Bill Frisell

Bill Frisell
Born as William Richard Frisell on March 18, 1951, Bill Frisell is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitarists of all times. Since the late 80s up till today, Frisell is named amongst some of the best in what he does.

Frisell was born in Baltimore, Maryland while he was raised in Denver, Colorado. He studied music at the University of Northern Colorado, and played clarinet while he was young.

At University of Northern Colorado he studied with Johnny Smith and after graduating from there he went to Boston to study at Berklee School of Music along with Jim Hall. Frisell released a duo album titled Reunion in 2000 with his original guitar teacher, Dale Bruning.

Frisell made his breakthrough as a guitarist after when he played guitar for Paul Motian while he was recording his fifth studio album, Psalm released in 1982 by ECM Records.

Afterwards he started playing as in-house guitar player for ECM Records. Album he contributed with a number of artists on several albums, his first solo debut album In Line was released in 1983 which featured solo guitar and duets with the bassist Arild Anderson.

Apart from Paul Motian, Frisell has also contributed to the collaborators such as Elvis Costello, John Zorn, Loudon Wainwright III, Suzanne Vega, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ginger Baker, Lee Jones, Vic Chesnutt, Rickie, Van Dyke Parks, Lyle Mays, Vernon Reid, Julius Hemphill, Rinde Eckert, The Frankfurt Ballet, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Melvin Gibbs, Julius Hemphill, Paul Bley, Wayne Horvitz, Hal Willner, Robin Holcomb, David Sanborn, David Sylvian, Petra Haden, Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell and several others.

After Frisell moved to Seattle, Washington from New York City in 1988, he released two of his best reviewed albums in early 1990s.

The first one was entitled Have a Little Faith, which featured a wide array of celebrated American classical and popular music, and the second one being titled, This Land, featuring complementary set of originals.

Upon reviewing his work for all these years New York Times concluded, It's hard to find a more fruitful meditation on American music than in the compositions of guitarist Bill Frisell.

Mixing rock and country with jazz and blues, he's found what connects them: improvisation and a sense of play. Unlike other pastichists, who tend to duck passion, Mr. Frisell plays up the pleasure in the music and also takes on another often-avoided subject, tenderness.

Frisells music cannot be put up in any category of music; it contains the genre of its own within itself. While talking to The Village Voice Frisell said, I like to have fun when I play and I like comedy - but it's not a conscious thing.

I'm basically a pretty shy person and I don't dance or get into fights. But there are all these things inside me that get out when I perform. It's like a real world when I play, where I can do all the things I can't do in real life.