Harmony

Description

Acclaimed guitarist Bill Frisell makes his Blue Note Records debut with his newest project Harmony. Produced by his longtime collaborator Lee Townsend and recorded by Tucker Martine at Flora Recording in Portland, Oregon Harmony features Frisell with a wholly distinctive quartet comprising two longtime collaborators Petra Haden, voice; Hank Roberts, cello and voice plus a relative newcomer, Luke Bergman, on acoustic guitar, baritone guitar, bass and voice.

The result of a commission from the FreshGrass Music Festival, an organization dedicated to the vitality of contemporary American roots music, Harmony features new compositions, imaginatively reworked music from Frisells catalog and a typically sharp selection of jazz and Americana staples. Throughout, Hadens dreamlike, often wordless lead vocals and the trios quietly powerful harmonies grant Frisells music dimensions its never known before. Remarkably, the thoughtful beauty and evocative patience that mark his guitar playing are both smartly accented and greatly magnified.

Longtime fans will recognize Frisells ongoing calling to both honor the totality of American music and represent his personal history with integrity. If I think back throughout my whole life, all the music that Ive loved, he says, why cant it all be there at the same time? You can play a Bob Dylan song and you can play a standard song or a Charlie Parker song, and they can fit together. Why not? Theres no reason why you cant have Lush Life and Red River Valley on the same album. Theyre both beautiful songs.

Frisell had long wanted to match these particular talents and test the alchemy of this unique, drum-less configuration. Hovering between a chamber ensemble, small-group jazz and a classic American harmony group, the dynamic and sense of interplay here are organic and unmistakable not least between Frisell and Haden, who are essentially family. Petras father, the late bass champion Charlie Haden, was a mentor of sorts to Frisell, who played with Charlie in revered bands featuring the drummers Paul Motian and Ginger Baker. Frisell and Petra have developed their own sublime accord, which theyve showcased on projects like Frisells gracefully nostalgic 2016 album When You Wish Upon a Star.

Frisell, who does not sing, has worked with plenty of brilliant vocalists in the past, he points out. But Harmony is something altogether different, he explains. We premiered in San Francisco in 2016, Frisell says, and, kind of at the last minute, I thought, Wow, everybody sings. They sang a few things, and I was like, OK, now I think were really on to something.’