Product Description

On UNSPEAKABLE, Bill Frisell blends his distinctively lush,cerebral guitar style with the easy feel of his 1990s Americana-themed albums and a bit of the avant-garde sensibility of his '80s work, while never directly referencing either ofthese phases. In fact, the overall sound of UNSPEAKABLE is something new for Frisell--with a few notable exceptions, the record leans toward groove-heavy jams. The presence of horns, Adam Dorn's synthesizer, and the 858 Strings (a violin/viola/cello trio employed throughout the album for accent andeffect) brings to mind, at times, the orchestrated, cinematic funk of '70s-era Isaac Hayes ("White Fang"), and, at others, '60s lounge music ("Del Close").
But this is not to say that Frisell has discarded his trademark avant-chamber sensibility. On "D. Sharpe" and "Gregory C"., he creates deeply introspective, atmospheric pieces with help from the 858 Strings and Hal Willner's turntables and samples. Experimental (albeit groove-based) sounds wind through "Stringbean" andthe unsettling murmur of "Old Sugar Bear". Overall, the combination of soulful grooves and exploratory impulses, superbarrangements, and fine musicianship (with Frisell's trademark pyrotechnics lending both sophistication and edge) makes UNSPEAKABLE one of the most musically integrated and modern albums of the guitarist's career.

Track Listing

1. 1968
2. White Fang
3. Sundust
4. Del Close
5. Gregory C
6. Stringbean
7. Hymn For Ginsberg
8. Alias
9. Who Was That Girl
10. D Sharpe
11. Fields Of Alfalfa
12. Tony
13. Old Sugar Bear
14. Goodbye Goodbye Goodbye

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #79680 in Music
• Released on: 2004-11-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Stylistic shifts are nothing new in the career of Bill Frisell, who changes musical directions more often than Madonna. In fact, he even covered a Madonna song once. Unspeakable continues that tendency as Frisell teams up with Hal Wilner, a wilful musical eclectic. The two have worked together on collaborative projects including tributes to Nino Rota, Walt Disney, and Charles Mingus. Wilner, who is also the turntabulist here, orchestrates a landscape of turntable spins and space jams using generic library production discs for much of his source material. '60s Dragnet jazz horns and orchestral Twilight Zone stylings lend the modern sound of Unspeakable a strangely nostalgic hue. Frisell finds himself in a landscape of Ligeti-like strings, bongo percolations, and Ghanian tribal calls, most of if super-charged by the rhythm team of bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Their funky beats lay the terrain for Frisell's angular crossfire solos, but he can also wax sweetly nostalgic on "Hymn for Ginsberg" for guitar and string trio. Bill Frisell is filed in jazz, but he continues to be a genre unto himself. --John Diliberto

Customer Reviews

Return to form from guitar maverick
Back in the late 1980's each new CD by Bill Frisell would be greeted with a buzz of excitement and this latest disc captures something of the radical spirit of those early days. Whilst not quite reaching the levels of "Nashville", "Ghost town" nor his masterpiece, "Quartet", "Unspeakable" has something of the ecclectic spirit of "Is that you" about it. (Well worth checking out if it is still available and I can imagine this latest offering similarly splitting listeners.)As a big fan of Mr. Frisell, I have felt that "Blues Dream" marked the turning point wherby his music became increasing ordinary and his compositional gifts had started to desert him. "Unspeakable" must therefore be embraced as a return to the form that made his music so special within the jazz canon.
The new disc pairs Frisell with producer / turn-tablist Hal Willner and features his regular trio plus a horn and string trio. It would be debatable to argue that what if what has resulted is jazz, but the results are impressive. "White fang" features some of the guitarists fiercest playing since he tore apart Madonna's "Live to tell" over ten years ago. Some of the music has echoes of motown, Prince and even U2 with the guitar dispersing shards of dissonance over some crunching grooves. On "Del Close", he comes the closest that I have heard him come to sound like Wes Montgomery. Other tracks seem to borrow from the likes of the excellent Medeski, Martin and
Wood. The themes are often very strong too.However, the best track in the final, evocative "Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye".
I must admit that I have been spectical of alot of the "Nu Jazz" that has emerged of late, but with "Unspeakable", Bill Frisell has shown that he too can immerse himself in samples but create something truly magicial as opposed to something that seems more suited to a car commercial.
Unreservedly recommended.

experimantal... what else?
Why only four stars? Because of Blues Dream...
...anyhow this remains an excellent album. Quite more experimental and definitely not for everybody.
It takes a while to get used to it, but then you end up loving it. If you're a long time fan of Frisell buy it now, otherwise try out Blues Dream or Nashville.