Music Time was when the prospect of a jazz soloist playing with a full symphony orchestra struck fear into the jazz-loving breast. Even now, authentic mergers of jazz and orchestral music are rare and somewhat experimental. The best of them use the textured splendours of the symphony to elaborate the in-the-moment quirks of a strong-minded jazz musician into a compositional whole.
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| Quirky clarity: Bill Frisell |
Frisell has fashioned the byways and backwaters of US culture into a musical style that has almost become a genre in its own right. Panoramic and evocative, his cocktail of jazz warmth, country whine and the echoing throb of jukebox rhythm-and-blues conjures images from the underbelly of American life. It is a vision that he never fails to coax from the many ensembles he works with.
Recent projects include a homage to John Lennon, multimedia presentations on the silent movies of Buster Keaton and the photographer Mike Disfarmer, and a duo with veteran jazz guitarist Jim Hall. He is now on a European tour with his 858 Quartet, put together in 2001 to record music for inclusion in a book of paintings by Gerhard Richter (the German artist names his paintings numerically; “858” is one of them). But, Frisell explains on the phone from Vienna, “the music still kept evolving until now it has taken on a life of its own”.
Frisell emphasises the organic nature of his work and the contributions of those around him. “I have been so fortunate with this ever-growing circle of people that I can play with, who all know my music,” he says. “You can follow a thread through all my projects. Someone in one project will be in another. They are all related somehow.” And for Frisell, this is good medicine. “Even with the same group from night to night, I don’t ever want it to really be the same.”
This is built into Frisell’s compositional method. “Sometimes I do write out things, and this can be very specific, but somehow they start having a life of their own. I’m hoping for that. I can write something in three or four parts, and everyone will look at the same thing, but we’re all free to choose.”
Even his trademark Americana is investigative rather than documentarian. “I grew up in the middle of that country,” he explains. “And the older I get, I guess I keep looking back trying to figure out where I come from and why.” This, he says, feeds into the music. “But I don’t really think about it, I become aware of things after the fact, when someone brings it to my attention.”
He has played with orchestras before, “but usually this is what other people have written”. With long-term collaborator Mike Gibbs writing the orchestration for this event, the omens are good that Frisell’s group ethic and spontaneity will transfer to a larger canvas. Gibbs, says Frisell, was “one of the first people to let me be myself”.
Gibbs, meanwhile, calls Frisell’s music “an ever-evolving collage”, with a core repertoire spread over six to eight ensembles and “room for a lot of spontaneity”. Though he is not “looking to make the orchestra improvise”, he is treating it as though it is one member of one of Frisell’s groups; roles will be swapped and techniques shared. And to make sure proceedings don’t become too pre-ordained, Gibbs is bringing in drummer Joey Baron, a long-term Frisell colleague, as a free spirit with a roaming commission. “Joey will have no [musical] part other than ‘this is what Bill is doing’. I needed a loose, unwritten element.”
For Paul Hughes, the BBCSO’s general manager, too many jazz and symphony collaborations are “tokenistic and not very effective”. But this one promises to be different. Frisell’s leanness of line has been likened to the work of Miles Davis, in which case Gibbs may be to Frisell what arranger Gil Evans was to Davis – and Hughes has found his guarantee of the genuine article.
Bill Frisell, Mike Gibbs and the BBCSO will appear at the Barbican next Thursday, in a concert to be broadcast on Radio 3 on November 24
