“All We Are Saying is give peace a chance” became the anthem of the anti Vietnam-war movement back in ’69. Guitarist and composer Bill Frisell took his chances on some of the most famous songs written by John Lennon and record his take on the classic songs such as “Across the Universe”, “Nowhere Man”, “Imagine”, “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, “In My Life”, “Come Together”, “# 9 Dream” or “Mother”.
Some might know Bill Frisell from John Zorn’s Naked City, but before that, he worked with Jan Garbarek on “Paths, Prints” in 1981 and one year later Pat Metheny recommended Frisell to Paul Motian who was recording “Psalm” for ECM Records. Frisell became ECM’s in-house guitar player. In ’83 he collaborated once again with Garbarek on “Wayfarer”.
Frisell’s first solo release was In Line featured solo guitar and duets with bassist Arild Andersen in 1983 and since he released almost 30 solo albums and had collaborate with Vernon Reid, Elvis Costello, Jack DeJohnette, Tim Berne, Michael White among many other artist on several release.
Frisell left after over two decades Nonesuch for Savoy to be able to release more than one album a year. “Beautiful Dreamers” was released, in August, 2010, “Sign of Life” came eight months later and adding now “All We Are Saying…” makes three albums from the veteran guitarist in only thirteen months.
Bill Frisell with his ensemble consisting of Jenny Scheinman (violin), Tony Scherr (bass), Greg Leisz (guitars) and Kenny Wollesen (drums) give a particular country taste for his jazz remakes. This is definitively no “Beatles-meets-jazz”, Frisell giving from country to rock and back his particular taste like jazz aroma to this classic songs.
Tracklist:
01. Across the Universe
02. Revolution
03. Nowhere Man
04. Imagine
05. Please Please Me
06. You’ve Got Hide Your Love Away
07. Hold On
08. In My Life
09. Come Together
10. Julia
11. Woman
12. #9 Dream
13. Love
14. Beautiful Boy
15. Mother
16. Give Peace a Chance
17. Strawberry Fields
Recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley and produced by Lee Townsend, “All We Are Saying…†was released on Savoy Jazz on September 27th.
Bill Frisell – Official Site
Savoy Jazz
Bill Frisell @ MySpace
