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Re: Bill Frisell a master at work.. some great use of looping



Title: Re: Bill Frisell a master at work.. some great use of loop
I first discovered Bill Frisell on an Eberhard Weber record called "Fluid Rustle" in the late 1970s.  Back then what he was doing was pretty revolutionary..  he played in a deceptively simple style and use the most minimal  chord voicings I'd ever heard.   Most of all, his tone was not the  "accepted" tone of any "Jass" or "Fuzak" guitarist, but rather more like a pedal steel: clean, sometimes spikey..   When I finally saw him perform live (with Eberhard Weber and Lyle Mays, after Weber's "Later That Evening" record") I could see that the sinewy tone he had developed was bourne out of necessity, he was playing an early 1960 Les Paul Jr (the "SG" looking models) and flexing the instrument to deal with that particular instrument's intonation and tuning issues.  This gave him his characteristic "pitch swarble" that so many of his followers imitate by using their whammy bars, the the single P-90 pickup added to the steel guitar impression, too.

Over the years I've gotten to know Bill and have had some great discussions, his daughter is a gifted photographer, BTW.   Most recently I ran into Bill (literally) as we were both bee-lining it for a 1963 "SG' Lespaul Jr hanging on the wall at the Guitar Center on 14th street in Manhattan.   We were each so focused on the instrument that we collided, paused for a second, stunned and I heard "Chuck!!" coming from above (Bill is a rather large man, and well over 6 feet tall, and I'm probably a foot shorter and 200lbs lighter), I  looked up: "Bill!" I smiled, "Were you going for that SG Jr?"  "Yes..!" he answered...  I mentioned that the first time I saw him play that's the guitar he was using, he mentioned that he had loved that instrument.  I mentioned the Weber gig and he pondered "What amp was I using then?".. we both answered at the same time and had the same look of disbelief at the memory: "A Lab Series...  wow...".   Anyone who's played through one of those amps will understand the disbelief... ;-)

-Chuck Zwicky


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