Bill Frisell – Interview with Tom Reney

Bill Frisell, the musical polymath whose wide-ranging soundscape readily qualifies him for membership in my personal pantheon of artists who are, to borrow Duke Ellington’s encomium, “beyond category,” will be at MASS MoCA later this month for Solid Sound: Wilco’s Music and Arts Festival. On Friday, June 26, the guitarist’s quartet will play the score he composed for Bill Morrison’s movie, The Great Flood, which draws exclusively on original silent film footage of the epochal Mississippi River flood of 1927. Frisell calls Morrison’s critically acclaimed work, “impressionistic…poetic.” The following afternoon, Bill will play a duo concert with Sam Amodin, the Vermont-born guitarist, fiddler, and banjo player whom Pitchfork describes as an “experimental folkie.” (Complete details are at Solid Sound Festival.)

I enjoyed an hour-long conversation with Frisell on Wednesday, June 3. We discussed his score for The Great Flood; formative experiences in his hometown of Denver; the first time he saw B.B. King at Paul’s Mall in Boston; the profound impact that hearing Wes Montgomery’s Bumpin’ on Sunset had on his musical direction; our mutual friendship with the painter Charles Cajori (click here for my memorial tribute to Cajori); the concept of Americana; and Bill’s collaborations with Amodin and trumpeter Ron Miles.

Here’s the Tiny Desk Concert Bill and Sam played for NPR Music in December.

And here’s a delightful meeting between Frisell and John Pizzarelli, who play “Honeysuckle Rose” and “The Days of Wine and Roses,” and discuss the guitar players Bucky Pizzarelli, Carl Kress, and George Barnes.