(Photo by Monica Frisell).
After playing an extended, careening trio version of Bill Frisell’s original “Small Town” (recorded on the 2017 ECM duo record with Thomas Morgan), someone in the audience exclaimed “what just happened!?”, which pretty much sums up the energy of the night—risky, intimate, experimental Americana that kept you on the edge of your seat.
Frisell has recently relocated to New York, and began a week-long stint at the Vanguard last night with a somewhat new trio (they haven’t put a record out yet), but the show was also the first night of Frisell’s three-week stay at the Vanguard—in various configurations of his own groups and as a sideman in Andrew Cyrille’s quartet.
After the set, Rudy Royston said that this trio has been playing together for a while, beginning around the time that Paul Motian’s trio with Frisell and Joe Lovano was beginning to wind down; this new trio was allegedly an extension of that Motian-Frisell-Lovano ethos—which it definitely was last night, but it also charted new territory for each of the players and had more focus on groove and swing than abstraction and texture. It seems apt that the trio played a joyful and bittersweet rendition of Bill Evans’ waltz “Very Early” midway through the performance.
They began with a loose reading of Frisell’s “Strange Meeting” which he has recorded many times, including a version with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones. Loose is the operative word here; they played the song inside and out, finding new nooks and crannies to create within, and—eventually—they transitioned into something earthy and drone-inflected which sounded like a whole piece into itself, then reprised the melody, before transitioning seamlessly into John McGlaughlin’s “Follow Your Heart” which is a blues in 11/8. I couldn’t tell it was in an odd signature at first because of Morgan’s ability to float over everything while still hitting all the road marks, not to mention Frisell’s smooth execution. Several times throughout the set things felt somewhere between the crossover sounds of late Wes Montgomery (guitar octaves and all), the rock guitar stylings of Jimi Hendrix, and the 80s ECM sound.
Frisell upholds a long tradition of humor and joy within the jazz canon—Sonny Rollins comes to mind, among others. This helps break things up between some of his darker, noir-tinged compositions, and is especially effective when he plays as a side person, sprinkling sparks of postmodernity into the ether. In this vein, the group played the fast country song “Keep on the Sunny Side”, which was originally recorded by the Carter Family, and featured on Bill’s 2010 album Beautiful Dreamers.
The most unexpected tune of the night was Lee Konitz’ Tristano-school contrafact “Subconscious-Lee”, set to the changes of Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love”. Royston was bombastic and swinging here, offering lots of dialogue and interplay with Frisell’s legato shred-bop (with fuzz pedal engaged).
Thomas Morgan’s earthy beat and upper-register freedom led the way in a duo with Bill into a reflective reading of Bill Evans’ waltz “Very Early”, which fit the history of the room—and the music—very well indeed. Again, the trio transitioned without break into another original: “Small Town” which was recorded on the 2017 Frisell-Morgan duo album of the same name which was recorded live at the Vanguard. It was a rousing number which sounded like an Ennio Morricone soundtrack with the melodic character of a Johnny Cash pop tune. The piece bloomed and flourished—definitely the loudest of the set. At one point early on, Frisell’s volume was so low you could hear the audience chattering; Jim Hall has been quoted as saying that this is an effective technique to build drama and interest in a set when the crowd is not listening.
Time felt suspended during this relatively long set, which ended with a sweet interpretation of Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love”—vintage Frisell, at the height of his game, refracting music from the space age in that inimitable, romantic style we all need to get through these cold nights.