(Bill Frisell, elec. & acoustic guitars & loops; Ron Miles, cornet; Greg Tardy, tenor sax & clarinet; Jenny Scheinman, violin; Eyvind Kang, viola; Hank Roberts, cello, Tony Scherr, bass; Kenny Wollesen, drums)
Individualist guitarist Frisell has assembled an octet with a bunch of longtime collaborator-friends, and put together a theatrical-sounding series of 30 short pices that sound somthing like the soundtrack to a semi-experimental film. They are mostly in the semi-elegiac mood of much of his music, with a very creative dreamy quality about them. Many feature his guitar – which is not spotlit as the main instrument – in combination with violin and other strings – a style harking back to Django’s Hot Club of Paris with Thelonious Monk thrown in. In fact on the track Jackie-ing the ensemble really swings mightily.
Much of the material here came out of a multimedia collaboration with Jim Woodring, a Seattle artist – “Mysterio Sympatico.” Frisell’s influences seem to be roots music, jazz and chamber music in the classical style. While many are tracks only a few seconds long, the nearly nine-minute tracks stand out as highlights of the score. They include A Change Is Gonna Come, and Waltz for Baltimore. Who knows why Baltimore needs a waltz, but now it has one and it seems to fit. I was really wishing this was a surround SACD, but that’s just my personal bias. The music industry bean-counters are not going to give us that.
TrackList:
1. Imagination 1:51
2. Probability Cloud 4:46
3. Probability Cloud Pt. 2 1:01
4. Out of Body 2:27
5. Struggle 5:32
6. A Momentary Suspension of Doubt 0:38
7. Onward 1:38
8. Baba Drame 6:09
9. What We Need 1:37
10. A Change Is Gonna Come 8:49
11. Jackie-ing 2:55
12. Show Me 3:16
13. Boo and Scout 2:28
14. Struggle Pt. 2 6:26
15. Heal 1:41
16. Another Momentary Suspension of Doubt 0:37
17. Probability Cloud Reprise 1:36
18. Monroe 4:18
19. Lazy Robinson 2:18
20. Question #1 1:14
21. Answer #1 0:40
22. Faces 1:52
23. Sub-Conscious Lee 5:39
24. Monroe Part 2 1:52
25. Question #2 0:56
26. Lazy Robinson Part 2 3:17
27. What We Need Part 2 1:14
28. Waltz for Baltimore 8:47
29. Answer #2 1:50
30. Monroe Part 3
– John Henry
