Part One: Melody
Focuses on single note soloing. Learn how to effortlessly solo through complex chord changes.
Bill Frisell
Born in Baltimore, Frisell grew
up in Denver, CO. He began playing the clarinet in the fourth grade. Frisell
took up guitar a few years later for his personal amusement. He continued
with the clarinet, playing in school concert and marching bands. Frisell
briefly considered playing classical clarinet professionally. He played
guitar in rock and R&B bands as a teenager (high school classmates
included Philip Bailey, Andrew Woolfork, and Larry Dunn, future members
of the funk group Earth, Wind, and Fire). He discovered jazz in the music
of Wes Montgomery, and began to study the music. Dale Bruning, a Denver-based
guitarist and educator, fed his fascination with jazz. Frisell decided
to make guitar his primary instrument. After briefly attending the University
of Northern Colorado, he moved to Boston in 1971 to attend the Berklee
School of Music. There he studied with Michael Gibbs and John Damian.
While at Berklee, Frisell connected with other like-minded players (Pat
Metheny was a classmate). He also studied with Jim Hall, who became an
important influence, especially in terms of harmony. In the mid-'70s,
Frisell began moving away from pure bebop and began fusing jazz with his
other musical interests. At about this time he began developing his atmospheric,
quasi-mictrotonal style. He discovered that, by using a guitar with a
flexible neck, he could manipulate the instrument's intonation.
A combination of experimental techniques and signal processors like delay
and reverb gave Frisell a sound unlike any other guitarist. In the late
'70s he traveled to Belgium. There he met Manfred Eicher, the founder
of ECM Records. Beginning in the early '80s, Frisell recorded prolifically
for the label, as leader and sideman with such musicians as Paul Motian
and Jan Garbarek. He continued with the label throughout the decade, earning
a reputation as ECM's "house guitarist." Frisell became much
acclaimed by critics for his sophisticated yet accessible work. Frisell
moved to New York in the '80s, where he worked with many of the most creative
musicians active on the city's "downtown" jazz scene. In the
'80s and '90s he would record and perform with a huge variety of artists,
not all of them jazz musicians. Collaborators would include rock and pop
musicians (drummer Ginger Baker, singers Marianne Faithfull and Elvis
Costello), experimental jazz musicians (saxophonist/composers John Zorn
and Tim Berne), and at least one classical composer (Gavin Bryars). Frisell
composed soundtracks for the silent films of Buster Keaton. His 1996 album
Quartet won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the German equivalent of
the Grammy.
Frisell became an annual winner of various magazine polls for his solo
work and recordings. By the end of the '90s, Frisell was one of the most
well-known jazz musicians in the world, with an audience and an aesthetic
that transcended the boundaries of any given style. It should be mentioned
that, while Frisell is best known for his somewhat "ambient"
guitar technique, he is a swinging, harmonically fluent jazz player when
the occasion warrants. Frisell moved to Seattle, WA, in 1989, where he
lives as of this writing.
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