Guitarist Performs Monterey Jazz Festival Commission Piece, Big Sur
October 1, 2013; Monterey, Calif.; Monterey Jazz Festival is pleased to announce that the Bill Frisell Big Sur Quintet will perform at the Sunset Center on Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at 7:30pm for a performance of Big Sur.
Presented by Monterey Jazz Festival, tickets are $29-$80 and are available now at sunsetcenter.org or by calling (831) 620-2048. Admission to a special VIP reception is included in the purchase of all $80 tickets. The Sunset Center is located at San Carlos at Ninth Avenue in Carmel.
Originally commissioned by the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Big Sur Land Trust in 2012, the GRAMMY®-winning guitarist and composer Bill Frisell made the debut of the Music of Glen Deven Ranch last year at the 55th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival and subsequently recorded the suite as Big Sur for the Okeh label. “[Big Sur] is a work that somehow manages to evoke not just the part of the country which is its inspiration, but American music as a whole,” wrote All About Jazz.
Featuring 19 compositions that explicitly reference the coastal-mountain environment, the hour-long suite was composed in the spring of 2012 during Frisell’s residency at Glen Deven Ranch, the 860-acre property bequeathed to the Big Sur Land Trust, in partnership with Monterey Jazz Festival.
Suite titles such as “A Good Spot,” “Going to California,” “A Beautiful View,” “Big Sur,” and “On the Lookout” evoke the remote and pastoral setting with musical blends of chamber jazz, country, classical, folk, and rock. “Big Sur is more than just a musical recording,” wrote DownBeat Magazine. “It’s a sonic novel—instrumental storytelling of the highest caliber delivered by an amazing storyteller.”
The Santa Fe New Mexican wrote that “the suite is an amazing testament to how a place can coax so much from a musical genius. Frisell, confronted by the Big Sur environment, ‘filled up pages and pages,’ he said. ‘The music just kept coming.’”
Frisell will be joined by his original collaborating musicians in the 858 Quartet—both on the Festival debut and the recording—including violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts, and drummer Rudy Royston.
Bill Frisell is a visionary presence in American music, with a career spanning more than 25 years and over 200 recordings, including 25 albums of his own. Mr. Frisell’s original eclectic repertoire touches on jazz, progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise, and more, and he is known for using an array of electronic effects and extended techniques to create unique soundscapes with his instrument.
He has been recognized with many awards, including 11 DownBeat Critics Poll Awards; three Jazz Journalist Association’s Guitarist of the Year Awards; two German Record Prizes; three GRAMMY nominations, and a 2005 GRAMMY for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. He has performed and collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including Elvis Costello, Ginger Baker, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Rickie Lee Jones, Marianne Faithful, John Scofield, Jan Garbarek, the Frankfurt Ballet, Bono, Brian Eno, and Daniel Lanois.
In 2006, Mr. Frisell was named a USA Rasmuson Fellow and also won the Letter of Distinction Award from the American Music Center, which recognizes those who have made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary American music.
An official video about the making of Big Sur can be seen here.
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For more information pleae contact:
Timothy Orr, Marketing Associate, Monterey Jazz Festival
Direct Line: 510.652.1122
Monterey Office: 831.373.3366
timorr@montereyjazzfestival.org
www.montereyjazzfestival.org