Cover Image: Bill Frisell Trio at the Regal Theatre. Credit Alan Holbrook

BILL FRISELL TRIO at the Regal Theatre, Subiaco
Perth International Jazz Festival (October 31)

Last week the much-admired US jazz guitarist, Bill Frisell came to town to play with his trio at the Regal Theatre in Subiaco. His appearance here coincided with the showing of a superb documentary by WA musician and film maker, Emma Franz: “Bill Frisell, A Portrait” . At the film’s end, Frisell appeared in person to generously address questions from the audience. It’s rare indeed to get such a profoundly rich experience of an artistic life as has been given us this past week, courtesy of the Perth International Jazz Festival and of course, Bill Frisell himself.

The documentary is now eight years old and has hitherto not featured here – a remarkable fact, given Franz is a Western Australian. It’s a truly breathtaking documentary with Franz having gone to the US on several occasions to document Frisell. She captured a variety of musical settings embracing free jazz, Americana and folk, neo-classical/orchestra, contemporary and of course, jazz itself. All meshed together with insightful reflections about life and music, the footage captures the brilliant and diverse support cast of fellow musicians Frisell coalesces with.

Frisell is a polymath of the jazz guitar whose influence extends well beyond that of the jazz idiom. A protégé of the late great Jim Hall, he shares Hall’s instincts for a spare, unhurried and intimately crafted sound. As he himself suggests, he plays much as he speaks – with gradual, slightly halting and measured tones. But, in truth, that description belies the whole, because his output is extraordinary, both in the range and idiom of players he has performed or recorded with. There’s also a vast number of rock and pop luminaries, including Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, Bono, Dr John, Lucinda Williams, Sting, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, Keith Richard… all of whom have publicly sung his praises. Then there are the labels he’s recorded on: ECM, Bluenote, Nonesuch, Okey, Savoy, Tzardik, Electra – hundreds of recordings if one takes all his sessions into account. In all, it’s a stunningly impressive CV.

The concert was opened by local jazz composer and director of the PIJF, Mace Francis, whose idea it was (along with Franz) to bring the Frisell Trio to Perth. After a brief Frisell introduction he, alongwith his bassist, Thomas Morgan and drummer, Rudy Royston began the concert in fertile Frisell terrain, Americana. His love of old American folk tunes and country ballads has been inspiration for numerous of his recordings. Here those vaguely familiar melodic echoes were stretched and reconfigured in subtle trio interplay. This is Frisell’s wheelhouse where nothing is overstated and everything is in a state of emergence – just a quiet beauty as the music unfolds.

And unfold it does, uninterrupted for nearly an hour as the trio wended into an ambling Afro-Caribbean dance, both genial and vibrant. It stands in sharp contrast to the quirky angularity of Thelonious Monk’s Epistrophy that follows. This is also the title of a duo album Frisell recorded with bassist, Morgan on the German ECM label. It’s a piece like much of Monk’s oeuvre that lends itself to being deconstructed. The interplay with Rudy Royston’s drumming is magical and fluid. Like Frisell, Royston eschews the bombastic in favour of a light touch and a deft rhythmic placement that is never overplayed.

The music takes an episodic meander, segueing into the richly melodic In My Life. It references another Frisell album dedicated the songs of John Lennon, from both inside and outside the Beatles. But it’s Morgan’s lithe long-limbed embrace of his double bass, as if shrouding a lover from public view, that enables him to span his instrument’s extremities with ease. It’s the same unhurried fluency shared by his colleagues that underpins this piece with his unimpeachable timing and intonation. Watching this trio reminds me of looking deep inside the mechanism of an old watch – all the parts moving independently with precision collective time, but also well-wornand much loved. Though perhaps more accurately with Royston’s drumming, it’s ‘precision elastic time’ because in truth, there is much flexibility in this watch’s movement.

Having listened to many jazz guitarists, Frisell is unlike most (with the exception perhaps of George Benson), in his unapologetic heart-on-the-sleeve melodicism. But here this trio’s covers have oblique twists and turns where Frisell’s subtle use of ecects pedals and looping creates fragmentary repeating motific and echoes of the melodies. It’s all part of Frisell’s deft touch, whilst greatly expanding his sound palette. So, it was no real surprise that he chose another popular tune for the trio’s encore: Carole King’s You’ve got a friend.

Maybe there was the expectation of more fireworks in the finale, but here the ending progressed much as the music preceding – a beautiful pastel-fade-to-grey, with the colours still lingering, floating on… And in the context of the night, this was an apt, memorable and so very Bill Frisell finale.