Four is guitarist
Bill Frisell's third leader set for Blue Note. His top-shelf quartet seamlessly balances improvisational acumen with a profound sense of melodic invention.
Frisell's sidemen include saxophonist/clarinetist
Greg Tardy, pianist
Gerald Clayton, and drummer
Johnathan Blake. There is no bassist. Nine of these 13 tracks comprise fresh material, while the remainder are revisioned tunes from his catalog. Much of the new music was composed in notebook fragments during the pandemic; the album is his meditation on loss, renewal, and friendship. It is dedicated to the memory of
Ron Miles, one of
Frisell's closest friends and the musician whose example he credits with opening his thinking to this intimate method of creation.
Frisell left his pieces unfinished and presented them that way with precious little additional information to encourage spontaneous response and interplay from the group.
Opener "Dear Old Friend" is dedicated to the memory of Alan Woodard, a childhood friend who remained close all the way to the end.
Tardy plays a folk melody that evokes both "Shenandoah" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" with
Clayton adding tender accents and fills. The guitarist enters fingerpicking his Telecaster using an expanded timbral palette as
Blake adds muted tom-tom fills. "Claude Utley" begins with piano and muted rim shots, framing a harmonic statement that eventually opens onto a full lyric statement.
Frisell's solo evokes the lithe thematic romanticism of
Nino Rota's score for Federico Fellini's Roma as
Tardy's clarinet surrounds him. His tenor sax introduces "The Pioneers," whose original version appeared on
Good Dog, Happy Man.
Frisell and
Blake tenderly assert a bluesy gospel feel as
Clayton paints a poignant backdrop for
Tardy's resonant solo.
Frisell's catalog contains several titles that explore Americana's root genres. Despite the gentle approach and deliberate rootsy lyricsm here, this isn't one of them. This band, despite gentle, spacious communication, is locked in ambitious exploration. Check "Waltz for Hal Willner," as sax, piano, and whispering drums play in rounds and
Frisell and
Tardy trade imaginative call-and-response lines. The impressionistic jazz noir in "Lookout for Hope" is the title track from a 1988
ECM album. There is more reliance on space, clean tones, and tonal interplay between guitarist and saxophonist. "Monroe" and "Blues from Before" both use the form as a cornerstone from which to make -- what else but rootsy chamber music? The canny back and forth between frontline players is appended by the rhythm section's instinctive breaks and vamps. "Always" is a spectral piano solo from
Clayton that displays his consummate sensitivity and phrasing. The acoustic 12-string and dobro in the original "Good Dog, Happy Man" has been replaced by a breaking snare, and a tight thematic union of clarinet and electric guitar. It moves further afield, engaging the circular folk theme and transforming it into a dance. Despite
Four's gentility and lyricism, it is a striking, intimate, and abundantly creative exercise in modern jazz interaction and improvisation. ~ Thom Jurek