Guitarist Bill Frisell has performed four times previously at Santa Barbara’s Lobero theatre, and not only has he never repeated a composition, he’s never had the same band. Talk about improvisation in jazz!
This time around, he’s exploring the songs and sounds of John Lennon, in conjunction with his tribute album from 2011. But, if you know Frisell, you know the music isn’t going to be something hokey or nostalgic like The Fab Faux or Rain, but instead what the audience got was a gleaning of the dross and a cut into the essence of Lennon’s musical mind.
Frisell, standing on stage right, seemed more like a conductor with his guitar and pedals used as batons, while he faced, directed and lead his flexible and adroit band of Tony Scherr/b, Jenny Scheinman/v, Kenny Wollesen/dr, and Greg Leisz/slide g. The entire band was focused not on any sheet music, but on the eyes and fingers of Frisell, as he picked, strummed, pedaled and knobbed out notes and chords on pieces ranging from the pastoral “Across the Universe” to the ethereal “Number 9 Dream.” What Frisell excels at is taking a song and cutting it down to the absolute marrow, to even the corpuscular essence, and make it the starting block of which the rest of the band is to build up and improvise from.
A gentle and peaceful tune such as “Beautiful Boy” or “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” slowly builds into gentle waves of lava, while Scherr and Wollesen veer the direction and dynamics up and down or all around. Scheinman then takes her violin and adds evocative solos that mix folk and jazz, melding moods of the Cumberland Gap and Shenandoah Valley. “Julia” sways like a breeze in Appalachia, while “Please Please Me” thunders like a surfer shooting the curl. “Revolution” was given a raucous shuffle beat and “In My Life” fluttered like gentle leaves in the Smokey Mountains.
Between sets, Scherr commented that “we know all of these songs because we grew up with them. What Bill does is take them in new directions every night. We play it different each time because we’re just watching his lead.” As Frisell and the band demonstrated, music that mixed known melodies with on your toes agility made the music of Lennon, dare we say-“Come Together.”
Upcoming shows to the newly remodeled Lobero include Karla Bonoff & Jimmy Webb on June 7 and Richard Thompson July 9. Guaranteed great music!
www.lobero.com
