I think I'm going to grow old gracefully listening to lots of Bill Frisell albums. As a younger man, I confess his virtues were lost on me, but after twenty something years, I'm starting to get it. Another admission: the appeal of this album came first via the cover versions. I heard I Heard it through the Grapevine on Late Junction on 25th October 2005 and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall two days later. That led me to put this album on my Amazon wishlist and Lucy gave it to me for my birthday in 2007.
Hard Rain is a special favourite. I'll go so far as to say I like it more than the original. I love the way those jazz guys fool around with a tune. I swear for the first three minutes of the track, Frisell plays nothing that's recognisable as Hard Rain. But then it comes, and it's like I was saying yesterday, in a different context, that gorgeous moment when order and beauty emerge out of chaos. In Frisell's hands, the track goes on for a further eight minutes, and he continues to mess with our memory, drawing out parts of the tune that you know are in the original but never seemed so beautiful, so aching in the pathos before. And Hard Rain is a favourite in a new way since six months ago and the arrival of my blue-eyed son, by darling young one.
The cover versions drew me in, but some of the originals have slowly come to captivate me, too. I like to think that Boubacar (performed solo in the video below) is a tribute to Boubacar Traoré. I mean, how many Boubacars are there in the world? (Daft question: it turns out there's more than one Boubacar Traoré.)
I've listened to the first disc (recorded on the West coast of America) more than the other (recorded in New York), and I find it more immediate and accessible. Literally more accessible, because it's one of those double CD jewel cases that make it difficult to prise out the second disc. Maybe that's just me. I noticed that Ron Carter, included on the second disc, is the most played of all Frisell's tracks on his Last.fm page. So I listened to it twice to see if I could discern what made it popular. I couldn't, but now it's even further ahead in the playcount chart.
Today's joyous discovery is that twelve Frisell albums (including the extra tracks on Further East/Further West) are available to listen to for free on We7. I can almost feel my hair turning a distinguished grey at the prospect.
![]() Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in full at Last.fm Listen to this album in full at We7 |
Comments