Guitarist Bill Frisell, long-known for his genre-straddling work in jazz and Americana on labels such as ECM and Nonesuch, released his debut recording for Blue Note Records in October. The album,
Harmony, features Frisell backed by vocalist Petra Haden, cellist and vocalist Hank Roberts, and, on guitars, bass and vocals, Luke Bergman. “With this latest album, Blue Note was totally confident in my own ‘whatever-it-is-I’m-doing’ style,” says Frisell, who on
Harmony once again explores the hazy zones between jazz, country, pop and R&B. “It’s all over the place, but they were cool with that. I know this isn’t typical Blue Note music, but [Blue Note President] Don Was was so confident in it, so trusting. He didn’t even hesitate.”
To celebrate Frisell’s Blue Note housewarming, we asked the guitarist to share some of his favorite Blue Note albums of all time, from the early cuts that influenced him as a young artist to the albums that continue to inspire him to this day. Here are his picks:
Various Artists
, Blue Note’s Three Decades of Jazz, Vol. 1: 1949 – 1959 Sonny Rollins, A Night
at the Village Vanguard (1958)
Lee Morgan, S
earch for the New Land (1966)
Sam Rivers,
Fuchsia Swing Song (1965)
Grant Green,
Green Street (1961)
Charles Lloyd and The Marvels,
I Long To See You (2015)
To read what Frisell had to say about each of those albums, go to www.jazziz.com/frisell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAxDHysQqWc&t=346s
