Bill Frisell Trio

The Bill  Frisell  Trio with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston joins  a  rich  legacy  of  three-member  groups: the  trios of Nat  Cole, Hank Jones, Erroll Garner, Bill Evans and many others.  It’s a heritage all but defined by the tensions between tradition and individuality, continuity and change, that have always informed jazz and spark every performance by the Frisell Trio.

“All three of these musicians have a deep sense of structure along with their exploratory approach to making music, so they can elaborate but never move too far away from what they need to do to serve the song. This  trio  is  a  sterling example  of  balancing  that  architectural  sensibility  with  the  spirit  of spontaneity at the same time,”  says Lee Townsend, producer of the Trio’s new recording Valentine.

Frisell, whose eternally boyish appearance and folksy way of talking belie a probing intellect, is  attuned  to  the mysterious  but  scientifically  grounded strength of the  combination  of  three improvising musicians.  The trio configuration is, after all, a musical permutation of the “power of three” central  to every  field  from  mythology and  religion  to  mathematics  and  physics since Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades made up the triumvirate of Greek Gods.

As with every triangle, the Bill Frisell Trio draws its strength from having three separate sides (the musicians, each with his own sensibility) connected by three vertices (the harmony, melodies, and tempi of the material).  Frisell, as the leader and chief composer, established the framework of meticulous  untidiness  and  open-eared  generosity,  playing  with  economical wisdom  and  unforced daring.  Thomas Morgan plays in and around Frisell’s guitar lines, supporting them and building from them in counterpoint that sounds both wholly organic and full of surprise.  And Rudy Royston Brings a third layer of feeling to the group while holding everything together.