New Release From Acclaimed Guitarist Bill Frisell, “Four”

Bill Frisell’s forthcoming album “Four” is a meditation on loss, renewal, and friendships. Produced by Lee Townsend, release date November 11.

Above Photo Credit: Monica Jane Frisell

The album convenes a new line-up of musical friends, independent spirits, and like minds with Gerald Clayton on piano, Johnathan Blake on drums, and longtime collaborator Greg Tardy on saxophone, clarinet, and bass clarinet.

During the lockdown, like so many prolific artists, Frisell turned inward. “It was traumatic not to be with people,” he says, “so I picked up my guitar, and my guitar saved me.” For those months, he wrote stacks of melodies and compositional ideas. By the time he scheduled Four’s recording sessions, he’d amassed piles of notebooks filled with fragmented music. Laying little more than a sketch of information before his fellow artists, Frisell encouraged a kind of spontaneous, cooperative orchestration. “Everyone had the information, but it was super open as far as who plays what when,” he says. “Without a bass, it was a little scary, but I wasn’t thinking so much about the instruments. It’s always more about the chemical reaction that’s going to happen.”

Four is available for pre-order now on vinyl, CD, and digital formats.

More on Bill Frisell.