Bill Frisell - History, Mystery

The New offering from jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. This 2 CD recording contains a whopping 30 tracks in total.

"History, Mystery, released by Nonesuch, is among Frisell's most ambitious projects to date. Produced by longtime ally Lee Townsend, this double-disc, 90-minute, 30-piece suite encompasses almost a full range of Frisell's musical past, his influences, obsessions, and story-like vision.

It is performed by his stellar, star-studded octet, which includes horns (Ron Miles and Greg Tardy), strings (Eyvind Kang, Jenny Scheinman, and Hank Roberts), and a rhythm section (bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen).

As a whole, History, Mystery dances through entire musical landscapes like bebop and post-bop, Malian guitar music, tango, Delta blues, modern classical music, vintage soul, and even rock. The source material for this recording was compiled from two different sources. One was a multimedia collaboration with artist Jim Woodring called Mysterio Sympatico from 2002 (he designed the sleeve for this album as well). The other, Stories from the Heart of the Land, was recorded for a series on National Public Radio that was broadcast in 2007. Much of the music here was recorded while on tour, with the rest from the NPR series, all of it blended into a glorious whole.

The title is revealing. While most of the material was composed by Frisell, there is a real sampling of his own history in the choice of covers: Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," "Jackie-Ing" by Thelonious Monk, "Sub-Conscious Lee" by Lennie Tristano, and "Baba Drame" by Malian guitar legend Boubacar Traore.

The sense of "mystery" is in just how these various sources get woven together as such a layered, multi-textured tapestry of sound and color that tells a new kind of story. Since no one player commands the spotlight here -- not even Frisell most of the time -- the balance of such an ambitious work relies on the strength of its arrangements. In this case, the glue that binds it is the strings.

He arranged their parts in the same way he organizes his own playing when he's an accompanist. The string trio -- each member is a composer in her or his own right -- colors, underscores, and even frames each tune. Since most of these cuts range in length from just over 30 seconds to three minutes, and the longer ones from just over six to nearly nine minutes, the role the section plays is pivotal in organizing the entire ensemble.

The players, as arranged by Frisell, accent each tune with great sensitivity: emotion never overwhelms narrative detail, and dynamics never overcome restraint and shading.

It's a beautiful tool for the listener to hold onto in the more drifting moments of the work. There is also history in the way certain songs are juxtaposed with one another, such as "A Change Is Gonna Come" (with a killer Tardy saxophone solo that moves between soulful lyricism and post-bop intensity) and a brief but swinging "Jackie-Ing" with a knotty bebop guitar solo.

Preceding both of these are the nuevo tango-inspired "Probability Cloud," which begins as a sort of sci-fi digital soundscape (all played on the guitar) before the tango's familiar dance comes to the fore with the strings. Traore's droning desert blues "Baba Drame" is preceded by an interlude that evokes late-19th century Spanish folk music, itself inspired by the chants and sun prayers of the Moors centuries before.

There are also certain themes that run through the work: disc one has the three-part "Probability Cloud," which basically bookends it. But there are interludes such as "A Momentary Suspension of Doubt" and "Another Momentary Suspension of Doubt," which appear to move the narrative in the music to the next scene.

Disc two uses the dark, haunting, near-ambient "Monroe," with guitar and viola in the forefront, at the beginning, middle, and end. Also, the spectral "Lazy Robinson" floats between carnival music and modern classical composition with a rock backbeat, all in waltz tempo. "Answer," in two parts, is pure expressionistic stasis -- strange, nightmarish, and disorienting.

In this piece in particular, the strings are set not merely as accompaniment for Frisell's guitar, but as counterforce to its movement." C/O Allmusic website