Bill Frisell - Disfarmer
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Artist: Bill FrisellBrand: FRISELL,BILL
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2009-07-21
Music Label: Nonesuch
Soundtracks:
- Disfarmer Theme
- Lonely Man
- Lost, Night
- Farmer
- Focus
- Peter Miller's Discovery
- That's Alright, Mama
- Little Girl
- Little Boy
- No One Gets In
- Lovesick Blues
- I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)
- Shutter, Dream
- Exposed
- The Wizard
- Think
- Drink
- Play
- I Am Not A Farmer
- Small Town
- Arkansas (Part 1)
- Arkansas (Part 2)
- Arkansas (Part 3)
- Lost Again, Dark
- Natural Light
- Did You See Him?
Music reviews of Disfarmer
Music Review: Evocative and inspired.
Rating: 4 Stars
The veteran avant-jazz guitarist Bill Frisell continues his exploration of Americana with a series of instrumentals inspired by the life and photographs of Depression-era Arkansas chronicler/photographer Michael Disfarmer, who documented the lives of pre-war rural southerners in vividly atmospheric portraits and vistas
With a band consisting of stand-up bass, steel guitar and fiddle, for the most part Frisell plays it pretty straight. He has recruited some fine country players - like bassist Victor Krauss and steel guitarist Greg Leisz - for the project.
Most of the pieces are plangent, haunting and fragmentary, as Frisell's delicately shimmering strings accentuate the psychological dread of Disfarmer's images.
The best tracks, such as "Little Gir", have a ragged edge to them, coming over like a genteel, dinner party-friendly version of "The Dirty Three".
He also throws in covers of Hank Williams's "Lovesick Blues" and Elvis's "That's All Right Mama".
A version of "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" is mysterious and lovely, and only the lightly rollicking "Arkansas Pt 1" interrupts the elegaic and lorn mood.
My favourite tracks: "Little Girl", the gentle waltz "Disfarmer Theme", the warm and subtle "Peter Miller's Discovery", the relaxed dance "That's Alright, Mama", treated treated as slinky Western Swing, with touches of intriguing mandolin/guitar interplay and the beautiful "I Am Not a Farmer".
Description of Disfarmer
The late Michael Disfarmer was an odd, curmudgeonly character in the rural community of Heber Springs, Arkansas, who, despite his anti-social character, chose to record the stark images of his fellow townspeople, during the 1940's and 50's, in cheap black-and-white photographic portraits. Decades after the photographer's passing, a cache of work made by this solitary and oft-reviled man was rediscovered, and he has come to be regarded as an important outsider artist. Among the many drawn to his plain yet deeply evocative pictures was Chuck Helm, Director of the Performing Arts at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, who introduced guitarist and composer Bill Frisell to Disfarmer's oeuvre on the hunch that Frisell might be inspired by it.Says Helm, the catalyst for Disfarmer, 'To me, Bill Frisell is a uniquely American artist with a distinctive and singular musical voice, like that of Thelonious Monk or Aaron Copland. In his probing yet atmospheric evocations of American vistas I could hear parallels to the emotional truths of Disfarmer's compelling photographs.'
As Helm suspected, Disfarmer's work resonated with Frisell and led to the creation of a touring multimedia work, Disfarmer Project - featuring Frisell, lap steel guitar player Greg Leisz and violinist Jenny Scheinman, plus slides of Disfarmer's photos, displayed on screens. The piece premiered on March 3, 2007 at the Wexner Center, on the campus of Ohio State University. The score was subsequently recorded in Seattle and Nashville, produced by Frisell's longtime collaborator Lee Townsend and also featuring Viktor Krauss on bass. Along with the Frisell's original compositions, he interpolates versions of such tunes as Arthur Crudup's 'That's Alright Mama' and Hank Williams Sr.'s 'I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)' into this subtly yet stunningly beautiful set.
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