Re[2]: Frisell's Looping techniques

[Mike.Biffle@wj.com (Mike Biffle)]

>>Anybody check out the new Bill Frissell album, GONE LIKE A TRAIN?

Someone also mentioned Power Tools! That release affected me strongly too. 
I'd 
say my favorite Frissell is "Where in the World?" The first track "Unsung 
Heroes" is amazing. Awesome Cello work!

>Bill makes excellent use of space, and less is generally more for him.
>It's amazing to see Bill play live, especially with his old Quartet... 
>would 
>play repetitive motives which sounded like Frisell's looped materials.  
>Thus, 
>Ron Miles (tpt), and Curtis Fowlkes (tbn) provided and interesting 
>polyrhythmic
>texture for Bill to play over.

>By the way all you gear heads, What IS Bill using to do all his looping?  
>I
>had a friend tell me that it was some propriatary somthing.  Anybody know
>for sure?  Doug Tapia

The last time I saw him about 3 years ago, he actually had a JamMan with a 
LXP-1
and his Digitech floor box (the 8 second one) strapped to a bar stool. He 
did a 
lot of fiddling with the mix knob on the JamMan. He would input silently 
and 
then at some airy moment or pause in the music crank it up and see what 
was in 
there. Great fun!

On the floor he had his TC Sustainor, Rat Fuzz-Box, Boss DD-3 and volume 
pedal. 
It actually looked like he had the Boss delay between his guitar and the 
fuzz 
which makes for an unusual tone config. (I could be wrong on this due to 
the 
cable pile on the floor).

I've seen him a few times and he always had the Digitech box on a stool... 
He 
didn't tap anything with his foot. He would take (seemingly) wild stabs at 
the 
pedal with his hand to put the delay on hold. Then he would twiddle with 
the 
delay time knob to transpose the sound up or down for some pretty cool 
sounds. 
(With varying results). (He did have the JamMan dual foot control.)

The thing I enjoyed the most about his looping was that it seemed like 
Bill was 
just as eager to find out what would come out of his boxes as the 
audience. When
it was funny or compelling, you could see his immediate surprise or 
satisfaction
with the result. He also has an attractive childlike attitude about the 
act of 
improvisation in general. Very open regardless of the results, which is 
very 
engaging. I felt like I was exploring with him while he played.

I know there have been recent criticisms of discussing performer's 
attitudes or 
personality traits, but for me the music is an extension of the performer. 
My 
-perception- of the person adds or detracts from the music in various 
ways. 
While this may be thought of as a limitation, I find philosophy and 
attitude to 
be very important parts of the artist / music relationship. I hope this 
doesn't 
offend anyone.

-Miko