Bill Frisell's most recent Nonesuch release, 2008's double-disc History, Mystery is up for a Grammy Award next month for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, the same month Nonesuch will release a collection of Bill's work titled The Best of Bill Frisell, Volume 1: Folk Songs. This week, he is the subject of a feature article in the latest issue of The New Yorker by writer Gary Giddins, who describes his subject as "the fearless and adaptable guitarist Bill Frisell, whose varied endeavors have drawn him into free-form extemporizations, symphonic collaborations, hard and soft rock, country, and accompaniments for Buster Keaton silent films ..."

Frisell's recent residency at the Blue Note in New York City, with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Paul Motion, says Giddins "retooled the repertory, and rekindled the charm, of an album that the trio made in 2006," a Nonesuch release titled after the three participants.

The article goes on to suggest one aspect of the guitarist's contributions in his frequent collaborative efforts:

As an instrumentalist, he has enormous ambition, and is devoted to the idea that the guitar can be orchestral in reach. Manipulating his sound with an array of digital effects, to produce real-time ostinato loops or to simulate the delicate chimes of a celesta, he creates expansive, echoing canvases for his collaborators to work on.

Further, Giddins describes Frisell's guitar-playing style as "a confident, spare attack that suggests both modesty and calculation" and "reflects his appreciation of Hall, Wes Montgomery, John McLaughlin, and Jimi Hendrix."

Read the complete article at newyorker.com. For Frisell's upcoming tour schedule, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

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One of the participants on History, Mystery, Shawn Pierce, the engineer who mixed and recorded the album, is featured in an article in his former hometown paper, Ontario, Canada's Thunder Bay Source, focused on the increased attention the Grammy nomination has brought to the album. "I’m more proud of my association with (Bill Frisell) and that album, and more proud of how great that album is than I am of the actual Grammy nomination," Pierce tells the paper. "That really is the wonderful, wonderful part of this whole thing." Read the article at tbsource.com.