Financial Times: Five Stars for Frisell Performance with BBC Symphony, to Air on BBC Radio 3
Bill Frisell unveiled Collage for a Day, a new piece he wrote orchestrated by Mike Gibbs, in a performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and drummer Joey Baron at Barbican Hall in London last Friday. The program was part of the London Jazz Festival and included BBCSO performances of Copland's Appalachian Spring and Ives's Three Places in New England as well. BBC Radio 3, which commissioned the new work, will broadcast the concert today on Afternoon on 3, beginning at 3:15 PM GMT. You can tune in online at bbc.co.uk.
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"Each year, the London Jazz Festival marshals orchestral resources for landmark special events," writes Financial Times music critic Mike Hobart. "This year’s centrepiece was a platform for Bill Frisell," one that earned a perfect five-star rating from the paper. Hobart also draws attention to Gibbs's arrangements for the BBCSO, which, he says, "wove the orchestra in and round Frisell’s lead, providing majestic support, textural embellishment and melodic statement."
Read the five-star review plus more of Hobart's coverage from the London Jazz Festival at ft.com.
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The Guardian's John Fordham gives the Friday night performance four stars, also pointing to Gibbs efforts for creating "a sumptuous yet flexible orchestral setting for some of Frisell's classic themes." Fordham explains how the two artists complemented each other's work:
The purr of the orchestra's strings softened and even romanticised the guitarist's trademark harmonically twisted country chords and jaunty rockabilly dances. But the graceful balance of order and open jamming in Gibbs's orchestral score let most of this unique artist's character glow through.
Read the complete concert review at guardian.co.uk.
I stood transfixed in my kitchen during the whole performance. I have since been continously trying to buy a recording without success. I am just about to send a letter to BBC3 radio having already written to Publicity dept. of the BBC Symphony Orcestra with no response. Shall I write to their recording company in the States? They have 2 addresses I seem to remember, one Califonia & I think the other was Los Angeles. I am absolutely desperate to get a recording before I 'pop my clogs' - I am 82.
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