One of my all-time guitar heroes, Bill Frisell, came to Malmo to play with his 858 Quartet featuring Jenny Scheinman (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola) and Hank Roberts (cello). Having been responsible for getting this unique group to Malmo, I took it upon myself to pick the quartet up at Kastrup airport. Earlier that week, I had spoken to Frisell's tour manager, Claudia, and was informed that the leading man was ill with some kind of flu or cold. Luckily, when I asked him about it, Mr. Frisell said he was "a thousand times better now". Even so, the leader sneezed once during the show (in time, of course).
The music was great. I am very impressed by Bill Frisell's ability to constantly reinvent himself and seemingly always being on the lookout for new musical ventures. The 858 Quartet is a fairly new group, having playing together on Frisell's Unspeakable from 2004 for the first time. The range of musical sounds and styles available from this excellent quartet was nothing short of astounding: early music and contemporary art music (imagine Pachabel, Arvo Part, Philip Glass and Bartok working together); jazz; a Bacharach cover; intense rock guitar sounds; you name it, they played it. And did they play it well! Dynamic, playful and highly imaginative music was the order of the day in this musical table tennis game where composed parts and improvised sections came and went faster than the speed of light.
Amazing music, fantastic musicians, wonderful people with a great sense of humour. I was very kindly given a CD by Jenny Scheinman, and for this I am very grateful. In fact, this CD deserves - and will be given - an entry of its own eventually.
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The ill-fated guitar hero group GTR only released one album, simply called - you guessed it - GTR. "Jekyll and Hyde" is one of several AOR tracks from that album. As with most of the songs on GTR, the highlights are the guitar parts by Steve Hackett and Steve Howe. A quote from Frank Zappa comes to mind when thinking about this album: "Shut up and play your guitar".
1 comment:
hi Thomas ;)
WOW!
that is, for sure, one concert that i wish i can see.
I didn't know that Eyvind Kang was playing with them. I'm a big fan of Eyvind Kang. the album "virginal co ordinates" from Eyvind Kang is one of the finest CDs i bought in the last years. (if you don't know it Thomas i must tell you to buy it. it's a master piece)
let me just write you here the CD credits:
Michael White: violino
Mike Patton: voice, electronics
Tim Young: electric guitar
Tucker Martine: live sound processing
Evan Schiller: sound movements
Eyvind Kang: violin
it's amazing how Patton add his angelic voice into this project.
maybe you already know this CD Thomas ;)
all the best to you
noca (IB fan & your friend from Portugal)
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