Bill Frisell
History, Mystery (Nonesuch)
ESSENTIAL "Undone"
Guitarist Bill Frisell has inhabitated many genres over the past quarter century. Sometimes he manages to do so on a single album, as he does on his new two-disc set. After a pair of trio-format releases, Frisell returns to eccentricity on "History, Mystery," enlisting a motley crew of talent to sculpt his sound - cornetist Ron Miles, saxophonist Greg Tardy, violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts, bassist Tony Scherr, and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Much of the music sounds like it came right off a film score, particularly ruminating pieces such as "Probability Cloud" and "Monroe" (each of which is presented in several "parts" sprinkled over the two discs). Most of the tunes are originals, even if "Out of Body" seems derived from Brian Eno's ambient work and "Struggle" feels like a more polite version of a tune by John Zorn's Naked City outfit (of which Frisell was a member). The coolest stuff here, though, is the covers, which include a cartoonish take on Thelonious Monk's "Jacky-ing," a soul-jazz cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come," and a hot jazz-bebop hybrid version of Lee Konitz's "Sub-Conscious Lee." [Steve Greenlee]
