When You Wish Upon A Star, the latest project from legendary Grammy-winning guitarist/composer Bill Frisell via OKeh Records. Comprised of music from iconic film and television scores, the LP is conceived not only as homage, but as a celebration of music-making with long time collaborators and their collective commitment to refined interpretation of material.The cornerstones of the album are four “suites” of music that reside deep within the collective psyche: To Kill A Mockingbird, Psycho, Once Upon A Time In The West and The Godfather. These are joined by new versions of well-known songs that describe the mysterious power of dreams: “You Only Live Twice,” “The Shadow Of Your Smile,” “Moon River” and “When You Wish Upon A Star.” Finally, the set is rounded out with music from TV series “Bonanza” and “Happy Trails,” the film noir classic The Bad and The Beautiful and Frisell’s own work from the TV show “Tales From The Far Side.” Taken together, the selections touch upon a wide swath of mid-twentieth century values, major events and cultural touchstones. “I've been watching TV and movies my whole life,” Frisell notes. “What I’ve seen and heard there is a huge part of, and is embedded so deeply into the fabric of what fires up my musical imagination.”The LP brings together an all-star “dream team” of Frisell’s frequent partners in crime: violist Eyvind Kang, drummer Rudy Royston, bass player Thomas Morgan and vocalist Petra Haden.Born in Baltimore, Frisell played clarinet throughout his childhood in Denver, Colorado. His interest in guitar began with his exposure to pop music on the radio. Soon, Chicago Blues became a passion through the work of Otis Rush, B.B. King, Paul Butterfield and Buddy Guy. Frisell studied music at the University of Northern Colorado before attending Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied with John Damian, Herb Pomeroy and Michael Gibbs. In 1978, Frisell moved for a year to Belgium where he concentrated on writing music. He then moved to the New York City area in 1979 and stayed until 1989. He now lives in Seattle. He has released over 40 albums and won as many awards, including a 2005 “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” Grammy for his LP Unspeakable.
P**F
Simple but classy versions of well known standards.
This is a lovely album consisting of simple, but classy, jazz versions of well known standards. The arrangements are quite spare, but beautifully played, as you'd expect of Bill Frisell. They're about half and half instrumental and vocal, and there's some very nice jazz viola throughout. I've only had the opportunity to listen to this streamed on Qobuz, so haven't had the chance to see who the personnel on the recording are. But I like it enough to have added the (double 189g) vinyl version on my wish list. Well worth a listen.
A**I
Five Stars
Great cd
C**W
More... just more...
Lovely album, but it is Guitar In The Space Age vol.2 and like all sequels, doesn't have quite the vavavoom as the first, but that's barely a criticism!
T**N
Five Stars
Fantastic!!!
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