Date: Thursday, 2 August 2012
Venue: Le Poisson Rouge (NY)
Review by Matt Cole and photos by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi
On Thursday, 2 August 2012, Bill Frisell and his talented band played an evening of John Lennon’s music before a packed, seated house at La Poisson Rouge. The band consisted of Jenny Scheinman on violin, Greg Leisz on pedal steel, Tony Scherr on bass, and Kenny Wollesen on drums. The band played selections from Frisell’s 2011 album, All We Are Saying, a collection of John Lennon’s songs played by the same band we were hearing live.
The music began with Frisell alone, then the rest of the band coming in one-by-one, in a dreamy jam that coalesced into “Across the Universe.” After an almost Beatlesesque treatment of the melody (helped along by Kenny Wollesen’s excellent and tasteful drumming in this idiom, which continued throughout the night), the band went back into free and dreamy territory. This pattern would continue for most of the night, with most songs starting free, and then alternating between Beatles-like sounds and free but not dissonant improve sections. A few times, no doubt aided by the sounds of Leisz’ pedal steel, the band entered the edges of country-rock territory, one example being on Lennon’s ode to his son, “Beautiful Boy,” another in “In My Life” towards the end of the set (the psychedelic ending of which, curiously, also reminded me a little of the intro to Rush’s epic “Xanadu”).
About three quarters of the way into the show came one of the night’s highlights. As the band gently flew through a dream scape, the drums and bass began to ease their way into “Come Together.” This song and the band’s explorations thereof became very energetic, probably the most so of the night, and covered different sonic territory, noticeably some excellent distorted guitar work on Frisell’s part, some hints of funk and reggae at times, and some wonderfully nasty bass from Scherr during one of Frisell’s solos. Leisz took us out with some pedal steel sonics over the outro, then the music melted, leaving us with a haunting pedal steel/violin conversation.
After the main set ended, the crowd loudly demanded an encore, and the band came back out. Before they played, Frisell told a shaggy dog joke about how the band had tested the temperature and depth of the Hudson River. Then we were treated to some thick pedal steel sounds which eventually emerged into Strawberry Fields. Scheinman, Leisz, and Frisell each took lead on one of the verses, and the band took on a psychedelic and distorted sound as it took off towards the end.
In all, this was a good show by an excellent band of experienced musicians. Scheinman alternated melodic leads and solos with intricate and tasteful counterpoint throughout the night. Scherr and Wollesen were, as always, a tight and creative rhythm section; and Leisz acquitted himself well on the difficult pedal steel. And Frisell’s playing was, as usual, just about impeccable. Throughout the show, there was very good interplay and communication between the band members, as might be expected from a group of highly skilled musicians who have played together often. My one complaint was that the sonic palette seemed a little too monochromatic in the higher range; the undistorted guitar and pedal steel often were hard to distinguish from each other, and the violin wasn’t that far off from either. The overall sound could have definitely benefited from a few more timbres along the way. Also, most of the pieces followed a similar structure of free-and-dreamy alternated with Beatlesesque and/or country rock. Thus, for me, the distorted and more psychedelic (as opposed to gently dreamy) sounds of “Come Together” and “Strawberry Fields” were the two highlights of the show. This, however, didn’t detract too much from the overall experience, though, and the night was definitely a dream come true for the fans of John Lennon and Bill Frisell who filled LPR that evening.
