Live (Bill Frisell album)

Reception

The Allmusic review by Rick Anderson awarded the album 4.5 stars stating "This album finds Frisell onstage with bassist Kermit Driscoll and drummer Joey Baron, running through a few faves ("Throughout," "Strange Meeting," "When We Go"), as well as some more obscure and surprising material. Driscoll is a sharply intuitive bassist with a reggae player's feel for silence; Baron punctuates more than he undergirds. As a result, this is largely music without groove. Instead, it hovers and floats overhead like a benevolent thunderstorm, sometimes letting loose rumbling, atonal chaos like "Crumb" and sometimes emitting bolts of pure electric light such as the utterly charming "Rag" and the yearning sweetness of "Throughout." "Pip, Squeak/Goodbye" steps briefly into tango territory, and Frisell takes the Sonny Rollins composition "No Moe" all the way back to the Delta with a bent blues solo. The John Hiatt cover, by the way, is the emotional centerpiece of the album: a deeply felt rendition of "Have a Little Faith in Me." This is a very special disc.".

Track listing

All compositions by Bill Frisell except as indicated.

1. "Throughout" – 6:42
2. "Rag" – 5:17
3. "Crumb/No Moe" (Frisell/Rollins) – 6:35
4. "Have a Little Faith in Me" (Hiatt) – 5:12
5. "Pip, Squeak/Goodbye" – 8:56
6. "Hello Nellie" – 8:13
7. "Strange Meeting" – 6:45
8. "Hangdog" – 3:25
9. "Child at Heart" – 10:39
10. "Again" – 5:50
11. "When We Go" – 3:50

Personnel