Bill Frisell, the supreme textualist and restless searcher for new contexts, has gone supersize. Employing two classical ensembles, the 60-piece Brussels Philharmonic and the 11-piece Umbria Jazz Orchestra, Frisell and famed composer/arranger Michael Gibbs, a longtime mentor and friend of the guitarist, have programmed an entire set with each group. Gibbs, who began scoring for films and simultaneously leading jazz groups in the early 1970s, is an equal partner in this beautifully recorded project. The Brussels Philharmonic set opens with the short and uneasy "Nocturne Vulgaire," in which strings and brass nervously shift before Frisell and his drummer Rudy Royston and bassist Thomas Morgan enter. They pluck a few notes before an abrupt transition to more familiar territory, a version of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life." Frisell slowly works his elongated way in Strayhorn's jazz standard, switching between notes and chords, backed by a lush swarm of strings. Verging on joyous easy listening, Gibbs' "Sweet Rain" rolls along with Frisell and the strings trading leads. In the Brussels closer, Stephen Foster's unerringly divine "Beautiful Dreamer," Frisell—who's always been a sucker for a great tune—picks out the melody as the band confects an opulent background.

Although with Fluid Rustle, Eberhard Weber continued to draw upon the Watership Down references that cast 1977’s Silent Feet into such lovely relief, I hesitate to call it program music. Neither are the titles mere frames; they are also the open windows within those frames. Like the rabbits in Adams’s novel, each instrument in “Quiet Departures” is its own vivid personality in a vast warren of possibilities. Such strong metaphorical ties are there to be unraveled, one fiber at a time, by every strike of Gary Burton’s vibes. The introduction of Norma Winstone (in her first non-Azimuth ECM appearance) and Bonnie Herman represents an exciting tectonic shift in Weber’s geology, urging us through an atmospheric tunnel. At its end: a brightly lit solo from Burton, swaying comfortably in Weber’s hammock.

Small Town presents guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan in a program of duets, the poetic chemistry of their playing captured live at New York s hallowed Village Vanguard. Small Town sees Frisell and Morgan pay homage to jazz elder Lee Konitz with his Subconscious Lee, and there are several country/blues-accented Frisell originals, including the hauntingly melodic title track. The duo caps the set with an inimitable treatment of John Barry's famous James Bond theme Goldfinger.

The pairing of electric guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield had to be one of the most auspicious since John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana. Acoustic bassist Marc Johnson's stroke of genius in bringing the two together on Bass Desires resulted in a sound that demonstrated both compatibility between the guitarists and the distinctiveness of the two when heard in combination. Add drummer Peter Erskine and you had a bona fide supergroup, albeit in retrospect a short-lived one, before Frisell and Scofield would establish their own substantial careers as leaders. The guitarists revealed symmetry, spaciousness, and a soaring stance, buoyed by the simplicity of their rhythm mates. This is immediately achieved on the introductory track, "Samurai Hee-Haw," as hummable, head-swimming, and memorable a melody as there ever has been, and a definite signature sound.

Lyle Mays' second solo album ventures even further afield than his acclaimed first record, into areas not associated with Mays nor his employer Pat Metheny. This time, the personnel list is far more varied, with several guest luminaries from the world of jazz-rock, as well as a big band and full chamber orchestra on some selections. Again, the main thrust of the album is bound up in a lengthy suite with new age atmospheric elements, juxtaposing fleet Brazilian grooves with a chamber orchestra, voluble Mays piano solos, and electronic interpolations by Mays and Frisell reminiscent of early classical electronic music.

Lyle Mays waited a long, long time before straying from the Pat Metheny Group to issue his first solo album, but when he did, the results were at once removed but not totally untethered to the Metheny sound and feeling. On his own, Mays' synthesizer solos and textures are close in sound to what he was doing in the Metheny group, but the turns of phrases in his acoustic piano solos reflect the heavy shadow of Keith Jarrett.

Guitarist Julian Lage (“one of the most dazzling improvisers around”—NY Times) returns with a stunning new album View With A Room, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2021 Blue Note debut Squint, which the Associated Press called “an exuberant, engaging, endlessly inventive exploration of styles.” This time Lage expands his versatile trio with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King into a quartet with the addition of fellow guitarist and Blue Note labelmate Bill Frisell. View With A Room presents 10 compelling new original compositions by Lage that explore a wide range of guitar sounds and textures with these two distinctive master guitarists seamlessly blending their unique 6-string styles.

American guitarist Bill Frisell is one of the most singular musicians of his generation. Frisell has appeared on over 80 recordings, with performers like Ginger Baker, Gavin Bryars, Don Byron, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithful, Wayne Horvitz, Lyle Mays, Paul Motion, Hal Wilner, John Zorn, John Scofield, Paul Motian and Charlie Haden. Bill has performed on dozens of top recordings as leader and sideman and has composed lots of film music. Bill Frisell is in constant demand worldwide because he invest his playing with such strong intention. His diverse musical concepts embrace everything from blues, gospel, worksongs and country music to jazz, rock and even pop. Now see him live performing live for a jazz experience like no other!

The vague country elements long dwelling on the fringes of Bill Frisell's music rise to the forefront on Nashville, an exquisitely atmospheric collection recorded in Music City with the aid of dobro legend Jerry Douglas, Union Station members Adam Steffey and Ron Block, and Lyle Lovett & His Large Band's bassist Viktor Krauss. Produced by Wayne Horvitz, the record is both genuine and alien – while played with real affection for the country form and without any avant posturing, its sound is original and distinct, a cinematic variation on C&W tenets. While primarily instrumental and comprised largely of Frisell originals, Nashville does welcome vocalist Robin Holcomb for a pair of more traditional numbers – Hazel Dickens' "Will Jesus Wash the Bloodstains from Your Hands" and the Skeeter Davis hit "The End of the World" – as well as a cover of Neil Young's "One of These Days."

From 2016 to 2018, I attempted to make my trio with Mat and Craig my “road” band, and somehow succeeded, for a spell. Bill Frisell came to hear us play in late 2018, and then wrote me, asking about the music. Craig, Mat and I have admired Bill since each of us began in this music, so I invited him to play a gig with us. Though it took more than a year to book the date, as we played the show, Bill felt like a natural part of the band.

The Layers is a stunning companion piece to guitarist Julian Lage’s acclaimed 2022 album View With A Room. The collection features six original pieces recorded during the same sessions which found Lage discovering new orchestrational possibilities by augmenting his deeply attuned trio of bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King with the addition of guitar icon Bill Frisell. Intimate and gorgeous, exploratory and embracing, imbued with vibrant colors and exquisite interplay, The Layers is a welcome additional offering from this meeting of two of modern jazz’s most distinctive voices with one of the music’s most skilled and inventive rhythm sections.

Bill Frisell convenes a new line-up of musical friends on his third Blue Note album Four, which features the acclaimed guitarist with Greg Tardy on saxophone and clarinet, Gerald Clayton on piano, and Johnathan Blake on drums. Together the foursome delve into intimate explorations of 13 Frisell originals both new and old to create this stunning new work that is a meditation on loss, renewal, and friendship.

Two years after issuing his acclaimed trio album Valentine, Grammy Award-winning guitarist and composer Bill Frisell returns with 'Four', a stunning meditation on loss, renewal, and those mysterious inventions of friendship. Frisell's third album for Blue Note Records since signing with the label in 2019 proffers new interpretations of previously recorded originals as well as nine new tunes. The session brings together artists of independent spirits and like minds: Blue Note stablemates Gerald Clayton on piano and Johnathan Blake on drums, and longtime collaborator Greg Tardy on saxophone, clarinet, and bass clarinet. 'This combination of people had been floating around in the back of my mind since before the pandemic,' says the Brooklyn-based artist.

Spinoza is Zorn’s latest creation for the searing jazz-metal trio Simulacrum—perhaps the most extreme organ trio ever. Inspired by the life and thought of one of the world’s greatest philosophers he has composed two extended concerti: one for guitar genius Bill Frisell, and another featuring himself on saxophone. The musical mosaic flows seamlessly from one world to another, touching upon heavy metal, jazz, minimalism, atonality, noise, ambient moods, funk, and so much more. A musical vision as radical as the philosophy of Spinoza himself, this is one of Zorn’s greatest recent works—an essential and exhilarating project as powerful as it is sensitive. Cinema for the ears!

Charles Lloyd has long been a free spirit, master musician, and visionary. For more than 6 decades the legendary saxophonist and composer has loomed large over the music world, and at 84 years old he remains at the height of his powers and as prolific as ever. As a sound seeker, Lloyd’s restless creativity has perhaps found no greater manifestation than on his latest masterwork Trio of Trios, an expansive project that encompasses three albums, each a deft change of musical context that presents him in a different trio setting.