Cool Looper Alert

[Fmplautus@aol.com]

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

Interesting, spare, sinewy, ice skater- like loops  at the end of track 6,
LOOKOUT FOR HOPE, and track 16 -- no title and officially not a "tune" but 
at
the end of the CD in a kind of sneaky Beatlesque White Album way.  We think
tracks six looping is especially musical -- again at the end of the piece.

It's interesting to see Friessell tip-toeing into looping.  We really like 
the
way he used the loops to enhance his style of playing jazz guitar.  (The 
way
he plays reminds us of turn of the century "parlor" guitar that's been 
warped
by Thelonius Monk.)  Frissell has  absored "play the spaces" from Monk, and
from what we hear his looping forays are about that.

It's also an alternative looping universe to the dense "texture" looping 
that
we all know and love, just as his guitar playing is a healthy antidote to 
the
"velocity" single voice playing that has denominated electric guitar in the
last decade.

But will Frissell only continue to flirt with looping, or will he flat out
make a commitment and bring her home to mama?  He seems to be becoming more
popular.

Best,
the LoOpdOctOrs