The opening of the concert in the almost fully-occupied large hall of the Sudhaus was telling: Bill Frisell greeted the audience and first introduced his fellow musicians.
“Here is Thomas. Thomas Morgan on bass. And here is Rudy. Rudy Royston on drums.” That was all Bill Frisell said the entire evening. He is a quiet star, an introverted American in a lumberjack shirt, someone who doesn’t want to attract attention but wants to let his music do the talking.
That’s how the concert begins, although the guitar has to be tuned first. Very quietly, slowly, calmly, Frisell gives his guitar notes time to develop, they almost stand in the room and you get the feeling that he’s listening to them and then reacting to them.
The first songs are Frisell’s own compositions and one is by Thomas Morgan, then follows a mixture of standards from different genres.
Things get exciting with a jazzy version of the Bond song Goldfinger. The beautiful melody is extracted from this classic film music, on which the trio improvises ingeniously for minutes.
Frisell’s musical horizon is wide, he plays very personal interpretations of American traditionals such as the piece “Shenandoah”; in which he builds the most unlikely bridge between jazz and country. Hardly anyone has recorded a more beautiful homage to John Lennon than Frisell with the CD “All we are saying”, from which the band plays the piece “In my life”. Touching!
The individual pieces are connected to one another by improvised interludes, so that the trio plays for 70 minutes without announcement or breaks. The result is a kind of suite with different components, but with the central Godfinger motif.
The musicians weave melodies seamlessly together, creating a constant flow of sound images, one leading to the other. Individual well-known themes appear briefly and are immediately integrated back into the flowing stream. There is no set list, the accompanying musicians simply follow their master.
Bill Frisell is known for his gentle, floating tones, his tentative, reserved yet confident playing, which is why he was once called the “Gentle Guitar Giant”.
Bill Frisell, electric guitar
Thomas Morgan, acoustic bass
Rudy Royston, drums
This describes his playing style perfectly; he is not a man of rapid runs and power playing. Only briefly does it flash in the brewhouse that Frisell can also play a powerful tone; he is a master of the entire dynamic range that his instrument has.
The whole thing is carried by Thomas Morgan’s delicate bass playing, which usually plays around the guitar in a congenial way and does not need any big solos. Rudy Royston presented himself as an incredibly sensitive drummer. Rarely has one heard such multifaceted accompaniment work, but also beautifully powerful, rocky beats.
And so the concert almost becomes a suite of songs from different genres, held together by the great accompanying musicians and of course the jazzy guitar of Bill Frisell, the “power whisperer of jazz” (BR). The audience is enthusiastic and “persuades” the trio to give two wonderful encores.
Only here can Rudy Royston show off his class in a drum solo. An impressive concert by real experts!
