Bill Frisell, the veteran American jazzman dubhed the Gtark Kent of the electricguitar, is preparing a rare treat for the music lovers of Gork, writes Philip Watson

o post-punk singer-songwriter Gavin Fri-day, his music'has thisgreat eclectic ambi-

essencealmost, that merges into any-thing from blues to iazz tocountry to acoustic". To uadi-tional Irish fiddle player Martin

been inspired by a diverse rangeof forms, from bluegrass topop, blues toWestAfrican, rootsto classical. This time last yearhe released AII We Are Sayrng,

an album of imaginativeinterpretations of the songs ofJohn Lennon.

"l'm actually fine with being

day concert at NewYork's Carn-egie Hall, at the end of whichShane MacGowan grabbed Fri-sellt guitar and played it loudly,upside down.

"On that night, we went fromLou Reed to Courtrney Love toRufus Wainwright to AntonyHegarty to U2," says Friday.

big part of whatever there isof American music, and Irishmusic seems extraordinarilybeautiftrl and emotional, andheavy and happy - it's goteverything you need in there,"he says, by phone from Seattle.

"And I've played with Bonoand U2 - I mean, thatt Irish,

Hayes, "het beyond genre -he's created his own music, anelemental area where mood andfeeling always happen". For thegreat English-bom iazz pianistMarian McPartland,'it's easy tounderstand why everyone loveshim - his music is all very tune-fi.r], and a lot of fun to listen to".

Unless youre a dedicated

iazz-head, Biil Frisell may beth€ greatest musician you'venever heard of. Over a period of55 years and more than 250recordings, the 6l-year-oldAmerican guitarist and com-poser has established himselfas one of the most pioneeringand panoramic musicians atwork today.

Frisell was lauded by TheWall Street Ioumal as 'one ofthe most innovative and influen-nal iazz guitarists of the past25 years". He is certainly asensitive and consummateimproviser, who has workedwith many iazz greats. However,his reach and dedicated follow-ing goes far beyond the freeformyet sometimes introspectiveborders of iazz. Adopting anadmirably ambitious approachto music, Frisell's proiecs have

described as'a iazz guitarist',and I respect that and there'scertainly plenty to do wi&in thatform," says Frissell, who willperform a live originat filmsoundtrackwith his band on theopening night of the CoronaCork Film Festival.

"Itt lust that when I thinkabout some of the peoplewho've inspired me - Theloni-ous Monk, Sonny Rollins andMiles Davis - for me iazz is notso much a style as a way ofthinking, a process of nans-forming what's around you.

What bothers me is when theword used to describe somemusic excludes something else;it's like there are rules that keeppeople apart. I'm trying not toshut anything out."

It's a conviaion shared bymany of the multi-directionalmusicians with whom Frisellhas played. Friday has exploreda wide variety of music, fromalt-rock to fiIm soundtracks tocabaret, as well as acting andpainting. Frisell played onFriday's debut solo album in1989, and was a member of thehouse band for the epic GavinFriday and Friends 50th birth-

"There are few musicians whocould handle that - and mybrain was on the floor the nextday- but Bill didnl even blink."

Hayes also has a broad rangeof perspectives, from iazz toearly music to contemporaryclassical, as well as a dislike of"any rigldity ofthought". Frisellwas his automatic choice whenit was suggested that Hayescollaborate with a musicianfrom another genre for a shorttour; Frisell, Hayes and guitaristDennis Cahill piayed three datesin Ireland lur2007.

"I was nervous at first, but Ifound him to be humble, good-humoured and courageous, andI savoured every minute of play-ing with him," says Hayes.'Notonly was it fascinating to experi-ence some of the freedom hecertainly has on stage, but Billtvery interested in the Americanfolk and country traditions, andhe likes melody. There wereconscious and unconsciousintersections with lrish music."

Frisell admits to not being"any kind of expert or scholar",and to having only a few Irishalbums. *Yet I know that Irish-American music is certainly a

right?" Indeed Frisell played onand composed tracks for thesoundtack produced by U2 forWim Wenderst film The MillionDollar Hotel.

"You can hear in those guyssome kind of core or soul of themusic," he says. "When I hear U2there's lal sound that goes all thewaybackto the earlyfiddle nrnesI've heard."

Frisell has forged other musicconnections with a fuzwgrange of similarly shape-shiftingmusicianS. For his 1997 acousticcountry-bluegrass album, Nash-ville, he played with members ofAlison Krauss's Union Stationband. Two years later he workedwith Elvis Costello and BurtBacharach on The SweetestPunch, which features Friselltensemble arangements for newsongs written by the duo. For his"world-fusion" album The Inter-continentals, he formed a bandmade up of a Malian peran-sionist, a Brazilian singer andguitarist, and a Greek oud andbouzouki player. "All the peopleI've had success playing withhavc an opcnness and a senseof loy in the music itself," hesays. 'There's no competition

7t&;:'r - .,'rtri

*{F'

going on; nobody's trying toshow the other what they know.Im trying to get a conversationgoing in the music."

Frisell is a shy, modest, polite,hesitant, gentle giant of a man.

II

1

can photographer Mike Dis-farmer and German painterGerhard Richter, created slap-stick scores for the silent filmsof Buster Keaton, and craftedsoundtracks for films by Gusvan Sant and television specialsby cartoonist Gary Larson. Yetthis is the first time he has

unique experience and a great

spectacie," says Mick Hannigan,the festival director. "Bill Morri-sont work is terrificaliy artisticand innovative; he works withthe texture of f,lm, with decay-ing iootage that often has itsown visual beauty. And Frisell isa great and prolific composer

and expressive on stagc. His j - r - r

finelvhoned music often.seems lllUSlC i0 De alllvefinely honed music often seems

Flis 6ft lin frame and roundbespectacled face led Spin mag-azine to dub him "the ClarkKent olthe electric guitar". He issoft-spoken and self-effacing -though rather more extrovert

to achieve the impossible: it is

at once accessibie and avant-garde. Frisell uses all manner ofpedals and effects to produceechoes, extensions, loops,reverbs and distortions. Hismusic can be tender, haunting,fluid, warm, violent and heart-breaking. It is like a ioumeythrough the American land-scape: mythic, wide-open, cine-matic, dream-like. "l'm lust uy-ing to use what I know and putmy own experience into whatI'm doing without limiting any-thing," Friselt once told GuitarPlaycr magazine. "For mc, musichas always been this worldwhere anything is possibie."

It is a musical language andsensibility weli suited to the pro-

iect he is bringrng to Cork. Fri-sell has been drawn to the visualarts on many occasions before

- he has written music inresponse to the work of Ameri-

'Just as it's thenatllre oi a riverto Cry up orflooci, lwant [i-t

and evolvingaii the time'

worked with a film-maker"fromthe ground up".

The Great Flood is a

75-minute suite in which Fri-sell's quartet plays shimmeringblues and oozy roots musicaccompanying archival imagesof thc devastating MississippiRiver flood of l927,reworked byrenowned {ilm-maker and artistBiIl Morrison. The film, which isdivided into titled chronologicalchapters, aftempts to provide afeel for a flood that displacedlm people, and to explore "theensuing transformation ofAmerican society and music".

'We think it's going to be a

whose music is generous to

musicians and audiences alike.There is also some wry arnuse-ment here that Cork has beensubiect to flooding itself."

Frisell stresses that the filmand music are not all about"death and destruction"; there is

resilience, rebirth, evenmoments .of black humour."Therc are set pieces and melo-dies but, just as itt the nature ofa river to dry up or flood, or tochange its course, I want themusic to be alive and evolvingall the time," he says.

"I cant really put the power olthis flood and the magnitude ofthis event and its effects intowords. It is just so gigantic.

Composing and playing musicis a way of getting sonethingout, ofsaying what I need to say.

Music is how I express myself,how I communicate with people,

much more than verbally. It's

where my real voice is, where Ireally say something, whereevery'thing makes sense."E

The Great Flood is at ihe CorkOpera llouse on Noaember 11 as

part of the Corona CorkFilmF estta al ( cor kfr lmfes t. org)