RE: Frisell/Power Tools and assorted discographies

[Laurie Hatch <lahatch@dnai.com>]

David O:
then you'll want to scurry off to the Bill Frisell Song Finder at:
<http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Delta/2495/bill_frz.htm> (the
construction of which proves how much spare time I had last weekend).


Hey, nice work David!  I've got one to add, I mentioned it a while back in 
a 
discpix thread, but will give it some bandwidth again:

"Just So Happens", Gary Peacock and Bill, duet.  For anyone who doesn't 
know, 
Gary is a major cat in jazz world.  Plays upright bass, lives in Seattle. 
 Great player, great guy.

Album was recorded February 1994, most the compositions are Gary's and 
Bill's 
collaborations.  Plus a little Americana (Home on the Range 1 and 2, Red 
River 
Valley), a jazz standard or two (Good Morning Heartache, Reciprocity - 
which is 
Gary's), and another Gary tune.

I really love this album, but then I've always been inspired by both 
Gary's and 
Bill's playing.  The title track, "Just So Happens" is exceptionally 
beautiful, 
like when the sun comes up.

*******************
For anyone interested in more about Gary, here's an anecdotal story.  This 
was 
in Seattle, more years ago than I care to count.  I was doing lessons with 
him, 
and that week we'd been working on jazz standards, specifically Autumn 
Leaves, 
in all keys.  At the time Autumn Leaves wasn't my most favorite tune in 
the 
world, but he chose it for specific pedagogical reasons, and hey, who was 
I to 
argue?  He'd play piano, call a key, and 3,4, go man.  Just do it.  It was 
pretty daunting for a kid learning to play walking lines, but Gary was 
unbelievably patient and encouraging.  Well, I limped through that 
session, 
grasping at obvious, rudimentary harmonic and rhythmic choices, not 
venturing 
very far so as not to totally fall flat on my face, which I was doing 
anyway. 
 Came out of there feeling like I'd been through a ringer.

That evening I went out to a little jazz club where Gary was playing.  It 
was 
early in the week, and early in the night.  There were only two or three 
people 
in the club, which would later fill up.  He leaned over to the other 
player (I 
can't for the life of me remember who it was, but he was gigging a lot 
with Art 
Lande at the time...) whispered something, and started into this 
magnificent, 
elongated improvisation.  These guys were at 150%, absolutely playing 
their 
butts off, exploring extraordinary tangents.  Just pasted me to the chair 
- I 
was absolutely captivated; it was the finest I'd ever heard him play.  
After 
how long, who knows - this little cocoon club was in a time warp - 
increasingly 
brilliant, elegant tones threaded into Gary's tapestry, one by one, ever 
so 
smoothly.  It was like shimmering deep bells going off in my head.  Autumn 
Leaves.  Holy shiiii....

That remains the most profoundly moving "lesson" I've ever had.

laurie







>From lists@slip.net Tue Mar 10 09:30:28 1998