What a treat to see Bill Frisell play again in Seattle with Eyvind Kang and Rudy Royston as the Earshot Jazz Festival heads for its last 4 days.
In the Beautiful Dreamers trio, Frisell and violist Eyvind Kang join arms with drummer Rudy Royston to take a rustic, wind-blown repertoire (Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault” sits alongside Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Goin’ Out of My Head”) and infuse it with, well, dreamscapes and ethereality and percussive grit and tussle. In the studio, the band played things rather straight – minimal electronic manipulation and samples.
But the spacing and textures of Beautiful Dreamers live recalls the slightly later, at times warpy and tipsy Bill Frisell Quartet. Put simply, Frisell, a veteran if there ever was one, flourishes in a small, compact setting where he can create a spacious, three-way trio-logue that allows everyone their say, whether it’s clustery, open-ended, and stringy, or pile-driving and forward-leaning.
(Note: Bartlett’s full-length preview will appear in the November Earshot Jazz.)
Click here for the complete schedule for the rest of the upcoming shows at the 2010 Earshot Jazz Festival