Bill Frisell - Is That You?

Title: Is That You? Artist: Bill Frisell Release Date: 8/1989 Re-Released On: 4/15/1992 Label: Elektra Duration: 50:58 Album Type(s): Instrumental UPCs: 075596095624, 075596095648 Genre: Jazz Styles: Modern Creative, Post-Bop, Jazz Instrument, Guitar Jazz Moods: Amiable/Good-Natured, Cerebral, Freewheeling, Laid-Back/Mellow, Playful, Refined/Mannered, Reflective, Searching, Ambitious, Complex, Dramatic, Earnest, Elaborate, Hypnotic, Literate, Meandering, Passionate, Plaintive, Precious, Provocative, Sentimental, Sophisticated, Spacey, Stately, Uncompromising, Witty, Wry Total Copies: 0 Members Wishing: 2 Number of Discs/SwapaCD Credits: 1

1. No Man's Land
2. Someone in My Backyard
3. Rag
4. Is That You?
5. The Way Home
6. Twenty Years
7. Chain of Fools
8. Hello Nellie
9. Days of Wine and Roses
10. Yuba City
11. Half a Million
12. Hope and Fear

Year Type Label Catalog # 1992 CD Elektra 60956-2

No other editions were found for this album.

Recorded in 1989 while Frisell was still a member of Naked City, Is That You? finds the guitarist already trending away from that band's scattershot assault and toward the more pastoral leanings he would embrace in the upcoming decade. At its best, as on the title track, Frisell creates nostalgic but heartfelt melodies that have the sense of being a soundtrack to a bittersweet movie. Wayne Horvitz' "Yuba City" is also evocative and very much in keeping with his other work from around that time, all sumptuous melodic hooks overlaying somewhat clunky rhythms. There are other nice touches here and there (the charming "Rag," for instance), but too often the gauziness that is an inherent problem with much of Frisell's music comes to the fore. While his cover of "Chain of Fools" chugs along with some dopey panache, "The Days of Wine and Roses" threatens to evaporate into the mist altogether. Fans of his later work may welcome this approach and, indeed, consider it one of his most attractive attributes, but those listeners hoping to hear more of the bite and devil-may-care attitude shown in his work with Zorn may feel suffocated. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide

Name Credits Bill Frisell Bass, Clarinet, Banjo, Guitar, Ukulele Dave Hofstra Bass, Tuba Jay Follette Engineer Joey Baron Drums Jon Goldberger Assistant Engineer Manhattan Design Design, Art Direction Robert Hurwitz Executive Producer Roger Moutenot Mixing Stephen Frailey Photography Wayne Horvitz Bass, Keyboards, Producer, Drum Programming