerhard Richter's series of abstract paintings, "Series 858." Frisell regrouped the 858 Quartet only recently for a recording on Fantasy Records, their second recording in five years. Sign of Life was just released this past April 2011.

With his own unmistakable sound and penchant for creating sonic landscapes ideal for films, and with some resemblance to the guitarist Ry Cooder, Frisell is not solely a jazz guitarist. His influences range from American roots music to rock and minimalism. Frisell also doesn't command the stage like a modern-day jazz guitar-hero, displaying solo after solo or a frantic speed on the frets; on the contrary, he may be the most gentle and overly modest virtuoso guitarist around.    

When Frisell isn't leading his own groups, he keeps fine company, playing with the Paul Motian Trio, which he joined in the 1980s when he was living in New York. Frisell also has his own trio with Paul Motian on drums and the legendary contra-bassist Ron Carter.

Frisell's collaborations with John Zorn include avant-garde-orchestral sessions playing the music of Ennio Morricone and a brief stint in Zorn's noise-punk-metal project, Naked City. He has also recorded collaborations with the veteran jazz guitarist Jim Hall, with whom he studied privately in the early '70s, before he went on to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston from the mid- to late '70s.

During his time at Berklee, Frisell became friends with the young Czech pianist Emil Viklický, who was also a student there. A rare recording from this period has resurfaced, including Viklický on electric piano with fellow Berklee students Bill Frisell, electric bassist Kermit Driscoll and Vinton Johnson on drums, playing a Jan Hammer-inspired funky-fusion jazz.

These sessions were recorded in Prague in the summer of 1979, when Frisell and the other Americans came to visit Viklický, and their tracks were released on two albums by Supraphon Records. Some of these have been re-released as The Funky Way of Emil Viklický on the Italian label Vampisoul (2009).  

In 1988, Frisell moved to Seattle with his wife and baby daughter, seemingly leaving his most coveted downtown New York collaborators behind. However, his musical journey only seems to have taken off into more interesting directions, and the laurels just keep coming: his 2003 recording The Intercontinentals was nominated for a Grammy Award, and he won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album for his 2005 release Unspeakable. His 2008 release History, Mystery was nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

For his concert in Prague with the 858 Quartet, Frisell will recall Americana roots music, bringing to the fore his appreciation of country, bluegrass, blues and even classical music. A playful improvisation combined with arrangements turned on their head, as well as a comfortable group dynamic; these are key to this group's sound. Frisell, as usual, is free to wander.

Most would agree that a former native of Seattle, Jimi Hendrix, is the reigning king of rock guitarists. Frisell has thus chosen an appropriate city for his home. Frisell, like Hendrix, has been influenced by the blues and '60s and '70s soul music, combined with classic jazz and all the various shades of American roots music, but his spacey, ever-adventurous sound transcends these genres into a category all its own.

Tony Ozuna can be reached at
features@praguepost.com