Music IS

• OKEH/SONY MASTERWORKMusic is

This is guitar master Bill Frisell’s first solo album since Ghost Town was released on Nonesuch 20 years ago. “Playing ‘solo’ is always a challenge,” Frisell says. “For me, music has all along been so much about playing with other people. Having a conversation. Call and response. Playing all by myself is a trip. I really have to change the way I think. In preparation for this recording I played for a week at The Stone in New York. Each night I attempted new music that I'd never played before. I was purposely trying to keep myself a little off balance. Uncomfortable. Unsure. I didn't want to fall back on things that I knew were safe. My hope was to continue this process right on into the studio. I didn't want to have things be all planned out beforehand.” All the compositions on Music IS were composed by Frisell, some are brand-new - Change in the Air, Thankful, What Do You Want, Miss You and Go Happy Lucky - others are solo adaptions of now classic original compositions Frisell has previously recorded - In Line, Rambler, Ron Carter, Pretty Stars, Monica Jane, and The Pioneers. The focus of Music IS is on the telling of musical stories from Frisell’s original and inimitable perspective. The end result is Frisell at his most distilled and fully realised.