The event is island-grown, but the guitarist is an import.
For world-renowned guitarist Bill Frisell, who moved to Bainbridge a year ago, an appearance with a roster of local artists at the Nov. 11 “Homespun” variety show marks his first island gig.
“It’s good to be playing at home,” Frisell says, “and I’m looking forward to getting up there with Robin (Holcomb, vocals) and Dan (Barnes, banjo).”
Jazz afficiandos certainly know of Frisell, whose credits as soloist, collaborator and session man include dozens of albums, plus music for the films “Finding Forrester” and the remake of “Psycho.”
He has scored Buster Keaton films, Gary Larson’s “Tales From the Far Side,” and Daniele Luchetti’s Italian feature film, “La Scuola.” He performs original compositions and interprets the music of composers as varied as Sousa, Muddy Waters, Charles Ives and Madonna.
He strums, picks and twangs through musical genres, retooling country, blues, bluegrass, rock and folk. He walks over boundaries between styles, bending bluegrass tunes with lush digital delay effects, or picking out “When I Fall In Love” on the banjo.
Frisell retools familiar works so listeners hear music opened to its core.
Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” gets the Frisell treatment on last year’s album “Ghost Town” (Nonesuch Records). Frisell opens the country standard in a halting, uneven tempo, shaping each phrase into a solitary unit bracketed by the haunting echo of the delay.
His “Variations on a Theme” evokes Duane Eddy and the dreamworlds of David Lynch; the soundscapes of “Winter Always Turns to Spring” would be at home in the more remote corners of the indie-pop world, with textural stylists like Robin Guthrie and Henry Frayne.
“I’ve been real lucky,” Frisell says. “I do want people to like it – and people seem to like it.”
Frisell’s art speaks eloquently, but the man nicknamed “Clark Kent” is quiet and self-effacing.
He grew up in Denver, Colo., and learned to play the clarinet as a kid, a pursuit supported by his parents.
“My father was a biochemist, but he listened to music,” Frisell says. “My parents encouraged me, but they did wish that I had ‘something to fall back on.’”
Frisell moved to New York, and after an early stint with an all-musician house cleaning service, soon made a living from his art, playing with jazz luminaries like Don Byron, Wayne Horvitz and John Zorn.
After a career-making decade in the city, Frisell and artist wife Carole d’Inverno followed friends to Seattle in 1989. Last year, they moved to Bainbridge with their daughter.
“If you’re in New York, it’s the center of the universe, and it was scary to leave,” Frisell says, “but there’s music all over the world.”
Leaving New York, though, has proved to be good for both his family and his art.
“The move was not just for my kid, it was for me, a way of finding my own voice,” he says. “New York was constant input. I was constantly absorbing things, but then after a point it was ‘what do I think about all this input?’”
While he likes Bainbridge, Frisell says he hasn’t met a lot of folks here yet. That’s one reason he looks forward to the “Homespun” gig.
“It’s a real cool way to get people together,” he says. “This thing is a good chance to get to know some more people.”
