Bill Frisell's catalog is as vast as it is diverse. Whenever he releases an album, the question is often, "which
Frisell will show up?" On
Valentine, the debut offering from the guitarist's 2020 trio with bassist
Thomas Morgan and drummer
Rudy Royston, he offers a multi-dimensional display of his many identities.
Frisell has led few recorded trio offerings, although he performs in that setting most often. This rhythm section jumped into the studio immediately after a well-reviewed two-week run at the Village Vanguard in New York and that live sense of presence and intuition is ever present. The program consists mainly of radically re-visioned versions of tunes
Frisell's recorded before, but he re-investigates the older material with fresh ears and delivers it accordingly. Check "Baba Drame," the set opener by Malian guitarist
Boubacar Traore. It appeared as a droning desert blues with the composer's vocals and
Jenny Scheinman's haunted violin on 2003's
The Intercontinentals. Here it's breezier, lighter, and jazzier, with multi-tracked drones framed by earthy tom-toms and a syncopated bassline.
Frisell's title track owes a large debt to
Thelonious Monk's "Well, You Needn't" with its angular yet melodic introduction and complex rhythmic approach. Before long, it opens in a loose yet engaged trio interplay that swings the post-bop blues balanced by somewhat abstracted improv. "Levees," penned for the soundtrack to
Bill Morrison's 2014 documentary
The Great Flood, is directly inspired by the Delta tradition. This version is multi-dimensional thanks to the rhythm section's deft inquiry. The trio focus on offering notes and tones just outside the frame of those
Frisell plays. "Keep Your Eyes Open" was one of the most lyrical tunes to appear on 1997's
Nashville. Its melodicism falls inside a quicker tempo and a stripped arrangement -- sans strummed acoustic guitars or dobros. This version of
Billy Strayhorn's classic "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing," is rendered with elegance, grace, and subtle harmonic questions amid its gentle swing. "Electricity" moves from modal blues to nursery rhyme to euphoric post-bop. "Aunt Mary" is a postmodern parlor waltz; it blurs notions between folk song and chamber jazz.
Burt Bacharach's and
Hal David's "What the World Needs Now," marks the third time
Frisell has cut it. This is the most nuanced and revealing of all; it maps the tune's harmonic subtleties in a lithe modern jazz approach. Introduced by pinched guitar harmonics, set-closer "We Shall Overcome" is presented (at least initially) as a reverential shuffle. Its chart revels in the stirring melody that reveals its roots in
Rev. Dr. Charles Albert Tindley's pre-War gospel original, circa 1900.
Valentine is a portrait of this trio at a creative peak. While not the liveliest record in
Frisell's catalog, it is one of his most inquiring, rhythmically inventive, and lyrical. Given his voluminous discography, that's saying plenty. ~ Thom Jurek
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