Bill Frisell Solo Fairfield Theater Company 2/15/19

Thanks to a friend for gifting a pair of tickets to see jazz guitar master Frisell. Unbelievably, this is my first encounter with FTC. An intimate seated venue with excellent views was a perfect place to see Bill. The Frisell catalog is long and varied, Spotify him and you are just as likely to get a skronk workout with the likes of Wadada Leo Smith and Andrew Cyrille or a dreamy jazz cover of the surf nugget Pipeline. Frisell came of age in the 80s-90s Downtown Scene with luminaries like John Zorn and The Lounge Lizards. Bill looks like a nerdy, shy, grandpa armed with a simple electric guitar, some effects and loop pedals, and an unexplained cache of beanie baby moose. A true musical omnivore, the show unfolded like Frisell's Great American Songbook Armoire. I mean this in the sense that the songs are pulled from a drawer, laid on the bed, stretched, teased, sped up, slowed down, and presented in a Frisellian new context. Setlist included: Moon River, Ruby My Dear, Come On In My Kitchen (I think), Lush Life, My Funny Valentine. An excellent version of the Bond theme, You Only Live Twice made great use of the loop pedal. Half the fun of this show was trying to figure out the tune, Bill's shyness prevented him from speaking a word the whole evening. Ended the set with What The World Needs Now and encored with the Shenandoah-Somewhere Over The Rainbow medley.