MICHAEL GIBBS & NDR BIG BAND - Play A Bill Frisell Set List
Cuneiform Records RUNE 400
Recorded at the Überjazz Festival with NDR Big band on Oct 26, 2013
One way to listen to this album is the way that you listen to the Miles Davis and Gil Evans partnerships: carefully and with wonder. You are almost encouraged to do that, particularly in the way that one piece morphs into the next. The first three pieces are played without a break and, if possible, should be listened to in that way as Frisell slides gracefully though Gibbs’ arrangements creating links from one piece to the next occupying the spaces that Gibbs has created for him and the other soloists of this impressive jazz orchestra.
‘He went from being a hero to a friend’, claims Frisell about Gibbs. They were at Berklee together when Frisell was a student and Gibbs the tutor. They have worked together before in Germany and in England during the tour that Gibbs did ito celebrate his seventieth birthday, a tour that featured Frisell extensively . You can see the affinity: both men diffident, modest and softly spoken.
Frisell is not the first to blend blues, country and rock with jazz. He is the first to fuse them together with twenty first century improvisation, sound technology to give his guitar such unique Frisell sound.
With a partnership like this you have to decide who dominates…..if any one does. Frisell contributes nearly half the themes. He has such wide interests and sympathies that you feel he inhabits the pieces that he did not write. ‘Las Vegas Tango’ straight from the famous Gil Evans recording could have been written for Frisell and, undoubtedly this reading, and this playing, can take its place alongside the original. Frisell loves Americana and his sound comes straight from the desert surrounding that weird city.
Of course, with Gibbs, the writing is impressive from the spaciousness and wide rhythms of ‘Las Vegas Tango’ to the wrapped tight unisons of ‘Subconscious Lee’. Frisell contributes many of the other tunes. ‘On the Lookout’ has an almost Ornette simplicity to the theme.
‘Misterioso’ develops into a duet between Frisell and Jeff Ballard on drums.
'Monica Jane' by Frisell has an almost country feel; you can feel the spaces of the mid west. Fiete Felsch (soprano) improvises on the Lennon/McCartney ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ as the orchestra swings away underneath with all the finesse and astringency of Gibbs’ scoring.
Frisell leads the band into the joyful thirties feel of ‘Benny’s Bugle’. There is some euphoric unison playing and riffing from the band. There has always been a joyousness about Mike Gibbs’ work and it is clearly here: completely modern but in harmony with the past.
Finally, drummer Jeff Ballard dominates ‘Freddy’s Step’ taking the role that Joey Baron played on the Frisell album "Before We Were Born". It lasts for 3.21 and gives opportunities for some very concise soloing from the NDR saxes.
This is a unique venture from Frisell and Michael Gibbs. It was probably good for them both. It is certainly good for the listeners.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
Cuneiform Records RUNE 400
Recorded at the Überjazz Festival with NDR Big band on Oct 26, 2013
One way to listen to this album is the way that you listen to the Miles Davis and Gil Evans partnerships: carefully and with wonder. You are almost encouraged to do that, particularly in the way that one piece morphs into the next. The first three pieces are played without a break and, if possible, should be listened to in that way as Frisell slides gracefully though Gibbs’ arrangements creating links from one piece to the next occupying the spaces that Gibbs has created for him and the other soloists of this impressive jazz orchestra.
‘He went from being a hero to a friend’, claims Frisell about Gibbs. They were at Berklee together when Frisell was a student and Gibbs the tutor. They have worked together before in Germany and in England during the tour that Gibbs did ito celebrate his seventieth birthday, a tour that featured Frisell extensively . You can see the affinity: both men diffident, modest and softly spoken.
Frisell is not the first to blend blues, country and rock with jazz. He is the first to fuse them together with twenty first century improvisation, sound technology to give his guitar such unique Frisell sound.
With a partnership like this you have to decide who dominates…..if any one does. Frisell contributes nearly half the themes. He has such wide interests and sympathies that you feel he inhabits the pieces that he did not write. ‘Las Vegas Tango’ straight from the famous Gil Evans recording could have been written for Frisell and, undoubtedly this reading, and this playing, can take its place alongside the original. Frisell loves Americana and his sound comes straight from the desert surrounding that weird city.
Of course, with Gibbs, the writing is impressive from the spaciousness and wide rhythms of ‘Las Vegas Tango’ to the wrapped tight unisons of ‘Subconscious Lee’. Frisell contributes many of the other tunes. ‘On the Lookout’ has an almost Ornette simplicity to the theme.
‘Misterioso’ develops into a duet between Frisell and Jeff Ballard on drums.
'Monica Jane' by Frisell has an almost country feel; you can feel the spaces of the mid west. Fiete Felsch (soprano) improvises on the Lennon/McCartney ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ as the orchestra swings away underneath with all the finesse and astringency of Gibbs’ scoring.
Frisell leads the band into the joyful thirties feel of ‘Benny’s Bugle’. There is some euphoric unison playing and riffing from the band. There has always been a joyousness about Mike Gibbs’ work and it is clearly here: completely modern but in harmony with the past.
Finally, drummer Jeff Ballard dominates ‘Freddy’s Step’ taking the role that Joey Baron played on the Frisell album "Before We Were Born". It lasts for 3.21 and gives opportunities for some very concise soloing from the NDR saxes.
This is a unique venture from Frisell and Michael Gibbs. It was probably good for them both. It is certainly good for the listeners.
Reviewed by Jack Kenny
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