Bill Frisell Tickets

Bill Frisell is, I think, an eclectic taste. I really enjoyed the music and the movie and video presentations.

This is your standard GUSH i guess... it was pretty much amazing, changed my life kinda show... brilliant depth and complexity hidden in the plain sight of simple, timeless melody. It was all tied back to a dust bowl era feel with Disfarmer's photos of similarly seemingly starkly simple portraits which sent your mind wondering what incredible lives these folks led up to the moment that the shutter snapped. All very guarded behind stiff postures and wrinkled handmade clothes, hard lives shown in creases and gazes. Amazing, amazing project, please do yourselves a favor and see this.

Bill Frisell presented his Disfarmer project together with the musicians from the recording. The haunting but nontheless beautiful photos were shown on two screens and took the driver's seat in the concert. The music complemented them ideally. Although Bill Frisell has a reputation to go out, this set showed more the contemplative/ Americana side of his craft.

For years, I have been listening to and enjoying Bill Frisell's music. His Disfarmer Project is outstanding. I loved that the photographs that inspired the beautiful, sensively composed music were continually displayed on split screens as the music was being played. There was no intermission so that the continuity of the music combined with the solemn, haunting images was not interrupted. Perfect! The excellent musicians accompanying Frisell melded perfectly with him: steel guitarist Greg Leisz, violinist Jenny Scheinman and bassist Victor Krauss. An amazing, unforgetable experience!

Bill and band were excellent. Photography (Mike Disfarmer) being displayed was awesome and right in line with the music. The Concert Hall at the New York Society for Ethical Culture is a beautiful venue with great acoustics and great staff.

Superb musicianship, great concept. although by about 1/2 hour from the end I was craving some all out blowing- a little ventilation. Disfarmer's images became too redundant after a while and the music was so compelling that the photos felt like a distraction. Less would have been more in this case. I loved the atmosphere, the playing, the interplay and musicianship and in terms of my critique above, to be fair, I have to remind myself that I signed up here for a concept piece, not a jazz concert.

I drove two and a half hours to see this show and was not disappointed. The concert was a musical soundtrack accompanying the photography of the enigmatic Mike Disfarmer, whose World War II era portraiture has twice captured the art world since his death. The photos are the perfect backdrop to Frisell's plaintive style of composition and execution. He and his quartet engaged in an hour-long musical conversation, equal to any classical chamber ensemble. I also cannot say enough about the quality of the sound mix. Concerts are often ruined by over-amplification and poor sound balance. This concert had no such problems, I don't know whether this was work of the venue's in-house sound engineers or Frisell's touring crew, but whomever it was is to be applauded.