CD ECM Records Bill Frisell / Thomas Moran: Small Town

2017 -
Bill Frisell - chitara electrica
Thomas Moran - contrabas

Albumul surprinde duetul Bill Frisell + Thomas Moran inregistrati live la Village Vanguard, New Yorkse deschide cu un tribut superb de 11 minute adus lui Paul Motian ( "It Should Have Happened A Long Time Ago" - piesa compusa de Motian a fost inregistrata pe albumul omonim scos in varianta de trio Frisell - Motian - Lovano ).

AllAboutJazz :

"It's Frisell's first album for ECM as a leader/co-leader since 1988's Lookout for Hope; though, after a couple of decades of considerable activity as a guest on the label, he's begun to resurface in recent years on albums including Andrew Cyrille's unexpected (and excellent) 2016 ECM outing, The Declaration of Musical Independence, and pianist Stefano Bollani's wonderfully optimistic Joy in Spite of Everything (2014).

It's also the first time, at least in some time, that he can be seen with a Gibson semi-acoustic guitar in-hand rather than the solid body Fender (or Fender-like) guitars that have largely dominated his work in recent years (though he was seen similarly using a Gibson ES-335 at his mind-blowing "Bill Frisell Plays Lennon" show, from the 2012 TD Ottawa Jazz Festival). That said, Frisell demonstrates an unalterable truth about guitar...or any instrument, for that matter. Yes, his Gibson(s) lacks the intrinsic "twang" for which his Fenders have been so important on many of his roots/Americana-centric recordings. Still, from his very first note/chord on an eleven-minute exploration of Paul Motian's title track from It Should've Happened a Long Time Ago (ECM, 1985)—the former bandleader/drummer's first album to feature the trio that, with Frisell and saxophonist Joe Lovano, lasted over a quarter century before Motian's passing in 2011, and recently collected into one of the label's Old & New Masters reissue box sets—the sound—the everything—is unmistakably Frisell.

But, most importantly, Small Town represents the guitarist's first recorded encounter with Thomas Morgan in the intimate setting of a duo, the double bassist having first shown up on Frisell's film soundtrack homage, When You Wish Upon a Star (Okeh, 2016). As superb as When You Wish Upon a Star undeniably is, it's in the more naked, completely vulnerable environs of the duo—where the need for musical trust is, perhaps, at its most crucial—that the profound chemistry shared by these two thoroughly synchronized players becomes even clearer. "