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THE INTERCONTINENTALS
REVIEWS
"A remarkable
achievement - a hybrid that
somehow both respects and transcends
the styles involved..... with
a sort of earthy, relaxed feeling
- it's country music from the
global village." - Washington
Post
"Perhaps what's called
for is a new kind of world music,
one that truly represents an
openhearted meeting of the minds
from radically disparate cultures….
The experiment has been ongoing
in pop for decades, but rarely
has it reached the level of
synthesis achieved in a unique
new recording by jazz guitarist
Bill Frisell .
On The Intercontinentals, Frisell
ranges more widely than ever
before. The global cast weave
potentially incongruent musical
traditions and styles into a
virtually seamless, silken tapestry.
Through it all threads Frisell's
weeping and sighing guitar lines
and judiciously manipulated
electronic loops and effects.
Without diluting the potency
of the various elements -- indeed,
individual tracks take on dominant
cultural identities …..
it insinuates itself into your
consciousness with a wondrously
light touch." -
S.F. Gate
"As diverse a lineup as
any musical globalist could
wish for, and it's not surprising
the group's efforts are virtually
indefinable, sometimes surfacing
with a floating African feeling,
sometimes recalling down-home
American country music, at other
times -- especially in the vocal
numbers with Cantuaria and Govetas
-- finding the compatible vibrations
between Africa and the New World.
But nothing is predictable,
and the great beauty of this
album is the consistent surprises
it offers." - Los
Angeles Times
"This is a close, disciplined
record, pregnant with thought
and difficult things made to
sound simple. Played quietly
it ripples prettily. Crank it
up and you hear all manner of
extraordinary things going on
in the torque generated by oud,
fiddle, pedal-steel, electric
and acoustic guitars. 'Good
Old People' is about as beautiful
as three rotated arpeggios can
be when you subject them to
a sequence of highly textured
melodic variations. The press
of oud on electric guitar in
'Yála' borders on the
thrilling. Put it this way,
Miles Davis will be tuning in.
- The Independent UK
ALL MUSIC GUIDE
Bill Frisell has been actively
-- some would say obsessively
-- exploring the depths and
dimensions of American roots
music since the release of Nashville
in 1997. His subsequent recordings
-- Ghost Town, Gone Just
Like a Train, Blues Dream, Good
Dog, Happy Man, and The
Willies -- were all approaches
to the various folk styles that
originated on American soil:
country, blues, bluegrass, field
hollers, jazz, and others. He
has successfully been able to
blend, extract, adapt, and otherwise
morph one set of music onto
another through his own approach
to guitar playing -- the song.
More than any other contemporary
guitarist, Frisell is driven
by the notion of song -- what
it entails, both in terms of
musical and cultural expression,
and what it implies. On The
Intercontinentals, Frisell continues
his investigation of American
music, but as a way of understanding
how it entwines with the folk
musics of other nations. Onboard
for this outing are Frisell's
longtime collaborators Jenny
Scheinman; pedal, dobro, and
lap steel guitarist Greg Leisz;
as well as Brazilian mega-guitarist
and songwriter Vinicius Cantuaria;
Greek-Macedonian vocalist and
oud player Christos Govetas
and Malian percussionist and
vocalist Sidikki Camara. Frisell
had played with Camara and Malian
uber-guitarist Boubacar Traore
a couple of years before and
was intrigued enough to explore
the connection further. The
result of this unlikely union
is one of the most seamlessly
beautiful works Frisell has
ever produced. On it, he and
Cantuaria delve into the modern
Malian guitar and percussion
sound pioneered by Ali Farka
Toure; blend it with the timeless
emotional resonance of Greek
folk songs via Govetas' oud
and infectious Brazilian lyricism;
and filter it through shimmering
country landscapes and otherworldly
string textures that reinvent
harmonic properties to suit
the lyric of the blues, song,
indigenous folk musics, and
the contemporary improvisational
ideal. Frisell composed the
lion's share of the tunes here,
but there are also contributions
by Gilberto Gil, Traore, Govetas,
and Cantuaria. Scheinman's violin
acts as a gorgeous signpost
for virtually all of these musicians
to return to; her melodic sensibility
and crisp tone are beacons in
the often swirling, escalating,
and/or cascading whorls of plucked
strings, playing as many as
four melodies simultaneously
with winding, almost knotty
scalar interchanges. What is
most fascinating is that even
in the vocal tunes, or those
where the Malian blues effect
is the prominent force, everything
else in the mix fans out and
creates often contrapuntal backdrops
for elegant and lush, if dense,
textures. Simply put, this is
the busiest record Frisell has
made in years, but it doesn't
feel like it. His sense of "song"
is so pervasive, everything
here is arranged to fit its
"singing." His own
tone is unmistakable, as is
Leisz's and Cantuaria's. The
guitars are as distinct as the
oud and the violin, all of them
carried into the next space
by hand drums. While each song
does stand on its own as a harmonic
and lyrical entity, with adventurous
improvisation added in the spirit
of true exploration, as an album
they are linked by the weave
of aural tapestry, dynamics,
and spaciousness that is so
central to Frisell's sound.
And while this is more collaborative
than perhaps anything he's done
in a decade, it nonetheless
bears his sonic and esthetic
imprint. This is a remarkable
album; its sets a new watermark
for Frisell's sense of adventure
and taste, and displays his
perception of beauty in a pronounced,
uncompromising, yet wholly accessible
way. Thom Jurek
AMAZON.COM
-EDITORIAL REVIEW
Bill Frisell took the Downtown
New York jazz scene to Nashville,
and Marc Ribot did the same
thing for Cuba with his Los
Cubanos Postizos and Muy
Divertido. But until Frisell's
The Intercontinentals
the robust, haunting sound of
Malian blues guitar was largely
untouched by six-stringing jazzoids.
The aptly named Frisell ensemble
here includes Brazilian guitar
and vocal great Vinicius Cantuaria
(playing solid drums half the
time), Mali's premier percussionist
Sidiki Camara, Greek oud and
bouzouki virtuoso Christos Govetas,
pedal steel guitarist Greg Leisz,
and violinist Jenny Scheinman.
Rather than cover all the band's
continents, though, the focal
point is largely singular: "Boubacar"
(in honor of Malian guitar pioneer
Boubacar Traore) opens the set
and has its vibe continued with
a cover of his "Baba Drame,"
and everywhere the notes are
hit and moods invoked as if
Ali Farka Toure were looking
on from Timbuktu. This is, though,
still Frisell. An American earthiness
crops up in Leisz's steel, as
does the Mediterranean in Govetas's
oud. And Frisell's sampled loops
create an atmospheric cloudiness
grounded by Camara's calabash
and djembe and Cantuaria's drumming.
In the constant sonic middle
ground are the trifecta of oud,
violin, and bass, merging the
melody and rhythm brilliantly.
Rootsy and undeniable, The
Intercontinentals is yet
another Frisellian work of genius.
Andrew Bartlett
BARNES &
NOBLE-REVIEW
Bill Frisell may have originally
made his name in jazz circles,
but his range has broadened
considerably over the past decade
-- his latest project, The
Intercontinentals, certainly
has only a tangential connection
to conventional jazz. Although
it incorporates improvisation
at times, this flagrantly eclectic
band traffics in world music
fusion. And a beautiful job
these fellow travelers do of
it. Frisell is an old hand at
mixing disparate sounds; here
he brings together open-minded
practitioners of Brazilian,
African, Greek, and American
country music, along with his
own, now unclassifiable playing,
to produce a magically alluring
hybrid genre. The band -- Christos
Govetas, Vinicius Cantuária,
and Sidiki Camera -- along with
guests violinist Jenny Scheinman
and pedal steel guitarist Greg
Leisz, are able to mesh while
asserting their core musical
identities, the very key to
successful fusion. Along with
fellow guitarist Ry Cooder,
Frisell is now the leading exponent
of the imaginative cross-cultural
music blend. Viewed as a collective
project rather than as a vehicle
for his guitar playing, The
Intercontinentals may be
his masterpiece. Steve Futterman
DOWNBEAT-REVIEW
Bill Frisell gathered musicians from Brazil, Mali, Greek Macedonia and
the United States to create this international band of neo-gypsies.
The resulting sound is a truly collaborative effort, a nexus of world-beat
styles and American roots music.
The combined timbres of a studio full of stringed instruments (various
plucked and strummed guitars, wavy lap and pedal steels, ancestral oud
and sustained violin), human voices (Portuguese, Malian and wordless)
and delicate percussion create a curious texture that leaves lots of
room for fresh improvisational and compositional ideas.
Beautifully recorded and produced by Lee Townsend, all the tracks on
The Intercontinentals meld together nicely into a whole. Between-tune
segues - which often utilize electronic loops - contribute to the flow.
The pulse is ever-present as Sidiki Camara's steady shakers maintain
the groove with exquisite minimalism."
L.A. TIMES-REVIEW
Attention, diplomats: Global unity is possible
Guitarist Frisell has so many musical personas that one shouldn't
be surprised at anything he does. But the Intercontinentals manages
to reach beyond even his eclecticism. For starters, the personnel consists
of Brazilian composer-singer-guitarist Vinicius Cantuaria; Greek-Macedonian
oud and bouzouki player Christos Govetas; percussionist Sidiki Camara
from Mali; with violinist Jenny Scheinman and pedal steel guitarist
Greg Leisz. That's about as diverse a lineup as any musical globalist
could wish for, and it's not surprising the group's efforts are virtually
indefinable, sometimes surfacing with a floating, African feeling, sometimes
recalling down-home American country music, at other times -- especially
in the vocal numbers with Cantuaria and Govetas -- finding the compatible
vibrations between Africa and the New World. But nothing is predictable,
and the great beauty of this album is the consistent surprises it offers.
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