Written by In February Guitarist Bill Frisell will play a short 5 date tour of Europe with longtime comrades Tony Scherr (Bass) and Kenny Wollesen (Drums). The tour kicks off in the National Concert Hall, Dublin on February 21st before moving on to London, Piacenza (Italy), Ulm in Germany and concluding in Zurich at Moods on the 26th. For those not able to attend these concerts we will be streaming the entire concert at Moods live for our readers here on Jazz In Europe.
During summer 2016, Moods was renovated and equipped to be the first club in the world able to broadcast and stream the concerts in high definition with its own subscription video live-and-on-demand web platform. The facility features 10 full HD mobile cameras plus state-of-the-art broadcast studio. In June last year Jazz In Europe in partnership with Moods began broadcasting selected concerts free of charge to our readers. We’re thrilled to be able to broadcast Bill’s concert at Moods on the February 26th.
Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 40 years. During his career Bill has produced close to 35 albums as a leader and has appeared on more than 300 recordings by many of the worlds leading artists across many genres. The Wall Street Journal cited him as “the most innovative and influential jazz guitarist of the past 25 years” and DownBeat has awarded him “Best Guitarist” no fewer than 15 times in its annual critics poll.
While Bill is mostly considered a jazz guitarist his work reaches far beyond the limitations of genre successfully fusing a wide range of influences into a style and sound that is unique to Frisell. In a recent interview with Philip Watson published in The Irish Times Bill stated “for me, jazz is not so much a style as a way of thinking, a process of transforming what’s around you. What bothers me is when the word is used to describe some music that excludes something else; it’s like there are these rules that keep people apart. I’m just trying not to shut anything out.”
Bill Frisell trio live at Jazz Middelheim 2015
Born in Baltimore, Bill Frisell played the clarinet throughout his childhood in Denver, Colorado. His interest in guitar began with his exposure to pop music on the radio. Soon, the Chicago Blues became a passion through the work of Otis Rush, B.B. King, Paul Butterfield and Buddy Guy. Bill studied music at the University of Northern Colorado before attending Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied with John Damian, Herb Pomeroy and Michael Gibbs. In 1978, Frisell moved for a year to Belgium where he concentrated on writing music. In this period, he toured with Michael Gibbs and first recorded with German bassist Eberhard Weber. Bill moved to the New York City area in 1979 and stayed until 1989. He now lives in Seattle.
During his career Bill has produced a discography the is extensive and varied and documents the versatility that Bill is known for. Elvis Costello summed this up when he wrote “He is one of America’s most unique musicians . . . one of the great American voices,” For those that would like to explore Bill’s extensive discography there is a detailed description in chronological order here on Bill website.
On this tour, Bill will perform in a trio format with bass player Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen, two musicians Frisell has worked with for over 20 years and have featured in many of his myriad groups.
Bills Tour dates are as follows:
Feb 21, 2019 NATIONAL CONCERT HALL – Dublin, Ireland
Feb 23, 2019 JAZZ CAFE – London, England
Feb 24, 2019 PIACENZA JAZZ CLUB – Piacenza, Italy
Feb 25, 2019 STADTHAUS ULM – Ulm, Germany
Feb 26, 2019 MOODS – Zürich, Switzerland
The concert at Moods in Zurich will be broadcast live on Jazz In Europe. The concert stream will be available free of charge to our viewers and will start at 8 pm Zurich local time. Just simply click the banner below – it will take you directly to our Live concert streaming page with great information and our complimentary podcast all about Live concert streaming done the right way – the moods digital project…It’s a great introduction and insight on what happens to make this technology all possible…
Featured Image by Paul Moore – Trio photo by Maurits van Hout.
Last modified: April 25, 2020
