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Bill Frisell: Sign of Life - Music for 858 Quartet

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Savoy Jazz
Released: 2011.04.26
Time:
 53:23
Category: Jazz
Producer(s): Lee Townsend
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.billfrisell.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2016
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] I'ts a Long Story, Pt. 1 (B.Frisell) - 2:40
[2] Old Times (B.Frisell) - 4:59
[3] Sign of Life (B.Frisell) - 2:49
[4] Friend of Mine, Pt. 1 (B.Frisell) - 5:48
[5] Wonderland (B.Frisell) - 3:18
[6] It's a Long Story, Pt. 2 (B.Frisell) - 6:32
[7] Mother Daughter (B.Frisell) - 2:20
[8] Youngster (B.Frisell) - 3:01
[9] Recollection (B.Frisell) - 2:54
[10] Suitcase in My Hand (B.Frisell) - 2:22
[11] Sixty Four (B.Frisell) - 3:52
[12] Friend of Mine, Pt. 2 (B.Frisell) - 1:49
[13] Painter (B.Frisell) - 1:14
[14] Teacher (B.Frisell) - 1:28
[15] All the People, All the Time (B.Frisell) - 2:05
[16] Village (B.Frisell) - 4:20
[17] As It Should Be (B.Frisell) - 1:52

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Bill Frisell - Guitar, Arrangement
Eyvind Kang - Viola, Arrangement
Hank Roberts - Cello, Arrangement
Jenny Scheinman - Violin, Arrangement

Lee Townsend - Producer
Adam Blomberg - Production Assistant
Adam Muñoz - Engineer, Mixing
Greg Calbi - Mastering
Gwen Terpstra - Artwork, Design
Michael Wilson - Photography
John Cage - Quotation Author
Fred McFeely - Quotation Author
Helena Morris - Quotation Author

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2011 CD Savoy Jazz - SVY17818

Composed at the Vermont Studio Center between September 27th and October 16th, 2010. Recorded and mixed at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA. Mastered at Sterling Sound, New York.



Bill Frisell fans attending the 2010 Ottawa International Jazz Festival were given a rare opportunity to catch two groups, for whom the guitarist was planning releases in the coming months: his new Beautiful Dreamers trio, a couple months before the release of its eponymous debut; and his more longstanding 858 Quartet, a full ten months before the release of Sign of Life: Music for 858 Quartet, the long overdue follow-up to Richter 858 (Songlines, 2005). While Beautiful Dreamers performed some of the album in advance of its release, that wasn't the case for 858, since Frisell was still three full months away from putting pen to paper for Sign of Life. It wasn't until mid-September 2010, in fact, that he traveled to the Vermont Studio Center, an artists' retreat , where he spent the better part of a month composing and rehearsing Sign of Life, before taking 858 to Berkley, California's Fantasy Studios, to record the album at the end of October.

Frisell's move to Savoy—a change that allows him to issue albums more frequently, and with less of the lag time that sometimes happened between recording and release with Nonesuch, his home for 20 years—has clarified and debunked a couple of popular misconceptions about his long tenure with his previous label. First, based on his initial Savoy releases, there's clearly been no outside pressure driving the decision-making behind Frisell's music; both records demonstrate a softer side to the guitarist, and are clear and logical progressions from the music of both History, Mystery (Nonesuch, 2008) and Disfarmer (Nonesuch, 2009). Second, while neither disc is as overtly "Americana" as earlier, career-defining discs like Nashville (Nonesuch, 1996) or Good Dog, Happy Man (Nonesuch, 1999), his current music bears the same unmistakable roots in a variety of American traditions, ranging from folk music to blues, and from jazz to quintessentially American classical composers such as Aaron Copland and Charles Ives, along with hints of Philip Glass or Steve Reichian minimalism. All of this, of course, refracted through that strange prism which defines Frisell's music, a kind of odd dissemination/diffusion that's evident, even when he turns a more decided eye to stylistic experiments like the bluegrass/country persuasions of The Willies (Nonesuch, 2002).

If Richter 858 was proof that a post-Nashville Frisell hadn't lost his edge—tracks such as "858-1" are as angular and jagged as anything that came from the guitarist's New York days of the late 1980s/early 1990s—Sign of Life is, more than anything else, evidence that music is not just a reflection of who we are; it's a reflection of where we are. Nestled in the heart of the northern Green Mountains, with more time to focus only on the writing, Sign of Life reflects a relaxed sense of calm, despite a skewed tonality that is, quite simply, the evolving language of Frisell. The oblique harmonies of the title track, and its gentle shifting of meter, would have sounded completely at home on Where in the World?, one of Frisell's most overlooked albums with his early quartet— a group that also featured cellist Hank Roberts, one of 858's members, alongside violist Eyvind Kang, who first collaborated with Frisell on the breakthrough Quartet (Nonesuch, 1996), and a more recent addition to the guitarist's growing cadre of players, violinist Jenny Scheinman. In fact, while fans and critics strive to delineate Frisell's now four-decade career, close examination, dating right back to his first album as a leader, In Line (ECM, 1983), clarifies that many of the elements that have coalesced into a more developed vernacular have been there all along; Frisell simply places greater or lesser emphasis on these building blocks, depending on the project.

As much as Sign of Life is an album of, in places, very detailed composition, what gives this music its life and sound of surprise is the 858 Quartet itself, a group for whom Frisell rarely assigns specific parts; instead, the collaborative nature of the music—music that's rarely about featured soloists, though individual voices do periodically emerge, only to gradually subsume within the quartet's collective sound—is reflected by the songwriting credit in the liner notes: "All music composed by Bill Frisell...All arrangements (on the spot and subject to change) by Bill Frisell, Eyvind Kang, Hank Roberts and Jenny Scheinman." That Frisell starts the tranquil closer, "As It Should Be," alone, only to have Kang and Roberts twist its lyrical, near-naïve theme on its side by departing from Scheinman's allegiance to that melody through a descent into soft but unsettling dissonance, before uncannily reuniting in gentle consonance for a definitive conclusion—all in a brief 112 seconds—speaks to the quartet's interpretive power; one that transcends phrasing and dynamics to actually reinvent the writing with an approach to improvisation that's more holistic than individualistic.

Frisell toys with quirky country on "Suitcase in My Hand," while the hypnotically repetitive, minimalist string parts that support Frisell's overdriven—yet still curiously delicate and quiet—guitar lines, provide an unrelenting pulse as the song opens up like a flower slowly coming into the light. Frisell's wry sense of humor—clearly on display in his choice of album art for some of his recordings, and collaborations with graphic artists like Jim Woodring for the Seattle show (#012) that's part of his growing Live Download Series (Songline/Tonefield, 2007)—pops up here and there, on tracks like "Mother's Daughter," where the simplest of lines becomes remarkable grist for the quartet, each player picking up and putting down melodic fragments, like a modern and more reductionist version of Terry Riley's infamous In C (Columbia, 1968).

That these compositions were not actually conceived as a continuous suite—that they were written, instead, discretely, and with no linkages in mind—speaks to 858 Quartet's ability to transcend individual high points (of which there are many), instead revealing a clear, cogent narrative amidst this 54-minute collection of 17 miniatures. It may not possess the hard surfaces and sharp edges that some believe are endemic to the creation of adventurous music, but Sign of Life is no less daring because of it. Filled with unexpected twists and turns that, after a number of revealing and rewarding listens, are clearly as much about 858's approach to the music as it is the music itself, Sign of Life continues Frisell's lifelong exploration of richly divergent—yet ultimately convergent—paths, drawn together in a myriad of permutations and combinations.

John Kelman - April 25, 2011
© 2016 All About Jazz
 
 
 
 Bill Frisell's Sign of Life (Savoy Jazz) is one of the most gorgeous new albums I've heard in a while. It's in the tradition of his "Americana" albums (Disfarmer; History, Mystery; Ghost Town; Gone, Just Like a Train; This Land), but here he burrows deeper into the roots. There are traces of folk, bluegrass, minimalism, western-blues, as well as certain modes and improvisational cadences of jazz.

The ensemble is the 858 Quartet (Frisell on guitar; Jenny Scheinman, violin; Eyvind Kang, viola; Hank Roberts, cello), first formed (and last recorded) five years ago, to accompany a museum exhibition of Gerhard Richter's new paintings, which the German artist called the "858 series." That CD came close to capturing Richter's eerie synthesis of pastoral lyricism and steely abstraction, but may have more persuasively shown that some visual artworks can't be translated in aural forms.

Frisell composed the new album—all 17 tracks—at the Vermont Studio Center, where his wife, the playful abstract painter Carole d'Inverno, was on a month-long retreat. The liner notes quote John Cage and others on the blessings of silence, of a pause from daily industry, and there is a hushed awe about Sign of Life, an expression of intense calm.

The musicians are top-notch, in fine form, and the sound—produced by Lee Townsend, engineered by Adam Munez, mastered by Greg Calbi—is stunningly vivid.

Fred Kaplan - May 16, 2011
© 2016 Stereophile



After a nine-year hiatus, Bill Frisell's 858 Quartet recorded their second offering. Their elliptical debut, Richter 858, was produced by poet David Breskin (who also helmed the sessions for Nels Cline's Dirty Baby), and accompanied an exhibition by German artist Gerhard Richter. The music on Sign of Life: Music for 858 Quartet was loosely composed by Frisell, and took shape in group rehearsals. 858's other members include violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, and cellist Hank Roberts. Recorded at Fantasy Studios in San Francisco and produced by Lee Townsend, the 17 selections on this set feel very organic. The album opens with Americana-tinged themes in the two-part "It's a Long Story" that nod to country, folk, and even Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" in its melody. "Old Times" hints at bluegrass, blues, and ragtime, but because of the complex interplay between the four players, reaches far past them into a music that is 858's own. "Friend of Mine" is another two-part tune; that said, where a pastoral theme is suggested in part one, a more mischievous one responds in the second some eight tracks later. Elsewhere, improvised classical motifs, jazz modes, and folk and other roots musics shimmer through these compositions, sometimes simultaneously and often spontaneously. The haunted yet restrained "Painter," which clocks in at under two minutes, is a modal sketch immediately followed by an equally brief, slightly dissonant pointillistic exercise in counterpoint called "Teacher." "All the People, All the Time" returns to more accessible and resonant territory but, as gentle as it is, it's full of quiet surprises and unexpected twists. For all of its space and economical phrasing, "Village" is downright cartoon spooky, and "Suitcase in My Hand," which jaunts along in a striding, near reel, is transformed by Scheinman playing country-style fiddle, though the rhythmic signature never changes. "Sixty Four," with its pulsing time and repetitive, slightly shifting harmonic line, feels - but not quite sounds - like something Philip Glass might have written if he had a sense of humor, and is the only place on the record where Frisell lets somewhat ragged sonic edges into his playing. Sign of Life is a curious, quirky, and deceptively low-key affair that is musically labyrinthine and ambitious; it's full of gorgeous spaces, textures, utterly instinctive interplay, and unexpected delight.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



Guitarist Bill Frisell formed this occasional group in 2002 to produce music inspired by eight Gerhard Richter abstract paintings entitled 858-1 to 858-8, which were eventually packaged as the 2005 CD Richter 858. Though hints of Frisell's famous country-jazz impressionism and waltzing momentum were present, this was music far closer to the cool ambiguities of the paintings themselves. The lineup included guitar, violin, viola and cello, so they were, in effect, an electric guitar-led string quartet, and played with an idiosyncratic, folksy, contemporary-classical solemnity. This is the group's first recording since, and though that atmosphere remains, it's infused with rootsier references and more explicit warmth. These 17 short pieces sometimes sound like wistful, eerie country music, at times with Celtic inflections. Frisell hardly solos, and mostly restricts himself to shimmering, pinging and warped chord sounds within the loose, collective slow-whirl. But the pieces (all Frisell originals) are absorbingly different, from the softly ringing, classical-sounding Wonderland, through Mother Daughter, with its low guitar throb, to the breezy chamber hoedown of Suitcase in My Head and the lyrical romantic blues of A Friend of Mine. It's yet another testament to Frisell's versatility.

John Fordham - 25 August 2011
© 2016 Guardian News and Media Limited



On Sign of Life, Frisell offers fragments of haunting melodies that seem to hang like mist; some have affiliations in folk and country music, some in jazz, some in classical; and they're all played by a string quartet in which one of the violins is replaced by Frisell's guitar, the players allowed to extemporise around the melodies as they see fit.

The results are midway between classical and jazz: on "Friend of Mine (1)" the repeated dabs of strings are like cirrus clouds; "Wonderland" features motifs repeated calmly in minimalist manner; and the two versions of "It's a Long Story" seem to trace the melodic evidence back to "People Get Ready" and "Blow the Wind Southerly", respectively.

Andy Gill - 19 August 2011
independent.co.uk
 

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