Bill Frisell: A Portrait

I had this incredible dream.

There were these little elf-looking guys.

They would show me colours, and it was like the most intense--

like I'd never seen red that looked like that.

It was just so deep and true to what red was.

And then they said, well, we know you're a musician,

so we'd like you to hear what real music sounds like.

So they made this music happen that was

like everything I'd ever heard in my life happening

simultaneously, just traveling like a stream through my brain.

It was just so clear and easy to understand.

It sort of gave me a little bit of an idea

of what to strive for, or to try for or something.

[ORCHESTRA MANAGER CLAPPING TO SILENCE

ORCHESTRA]

Thanks, folks.

Before we start, it's a great pleasure

to welcome MIke Gibbs and Bill Frisell.

He's a unifying force among so many different musicians.

I don't know that many people in as wide a range of styles

of music that have as much respect

for anyone as they do for Bill.

He's universally loved.

Every day I wake up and I start playing,

and I try to make some kind of progress.

It's just such a long, slow process

taking these tiny steps, tiny increments along the way.

Well I'm a fan of Bill Frisell's music

for a lot of reasons.

But mostly, it's his sense of tone,

and the way he mixes colour.

Different forms of music that he combines--

world music, a unique kind of Americana that's

really Bill Frisell, and of course he's

a great modern jazz player.

The dozens and dozens of times I've

worked with Bill, whatever it is, on one of his records,

the vendors thing with Bono, Brian Eno, Lou Reed or Keith

Richards, Elvis Costello, Dr. John, Marianne Faithful, David

Sanborn, Gus Van Sant, Sting.

He just makes everything better and takes it

to a whole other level of complete heaven.

It's like the angels join the session.

I'm afraid to look up Bill's discography.

It will be just endless people.

All of us, you won't find one person

that have a bad word about him, that doesn't admire him.

Not one!

I mean, I don't know anyone else I can say that about.

I mean, period.

That's a fact.

He's perhaps had one of the loudest

impacts on creative guitar, not just jazz guitar.

His impact on the landscape of creative music,

not just guitar music, is incalculable.

There was a time in the '80s, but certainly

in the early '90s, where Bill's influence seemed

very widespread.

And I was hearing lots of guitar players, and very good ones,

but at whom I could point my finger and say, Ah!

You know, I hear Bill in you.

And I won't mention any names, quite a few of them

live in New York City, but they're everywhere.

The trebbly tone, I started hearing all over the place.

And this kind of also, shall we say, natural chorusing that you

get from slightly bending the guitar neck,

also people started doing with either by bending the neck

or with the tremolo arm of their guitar.

And I found myself doing it too.

I still find myself doing it.

I think Bill, however, cemented it

in the ear of the jazz aficionado or the guitar

enthusiast.

This is drawn with that pen.

Inked with it, rather.

Drawn in pencil, inked with pen.

This took me about two days to ink because it goes so slow.

Just to be able to change the scale that you're

working in so drastically.

This is not a prop.

This nib here was made by a Seattle craftsman,

and the body of it was made in a sheet metal fabricators place.

And then this hole was cut by a jeweler.

And then this engraving was done by a guy

who engraved gun mechanisms.

And then these studs were welded on by a welder.

And then it was all brass plated.

Well to go from this kind of a scale with a--

This just takes a lot longer.

['FRANK' CARTOON, 'WHIMGRINDER' BY JIM WOODRING]--

You were already a local celebrity.

You had a name.

I had heard of you, but I hadn't heard your music.

And then when I did hear it, I was

afraid to actually talk to you in person,

because it was like meeting Einstein or Albert Schweitzer

or somebody.

I just didn't really feel I could

hold my own in a conversation with somebody

of your abilities.

It would be a mistake to muddy up what

you do with a lot of words.

Well, I think that's why we hooked up,

because there's so few people where

you don't have to try to--

as I'm struggling now to find some kind of words

to talk about.

Yeah, you know we never really have

discussed what it all means.

We just speak about it real quietly

and vaguely like we don't want to disturb it.

Don't want to break the spell.

[FROGS' CARTOONS BY JIM WOODRING]

[QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING - MYSTERIOSO - BY BILL FRISELL]

Which I think is good, because you know, if you something

you can kind of wreck something by throwing too much

light on it, I think.

Or trying Or by trying to categorize it

and putting it to words it can change

the way you think about it, and the way other people

think about it.

[FROGS' CARTOONS BY JIM WOODRING]

[QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING - MYSTERIOSO - BY BILL FRISELL]

Being naive, for me, is it seems like the best things I do

are the things I do before I figure out what they actually

are, you know.

Something will come out, something will appear to me.

I'll get at something, when I'm more in a state of not knowing

what I'm doing.

And then once I figure it out, I learn about it.

It's sorta like, oh man, you know,

I have to get onto the next thing that I don't know about.

[FROGS' CARTOONS BY JIM WOODRING]

[QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING - MYSTERIOSO - BY BILL FRISELL]

Every time I try to pin it down with words

or descriptions, it limits what the thing actually is,

'cause it's not-- that's not what it is.

There's an expression in the music or even--

I mean as a same--

That's what I believe, is drawing, and music,

and painting it comes from the same instinct

we have to do these things.

And we wouldn't do it if we could just talk about it.

And it would say everything we needed to know.

So just by putting words to it, it

sort of blocks some of the possibilities of what

it could mean for people.

And each person that hears my music or each person that

looks at your stories or your drawings,

it's going to resonate with a different part of them.

There's no way I can control that.

I just have to put it out there and then every person

hears something different and I mean I'm sure

there's some kind of universal--

we have something in common, but everyone has their own history.

And different things are going to resonate at different times

with different people.

[FROGS' CARTOONS BY JIM WOODRING]

[QUIRKY MUSIC PLAYING - MYSTERIOSO - BY BILL FRISELL]

Oh no, before I go in there.

There's another painted guitar.

Another friend of mine, who made that painting Claude Uttley,

and I also have a lot of his artwork.

He did one of my album covers.

This is another kind of far out guitar.

He did this.

I'm drooling on my guitar.

Did you get that?

Oh man.

I just love it so much.

It's weird playing all these, 'cause it just makes me wanna--

I wish I could have them all with me all the time

but you can only play one at a time.

So I don't know.

Do you want to see some more?

What's in the closet?

So I have to open the closet.

Oh boy.

Yeah, this was-- I was hesitant to show you this,

because there's a lot of guitars in here.

Umm-- Oh dear, what should I do?

You know I'm showing you all these instruments

and sometimes I feel like there's

too much attention put on the whatever the instrument is,

and the effects and the pedals and--

I mean I think it's--

The sound has to be in your imagination first,

and then you figure out a way to get it to come out.

I mean I like to experiment.

You know, I'll just turn on something

or I'll grab something and just see what it sounds like.

I mean, that's certainly a valid thing,

but I think what draws me to it is something in my imagination

that I'm trying to get at.

One thing leads to another.

And then every time I see 'em, you know, when I see it,

it makes me want to play.

Like, but I just can't play them all at the same time.