Question and Answer

Hi Pat, It was great to meet you after the very last Yoshi's trio gig. Thanks so much for taking the time to come out (though you were tired) and sign my Bright Size Life booklet. I managed to go to three Yoshi's shows, all three Mountain Winery shows in Saratoga, and the Feb 14 Warfield show. As you can see, I'm a big fan. My question: Have you listened to Bill Frisell's last couple of albums Nashville and Songs We Know? What do you think of his playing? I saw him recently in the Bay Area and he did some Monk tunes innovatively arranged for solo guitar. Have you ever played with him? Thanks.

i love bill - he is also one of my favorite musicians, and i am so happy to see the recent success that he has had, having known him for more than 20 years now. i actually was able to help him get a gig when he first started moving into more the new york thing - and that was with paul motion, who i was playing with often at the time - this was 1981. and he's still playing with him! that is probably some of my favorite bill, that trio with paul and lovano. we did make a record together last year as an updated version of marc johnsons BASS DESIRES, (although in the end they changed the name of it) - the record is "the sound of summer running" which is a pretty nice record which has some of my favorite bill stuff on it. playing with bill was one of the easiest hookups i have ever had with another musician - i had a hard time telling (and still do when i listen to the record) where his sound stopped and mine started. we also both enjoy comping as much as soloing i think, so it had a lot of room to breath in a good way. like i said, i love bill.