Sonny Rollins is the classic example of that - I've read that he thinks of the words while he's playing the sax, so the song really means something to him. When you hear Thelonious Monk's piano playing - or horn players like Ben Webster, Miles Davis and Wayne Shorter - you always hear the melody in there. A lot of people play the melody and rush right into their solo, almost with an attitude of 'Whew - that's out of the way, now let's really play!' Then they just burn on chord changes, and it doesn't relate to the song anymore. Wire, the British music publication has observed: 'What's really distinctive is Frisell's feel for the shape of songs, for their architecture it's a virtuosity of deep structure rather than surface.' Bill explains this sensibility to Guitar Player, 'For me, it's really important to keep the melody going all the time, whether you are actually playing it or not, especially when it's some kind of standard tune or familiar song form.

Combine a Colorado youth given to soul and C&W with solid jazz training, abetted by a decade-long residency in the heart of NYC's avant scene, multiplied by a fun factor of X (he has scored Buster Keaton's films) and you've got a recipe damn near perfection.' - The Mirror 'Frisell just has a knack for coaxing the most inviting sounds out of the instrument, and the composition skills to put them in just the right order. Like Monk, Frisell's harmonic and melodic ideas form a succinct, seamless mesh with outer sonic and rhythmic ideas about his ax.' - Spin In one of the biggest leaps of imagination since the Yardbirds and Jimi Hendrix, Frisell coaxes and slams his hovering split-toned ax into shapes of things to come.But besides being a guitar genius, he's turned into a terrific songwriter. Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, he apparently breathes in lungfuls of raw fire when he straps on his (guitar).His music is not what is typically called jazz, though it turns on improvisation it's not rock'n roll and it sure ain't that tired dinosaur called fusion. 'Bill Frisell is the Clark Kent of the electric guitar. In light of this, it may be easy to overlook the fact that he may also be one of the most promising composers of American music on the current scene.' - Stereophile 'For over ten years Bill Frisell has quietly been the most brilliant and unique voice to come along in jazz guitar since Wes Montgomery. In recent years, it is Frisell's role as composer and band leader which has garnered him increasing notoriety. The breadth of such performing and recording situations is a testament not only to his singular guitar conception, but his musical versatility as well. This work has established Frisell as one of the most sought-after guitar voices in contemporary music.

Frank foster blue note studio 1969