Bill Frisell - The Sweetest PunchWhen Elvis Costello, poet laureate of the post-punk generation, joined
forces with '60s pop king Burt Bacharach for an album of new material,
an immediate air of artistic importance was established. So much so
that as soon as the songs were written, even before they were recorded,
guitarist Bill Frisell began working on jazzy instrumental arrangements
of them for a separate album.
Here Frisell is joined by jazz greats
like Don Byron, Brian Blade, and Ron Miles, but they don't use the
carefully crafted compositions as springboards for improvisation. To
their credit, they avoid the natural temptation to approach these tunes
like jazz standards. THE SWEETEST PUNCH is more of a classy
instrumental pop album than anything else. Costello even makes a couple
of vocal cameos, one in an effective duet with Cassandra Wilson on "I
Still Have That Other Girl." Frisell and company do the songs proud,
the sophisticated arrangements complementing Bacharach's deceptively
complex (but immediately accessible) harmonic sensibilities.
| |
|
