Bill Frisell @ Mercyhurst College

[LWayne]

On Saturday May 8th, my wife and I drove north to Erie, Pa. to attend a concert by Bill Frisell and the Unspeakable Orchestra. The band was the same lineup as the group on the grammy award winning "Unspeakable" CD released last year.

Bill Frisell-guitar, Tony Scherr-bass, Kenny Wollesen-drums (his regular east coast trio) supplemented with the "858 Strings" trio of Jenny Scheinman-violin, Eyvind Kang-viola, and Hank Roberts-cello.

The addition of a string section intersecting with the angular tone and harmonics of Frisell's guitar, complete with some of his trademark distortion and delayed effects, proved to be quite intoxicating. While I certainly enjoyed the album, the songs really took shape and became much more vital when played live. While the string section played together harmoniously marking the rhythm on most songs, Frisell's guitar was free to soar above the tunes, intersecting the melody at will and floating off to great effect.

I have seen Bill Frisell perform live three other times in a number of differing groups:the Bill Frisell trio, the "Blues Dream" group, and his shared trio with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano; but have never enjoyed his unique style and voicing as much as with this group. There was something about the dynamics of guitar, bass, drums and a string section that really complemented the music.

While the CD is certainly evocative of 60's soul and R&B records- complete with over the top keyboards, special effects, and great production- the live performance of these same songs sounded notably different played stripped down. The band really seemed to enjoy themselves and Bill was smiling throughout the performance.

One of the best concerts of the year so far. Don't miss this group!

LWayne B-)