BILL FRISELL
“There were things in there I didn’t even know about, myself,” Frisell jokes when we say how much we enjoyed reading our advance copy of Beautiful Dreamer. Despite his work with artists as diverse as Ginger Baker, Suzanne Vega, Brian Eno and Loudon Wainwright III, many would describe Bill as a jazz guitarist. But, as the new book reveals, this would be a mere thumbnail sketch of a man whose work as a composer and performer spans a far wider musical terrain. In fact, he has been described in some quarters as ‘the Clark Kent of the guitar’. We decided it was time to talk to the man himself and our conversation began with the recent tome…
How much of a peculiar experience was it to have your life and career examined in such detail?
“I spent a lot of time with Philip [Watson, the biography’s author], but I had no idea, until I finally saw it, what he was actually doing or how it would come out. He was very careful about making sure everything was accurate. I had to read the whole thing from beginning to end to make
