sorry-1st one got sent accidentally...
 
Saw Bill Frisell Tonight (July 5) in Iowa City @ IC Jazz Fest
 
Well, I missed him when he played here back in 2000, b/c i was in the middle of a move, but got to see him tonight.The funny thing is he looked older than pictures i remember of him, but then i thought that my memory is probably pictures from early 90s, a long time ago!
My main thoughts when i saw him was he sounded kind of "jazzy" and he was very melodic playing w/ drums, bass, & i think a trumpet player; The funny thing I thought as i watched was thinking of all the on-line boards i'm on (too many!) is people asking, "oh i want a jazz sound, which semi-hollow guitar & amp should i get, bla bla bla..." & I thought well, Bill Frisell sounded pretty jazzy to me & he was playing a blonde Telecaster & a small Fender amp. He played for about an hour & 15 min, The 1st 3 songs he played took about 50 min-in that time he did 3 little loop things, sort of noise-based (some scratching-extended playing stuff), at times it was clean tele sounds, another time it sounded like a piano for a second. When he was playing these, i think the audience was wondering what was up? Not sure if they got it or not, but his loops do make nice transitions in his compositions.
The other thing I noticed from watching behind the stage (i was able to be in shade & i didn't bring a lawn chair so i could sit on steps of Old Capitol Building) was that he mostly played facing his band, and for the most part  his guitar was facing to the back, so that I & everyone else behind stage could see his guitar (& hands from 40 some ft back)-the main audience would mostly see his left side and the back of his guitar neck. I could see that he was using a Line 6 Delay Pedal (green one) for his loops. I think he also had a distortion box of some kind (couldn't see it)-but the main thing i thought was his sound was pretty clean and sparse (I kept thinking: I PLAY W/ MORE EFFECTS!). The other thing i noticed was he played a barre chord twice that I saw! I should say that all the songs he played i recognized the melody, etc, but since i rarely remember titles of stuff, I couldn't connect a song to a title. He seemed to be really enjoying himself & his band, and they had some good interaction-especially during his little loop things. The last thing was when he was done, he put his Tele in a soft case and turned off his amp, & started to collect his pedals-no roadies for him!!
 
sorry for the choppy/disorganized review...just some quick notes i remember...
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