REVIEW
All About Jazz
January 26, 2011
By John Kelman
003
While Frisell's 858 Quartet—a conventional classical string quartet
where Frisell breaks convention by taking the place of one of it's two
violinists—released the surprising Richter 858 (Songlines),
in 2005, there were precious few opportunities for most fans to hear
the group in performance. Richter 858 was surprising because, amidst
all the guitarist's easier-on-the-ears Americana of the time, he proved,
with this recording of music inspired by the artwork of Gerhard Richter—originally
released in limited form in 2002 in a hardback book of Richter's art,
but given more general release as a CD by Songlines Recordings three
years later—that he'd not lost any of his edge. It's all too easy
to accuse artists of deserting this or losing that when, in actual fact,
they're simply making decisions about what they choose to do and not
do at a given moment in time; something more readily apparent when looking
back at an artist's overall body of work, years later.
This live 858 Quartet performance, also featuring Scheinman, Roberts
and violist Eyvind Kang, includes some of the album's more jagged music
in its medley of "858-5" through "7," and writing chops equally on
form. The quartet also demonstrates the nuanced approach heard in more
recent performances like its 2010 show at the TD Ottawa International
Jazz Festival, where the music was sometimes so quiet, it almost demanded
leaning forward to hear it. Live Download Series #001 may not have included
material from Unspeakable, but here the quartet—a fundamental textural
participant on that record—opens with the melancholy "Hymn for
Ginsberg," one of Frisell's most painfully vulnerable pieces of music
to date.
The set also includes its share of covers; by this time, Frisell had
become known for finding specific pieces of music that moved him, and
exploring them in a wide range of contexts. Here, "Babe Drame," from
the previous year's Grammy-nominated The Intercontinentals (Nonesuch),
receives a more delicate treatment, while a 16-minute version of Marvin
Gaye's hit, "What's Going On," becomes grist for a quartet that orbits
around its core, hovering during the long, cue-driven intro to surely
one of the most unusual interpretations ever heard of this R&B hit.
- John Kelman - All About Jazz
For the complete Download Series review visit All
About Jazz here.
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