Bill Frisell at the Boulder Theater
Denver is lucky to claim avante/jazz/Americana guitarist Bill Frisell as a native. While he makes his current residence in Seattle, he usually returns to the Denver area several times a year to play shows. Last winter he played the tiny Old Main on the CU campus with a quintet including local hero Ron Miles and the always-brilliant Joey Baron. June 8 saw Frisell play the Boulder Theater with vocalist Petra Haden and a trio including Viktor Krauss and drummer Matt Chamberlin.
Frisell and Petra Haden opened the show with a set of tasteful guitar & voice duets from their recent CD. Haden’s voice is refreshingly pure; unlike many of today’s young singers (Madeline Peyroux, Nellie MacKay) her style is very clean without any affectation or period ornamentation. The effect is nice, but it requires a dynamic accompanist to hold your attention. Frisell is that accompanist. Playing exclusively electric guitar with the occasional loop/delay effect, Frisell’s spacious, rich sound stole the show. Several songs led into open instrumental sections with Frisell self-accompanying loops and Haden’s competent fiddle playing.
But the trio set was the meat of the show. Frisell has a knack for selecting drummers outside the jazz scene and allowing them to shine (Jim Keltner, for one), and this was no exception. Studio drummer Matt Chamberlin (Tori Amos, Fiona Apple) brought a jazz drummer’s sense of space and improvisation to the mix, while rarely relying on jazz patterns. The set consisted of mostly familiar Frisell tunes and Americana standards (”I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall”). The band stayed mostly inside the lines of the songs; developing the songs from the inside-out with dynamics and melody guiding the improvisations.