REVIEW
All About Jazz
January 26, 2011
By John Kelman
009
Also from New York, but recorded four years earlier, Download Series
#009 predates Frisell's 1994 masterpiece, This Land, but finds that album's
sextet—Driscoll and Baron augmented by Fowlkes, Byron and alto
saxophonist Billy Drewes—performing the month before the album
was recorded, and clearly working the material in preparation for its
pending studio session.
The 75-minute set brings together half of This Land's 14 tunes,
and is a perfect lesson in the difference between what works live, and
what works in the studio. In some ways, live recordings go against their
being moments in time that, once past, are gone forever, as opposed to
studio recordings, where the goal is to create music that intentionally
stands the test of time. Of course, many live recordings do stand the
test of time—and this, along with the rest of the Live Download
Series, is one. But comparing the extended versions here—the knottily
freewheeling, 18-minute version of "Resistor," at nearly triple the length
of the take on This Land—makes a strong case for greater concision
when aiming to create the definitive studio version.
The carrot of this download is "Don's Fave," a previously unreleased
Frisell tune that appears nowhere else in the guitarist's extensive catalog.
Why it didn't end up on This Land is a mystery, as its serpentine changes
and powerful delivery would have easily fit on an album that, nearly
20 years later, remains a high watermark for Frisell as a composer and
bandleader. Before he went the Americana route and began exploring roots
music, This Land's references to quintessential American composers like
Copland, Charles Ives, and Julius Hemphill, makes it equally a quintessentially
American record. - John Kelman - All About Jazz
For the complete Download Series review visit All
About Jazz here. |
