Bill Frisell & Thomas Morgan Small Town (2 LP)

180g Vinyl Double LP!
Recorded Live At The Village Vanguard!
Small Town presents guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan in a program of duets, the poetic chemistry of their playing captured live at New York’s hallowed Village Vanguard. Frisell made his debut as a leader for ECM in 1983 with the similarly intimate In Line. The guitarist’s rich history with the label also includes multiple recordings by his iconic cooperative trio with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano, culminating in Time and Time Again in 2007. Small Town begins with a tribute to Motian in the form of a searching, 11-minute interpretation of the late drummer’s composition “It Should’ve Happened a Long Time Ago,” the duo’s counterpoint yielding a hushed power. Morgan has appeared on several ECM albums of late, as bassist of choice for Tomasz Stanko, Jakob Bro, David Virelles, Giovanni Guidi and Masabumi Kikuchi. Small Town sees Frisell and Morgan pay homage to jazz elder Lee Konitz with his “Subconscious Lee,” and there are several country/blues-accented Frisell originals, including the hauntingly melodic title track. The duo caps the set with an inimitable treatment of John Barry’s famous James Bond theme “Goldfinger.”
"A Zen master of the rootsy reverie, the American guitarist Bill Frisell is easy to pigeonhole. Yet his underlying diversity has never been more emphatically demonstrated than in this club recording from the Village Vanguard in New York. It’s just him and the bass player Thomas Morgan, yet the range of moods is seemingly as limitless as the Midwest horizon his rustic reverb often evokes. […] Pared down to its vulnerable essence, Frisell’s unique fusion of quiet contemplation, emotional complexity and gentle Americana has never been more appealing." - Chris Pearson, The Times
"Morgan is a deeply intuitive player with a glorious earthy, woody tone. He anchors Frisell’s more speculative tendencies, allowing the unexpected (and perhaps previously undiscovered) room to emerge and hold its ground between them with the seams showing. ‘Small Town’ is an excellent showcase for this duo; here’s hoping it’s only a first volley." - Thom Jurek, All Music
"Although he’s collaborated with dozens of diverse artists throughout his career, guitarist Bill Frisell is still somewhat picky about whom he chooses to work with. He requires a rapport that is both simpatico and challenging – no sense playing with someone unless they’re going to take him some place new. He’s one of the most adaptable, open minded musicians around, at his most fertile when he’s plugged directly into other sharp minds. Thomas Morgan, the double bassist who shares this live-at-the-Village-Vanguard session, is a good fit. He’s understated, never in the way and savvy enough to serve as a solid support to Frisell’s frugal precision." - Jeff Tamarkin, Jazz Times
"Thomas Morgan and he himself are equal in one, Bill Frisell notes: they are both quiet personalities. Their duo album, named after Frisell's number 'Small Town', testifies to this assessment with every note, and it shows even more: the double bassist Morgan and the guitarist Frisell get along blindly. The concert recording from the New York jazz club Village Vanguard, made in March 2016, unites two musicians who communicate with their instruments so homogeneously that the melodies and chords of one result in seamless answers and additions of the other: a dream of successful cooperation." - Werner Stiefele, Rondo
"'It Should Have Happened A Long Time Ago', one might think from the exquisite result, but that's also the name of the opening Paul Motian composition - Frisell and Morgan were also present at the last production of the legendary drummer and bandleader, who died in 2011. [...] In fact, the two harmonize so perfectly and inspire each other to the same extent as Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny last did on 'Beyond The Missouri Sky' twenty years ago. But I personally find Frisell/Morgan much more exciting!" - Peter Füssl, Culture
"Whether decidedly jazzy as in the spontaneously intoned ‘Subconscious Lee’ for Lee Konitz sitting in the audience or harvesting folk-blissfully ‘Wildwood Flower’ – the pasticcios, noticeably inspired by the genius loci, always impress with the cheerful serenity with which they weave their ten strings into miraculously singing magic sounds – simply dreamlike." - Sven Thielmann, HiFi & Records
"First of all, and as one might expect with the legendary Village Vanguard club, the sound is at once warm and intimate and lends itself perfectly to a bass-guitar pairing, with Frisell deploying a Gibson semi-acoustic guitar to wonderful effect. Secondly, the eclectic repertoire embraces the whole of Frisell’s career and offers up the odd surprise or two. Who would have expected, for example, an interpretation of that staple Bond theme, ‘Goldfinger’, yet Frisell and Morgan pull it off, with the latter creating a lovely bass line underneath the main theme and Frisell going off on tangents as only he knows how. So compelling a reading is this that it is every bit as punchy as the original brass orchestrations of the Shirley Bassey version, with marvellous improvising on a riff towards the end by Frisell and repetition of that same riff. […] In general, the telepathic rapport between Frisell and Morgan and supportive bass lines throughout significantly enhances the listener’s experience, and Thomas Morgan is to be commended for adding such depth to this performance. One of the year’s very best recordings for sure." - Tim Stenhouse, UK Vibe
"What was recorded live here at the New York Jazz-Grail Village Vanguard is one of the highlights of the current guitar Renaissance in jazz. Intuitively guided dialogues can be heard, stringwise poured into a mild river, beautiful and more and more beautiful. [...] The soft sound paintings are like luminous watercolors, spread out with immense playful skill." - Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung
"Frisell is a guitarist whose minimalist aesthetic colors each carefully chosen note he plays, and he can coat a room in mysterious yet strangely warming tones..." - The New Yorker, March 2017
"With Small Town, Frisell has clearly found another ideal musical foil to add to his growing cadre of musicians with whom he collaborates on a regular basis. Intimate, beautiful and deep, while at the same time knotty, witty and curiously skewed, Small Town delivers, in many ways, on the promise of In Line's five duo tracks 35 years on, with a live set that proves great music isn't just where you find it; it's everywhere." - John Kelman, All About Jazz
"Whether sonically reinventing chamber strings music or applying avant-improv to bluegrass and early rock, guitar pioneer Bill Frisell keeps on making music that could only be his. Another case in point: this almost psychically empathic duo set with New York bassist Thomas Morgan. […] Morgan’s quick anticipations of Frisell’s moves give their conversations a startling buoyancy; the weave of bell-like harmonics, quiet electronics and folk-blues figures is mesmerising on the Paul Motian tribute ‘It Should Have Happened a Long Time Ago’; Frisell’s ‘Song for Andrew’ is like a Nina Rota movie theme; and the title track is wistful country-rock that drifts into haunting, ever-mobile dissonances. It all sounds as natural as talking or singing." - John Fordham, The Guardian

• Double LP
• 180g Vinyl
• Audiophile High Quality Pressing
• Limited time download code included
• Recorded at Birdland, New York, December 2015
• Gatefold jacket
• Made in Germany

• Bill Frisell, guitar
• Thomas Morgan, double bass