From: wildman@athena.mit.edu (Timothy Worsley)
Subject: Bill Frisell Trio at Johnny D's
Keywords: jazz blues creative improvised music herion opium gordon's gin
Reply-To: eprice@sybase.com
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 06:35:51 GMT

Saw Bill Frisell, Kermit Driscoll and Joey Baron tonight at Johnny D's
in Somerville, MA.  In a nutshell: it was great!!

The highlight of the first set was probably the long (25m perhaps)
*blues* tune.  It started out in a sort of free-improv-sounding vein
(at least that's what it sounded like to me), but the bass started
suggesting blues changes early on, and it wasn't too long before
everyone was into a some serious rock and roll!  They went through a
number of different styles, but all based on standard 12-bar
progression.

I had expected the same group as was at the Knitting Factory Sunday
and Monday (I think it was) -- I wasn't there :-( :-( :-( but my
brother told me all about it.  Apparently that also included Don
Byron, Curtis Fowlkes, and a sax player my brother didn't recognize.
It was also my first time at "Johnny D's Uptown Lounge" as it is
called.  It's not as bad as the Blue Note (well, except they are in
serious competition for the "most gratuitous neon" award), but it sure
as hell isn't the Knitting Factory either...

Bill was very funny too, making remarks and jokes and telling stories
in between tunes.  He described some teaching gig he had in Italy.
The students were eager to learn.  He said one asked him about drugs
-- but then he corrected himself and said that actually, no, it wasn't
a question, he had volunteered the information, saying to the class
"You must experiment with drugs!  Like heroin, for example!  <Audience
member: `Opium!'> The next day there were less people in class...
Some of them had died the night before, were found lying in the gutter
with needles in their arms..."  This was an ambiguous message, I
thought.  Other drug references: Before playing their last encore, he
said "I have to stall here for a minute so we can get something to
drink.  Don't want to take any chances -- never get dehyrdated...
<Drinks thirstily from large glass of clear liquid, water I assume,
then says...> Nothing like Gordon's gin!"  At one point he said he had
to read his "Bicycling" magazine for a minute, and flipped through it
on stage.  He muttered something about having a mountain bike.  But no
suspension.  And he doesn't go fast.  Joey Baron then mad a hand
motion and Bill pointed out that hhe ad fallen twice, because he was
going so slow!  It was humorous...  This was before he pulled out a
different guitar -- it was smaller than normal, and he said that this
would be his debut on the instrument "on US soil" and compared the
privilege of witnessing this event with being there when Coltrane
first played soprano!

[Second-hand report of Bill's dialogue from Knitting Factory gig:
"Chords.  Harmonies.  In-between tune banter."]

The second set was even more enjoyable than the first set.  They
played bunch of tunes from Bill's albums, but very diffeerently
executed from the recordings.  They also did -- after a great version
of Frisell's "Rag" -- "All the Things You Are", and after that went
right into "Just Like A Woman"...  The final encore was really funky
(it was also from one of Bill's albums but again very different) --
Driscoll was laying down some fantastic bass-lines (he was playing a
five-string bass -- I don't think I've sen too many of those).

Jazz has not lost its way!  Blues is not dead!  Anyone that thinks so
needs to get out more.

Well, this was a really lousy review (more about the in-between banter
than the chords and harmonies!) but I hope it hasn't bored everyone
too much.  If the Bill Frisell Trio or Band or whatever comes anywhere
near you, see them, that's my recommendation!

Hey, while I'm at it: I just today picked up Hal Willner's "Weird
Nightmare: Meditations on Mingus".  Bill Frisell figures heavily on
this, and although I've only listened to it once so far, I like it a
lot.  Really boring news flash: the dude at Tower (Cambridge) sez they
will be getting Naked City's "Heretic" (Avant 1) in "a few weeks"
(what they said a month ago too I believe) but that it would be
expensive.  I asked "how expensive".  He said $22 -- cheapest price
I've heard so far, outside of Japan...

Ciao,

-Ed (not Tim), eprice@sybase.com (not wildman@...)
Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote