Bill Frisell is an American guitarist, composer and arranger from Baltimore, Maryland, born in 1951. He is associated with contemporary jazz, jazz, jazz fusion and folk, and his work spans instrumental, avant-garde and Americana-influenced settings.

Career

Frisell comes to prominence in jazz from the late 1980s, after establishing himself as a player connected with ECM Records. He studies clarinet as a youth in Denver, Colorado, attends Denver East High School, studies music at the University of Northern Colorado, and later studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. His teachers include Richard Joiner, Dale Bruning, Johnny Smith, Jon Damian and Jim Hall.

His first major break comes when Pat Metheny cannot make a recording session and recommends him to Paul Motian for the ECM recording Psalm. Frisell becomes a regular ECM player and appears on several recordings, including Jan Garbarek’s Paths, Prints. He also develops a long partnership with John Zorn in New York’s downtown scene and becomes a member of the band Naked City.

Ensembles and collaborators

Frisell is a longtime member of Paul Motian’s groups, working with Motian from the early 1980s until Motian’s death in 2011, and also plays in Motian’s trio with saxophonist Joe Lovano. His first widely praised group is a quartet with Kermit Driscoll on bass, Joey Baron on drums and Hank Roberts on cello, later reduced to a trio after Roberts leaves. He also performs and records with a wide range of musicians in different contexts, including Andrew Cyrille Quartet, Buddy Miller’s Majestic Silver Strings, Charles Lloyd & the Marvels, Ginger Baker Trio, Gnostic Trio, Harmony, MDH Band, The Atlantic Drifters, The Bill Frisell Band and Paul Motian Quintet.

Other collaborators named across his career include Arild Andersen, Douglas September, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Gary Larson, Vinicius Cantuária, Matt Chamberlain, Tucker Martine, Lee Townsend, Jenny Scheinman, Greg Leisz, Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen.

Style and key recordings

From 2000 onwards, Frisell’s solo work places more emphasis on folk, country music and Americana. Earlier releases include In Line, his first solo album, featuring solo guitar and duets with Arild Andersen. In the early 1990s he makes two notable albums: Have a Little Faith, a broad survey of American song and composition, and This Land, a companion set of original pieces. He later expands the country and bluegrass elements in his music and records material for the television version of The Far Side, issued alongside music for Buster Keaton’s Convict 13 on Quartet.

His songs Over the Rainbow and Coffaro’s Theme feature in Finding Forrester. He is also commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose Blues Dream, which he later records for release.

Projects, awards and releases

Frisell and Lee Townsend organise the concert series Century of Song for the RuhrTriennale between 2003 and 2005, inviting artists such as Rickie Lee Jones, Elvis Costello, Suzanne Vega, Arto Lindsay, Loudon Wainwright III, Vic Chesnutt, Van Dyke Parks, Buddy Miller, Ron Sexsmith and Chip Taylor to perform songs in new arrangements.

His album The Intercontinentals receives a Grammy nomination in 2003, and Unspeakable wins the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2005. History, Mystery is later nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group. He also serves as a judge for the Independent Music Awards.

Frisell forms Floratone with Matt Chamberlain, Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend, and the group releases an album on Blue Note with guest appearances by Viktor Krauss, Ron Miles and Eyvind Kang. He works with the Savoy Jazz label in 2010, releases Beautiful Dreamers and Sign of Life, records Lágrimas Mexicanas with Vinicius Cantuária on E1, and issues All We Are Saying, a set of interpretations of John Lennon songs. His label Friz-Tone Music is also associated with his output.

Later activity

Frisell lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, near Seattle. In addition to his jazz work, he appears as a featured guest on Earth’s The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull and records a duet version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” with Sam Shrieve.