Bill Frisell’s solo album, Music IS, was released on March 16 on OKeh Records/Sony Music Masterworks.
Recorded in August, 2017 at Tucker Martine’s Flora Recording and Playback studio in Portland, Oregon and produced by longtime collaborator Lee Townsend, all of the compositions on Music IS were written by Frisell, some of them brand new – "Change in the Air", “Thankful", "What Do You Want", "Miss You" and "Go Happy Lucky" – others being solo adaptations of now classic original compositions he had previously recorded, such as "Ron Carter", "Pretty Stars", "Monica Jane", and "The Pioneers". "In Line", and “Rambler" are from Frisell’s first two ECM albums. Aside from the freely improvised album of 2013, Silent Comedy, for John Zorn’s Tzadik label, Music IS is Frisell’s first solo album since the making of Ghost Town, released on Nonesuch almost twenty years ago.
"Playing ‘solo' (alone) is always a challenge", Frisell says. "For me, music has all along been so much about playing with other people. Having a conversation. Call and response. Playing all by myself is a trip. I really have to change the way I think. In preparation for this recording I played for a week at The Stone in New York. Each night I attempted new music that I'd never played before. I was purposely trying to keep myself a little off balance. Uncomfortable. Unsure. I didn't want to fall back on things that I knew were safe. My hope was to continue this process right on into the studio. I didn't want to have things be all planned out beforehand.”
A Songline/Tonefield Production | Site by Fast Atmosphere | Art Design by Gwen Terpstra | Photography by Monica Frisell