| Music IS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 16, 2018 | |||
| Recorded | August 23–27, 2017 | |||
| Studio | Flora Recording & Playback, Portland, OR | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 58:34 | |||
| Label | OKeh 19075815002 | |||
| Producer | Lee Townsend | |||
| Bill Frisell chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music IS is a solo studio album by American jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, which was released on the OKeh label on March 16, 2018. [1] [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| The Absolute Sound |   [3] |
| AllMusic |  [4] |
| All About Jazz | [5] |
| Financial Times | [6] |
| Jazz Forum | [7] |
| Tom Hull | B+ [8] |
| The Times | [9] |
On PopMatters , Will Layman wrote, "Music Is is just Frisell and his guitars, usually overdubbed in subtle layers of sound, playing both old tunes of his and new compositions, sounding uniquely like himself: haunted and lyrical, pastoral and quirky at the same time ... Music Is not only revisits wonderful Frisell songs from decades ago, but it also gives us the chance to recall why Frisell always mattered—in jazz—as a guitar innovator". [10] Matt Collar of AllMusic states, "With Music IS, Frisell offers an intimate window into his creative process, an open conversation with himself. Thankfully, that conversation also remains open to, and deeply satisfying for, the listener". [4] On All About Jazz, John Kelman said "Hopefully artists evolve over the course of their careers, but every now and then evolution becomes revolution, and Music IS is, indeed, revolutionary. Frisell has come a long way since his first major label appearance with Eberhard Weber, on the German bassist's Fluid Rustle (ECM, 1979), with every album reflecting some kind of development and, more importantly, musical assimilation. But Music IS represents a significant leap forward for Frisell as a guitarist, composer and conceptualist". [5]
Damian Fanelli of Guitar World wrote, "The focus of Music IS is on the telling of musical stories from Frisell's original and inimitable perspective: some of the interpretations being naked, exposed and truly solo, while others are more orchestrated through overdubbed layering and the use of his unparalleled approach to looping". [11] Larry Blumenfeld of The Wall Street Journal said, "A new album serves as a reminder that the guitarist is a distinctive composer, crafting music that is simultaneously accessible and subversive." [12]
All compositions by Bill Frisell
John Scofield is an American guitarist and composer whose music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention in the band of Miles Davis, and has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists, including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummers Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov't Mule.
William Richard Frisell is an American jazz guitarist, composer and arranger. Frisell first came to prominence at ECM Records in the 1980s, as both a session player and a leader. He went on to work in a variety of contexts, notably as a participant in the Downtown Scene in New York City, where he formed a long working relationship with composer and saxophonist John Zorn. He was also a longtime member of veteran drummer Paul Motian's groups from the early 1980s until Motian's death in 2011. Since the late 1990s, Frisell's output as a bandleader has also integrated prominent elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and Americana. He has six Grammy nominations and one win.
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