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Bill Frisell

History, Mystery

Nonesuch 7559-79943-7

Of the many Bill Frisells represented on albums over the past couple of decades ­ power-trio spearhead, country rocker, collaborator with favourite musicians, delver into the more esoteric aspects of Americana, jazz-based composer/arranger ­ this double CD, recorded largely at US venues on a 2006 tour, is focused mainly on the last mentioned.

Fronting, with his trademark paint-squeezed-from-a-tube guitar sound, a multi-hued, versatile yet tight octet ­ cornettist Ron Miles, reeds player Greg Tardy, violinist Jenny Scheinman, viola player Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts, bassist Tony Scherr, drummer Kenny Wollesen ­ Frisell does touch many of the aforementioned musical bases, but the overall feel of the album is reminiscent of such earlier albums as the underrated Richter 858 or 1996's Quartet.

Texture, atmosphere and mood (conjured up not only by the often broodingly eccentric music, but also by the album's packaging) are clearly as important to Frisell as straightforward swing or rock-based power, and the musical 'colours' evoked by the thirty tracks on History, Mystery are pastel shades rather than bright primaries; occasionally, a bandmember, or Frisell himself, is given a chance to make a solo mark, but overall this is an album of carefully blended shading, in which hauntingly evanescent melodies shimmer in and out of focus, often recurring to impart a satisfying homogeneousness to the whole.

Two overtly jazz pieces, Thelonious Monk's 'Jackie-ing' and Lee Konitz's slippery 'Sub-Conscious Lee' are juxtaposed with Frisell's utterly distinctive compositions, and there is a delicious visit to Sam Cooke's 'A Change is Gonna Come', but the title of a radio series for which some of the pieces were recorded, 'Stories from the Heart of the Land', perhaps best sums up the spirit of the music on this mesmerising, wholly original album.