Personal Musical Topic: Robert Fripp and Bill Frisell

Let's just start with a brief bio of these two artists, and I'm going to explain then why I'm so involved in the music of these two men. However, the article is going to be pretty brief, because one of the major reasons that I'm attracted to the modern guitar has to do with the theory of sound acoustics. I guess I could post the basic material, understanding that probably 100% of any blog audience I might get would understand none of it. I might get a highly-trained musicologist who hits the site by making a bad click, but I've decided to continue to write for you guys and gals instead and just leave the whole business offline for now.

Fripp got started in a group called King Crimson, who had a #1 hit in the UK in 1969 with a track called, "The Court of the Crimson King." Progressive rock was in at the time, and the song also critiqued the royal family, and it made a big splash. After that Crim' went through a lot of different line-ups and concepts. There was a period when they had a horn section. There was a period when an excellent classically-trained rebel named Keith (Michael?) Tippet was a prominent member. However, after "The Court of the Crimson King," Crim' was no longer even a progressive-rock group, but instead an avant-garde music ensemble.

Sometime around Discipline in 1977 or so, Crim' gel'ed into a group that would have a drummer or some percussionist, a Chapman Stick player, and then generally Fripp on rhythm guitar (kinda) and Adrian Belew, a Nashville producer who played with Crim' on the side, on lead guitar and vocals. There have been many permutations of that basic idea since then, including the "double trio," which was two drummers, two touch-style players, and then Fripp and Belew on guitar. Crim' put out what will probably be their final album release in 2005, called "The Power to Believe."

One thing about Crim' was that Fripp was Crim'. More than once, Fripp offered to quit the Crimson group so that the other players could take the group in another direction, and the basic thing was that "Fripp was Crim'." Fripp had very high expectations for the group, and he was also very - "fussy," is close - about live performances and about the sounds recorded for the group, adhering to an internal vision of a sort of "Crim-ethos," for the group.

Life has not been kind to Fripp over the past several years. Fripp had catalogued all of Crim's work that he owned with E'G Records. He owned nearly all of the catalog, and he was hoping that staying on the small E'G label would allow him to retain most of the rights to his music. The entire E'G label was bought out by a hostile takeover, and Fripp is now in litigation to try to retain even just rights to a small part of his catalog - as far as I know at least - because this is an international legal dispute.

So Fripp has lost the better part of his entire 39 year career. Now, I don't want to be harsh, but there is a silver-lining here. Fripp had already started to take an interest in the acoustic guitar at the end of Crim's run, and had commissioned a very expensive custom-built acoustic guitar from a private luthier in Argentina to suit his special needs as a guitarist. He had been teaching master classes to different guitar musicians from all over the world, and that culminated for a few years in a symposium called "The League of Crafty Guitarists," in Argentina.

The thing is that I enjoy Crim's music, but the League's music and Fripp's current concepts about guitar are the best work he ever did over Crim by a real long shot-put. What Fripp is doing interests me so intensely because it uses the modern guitar and a plectrum in a set of musical concepts with a sophistication that approaches contemporary classical music. In many cases, it exceeds the standards of contemporary classical music, because so much contemporary classical is such a horrible sham.

Bill Frisell is a very different kind of artist. Frisell was a chip-puncher in Nashville who also had or has, some jazz chops. His jazz chops are not up to the correct par, but Frisell has gotten the chance to record some of his own music on some small labels, and he manages to integrate a Nashville sound with a jazz sound so seamlessly that you really can't hear the seams.

His best work is on the Paul Bley Quartet's "Interplay," recording for ECM Records, a recording I'll be springing for on the H&B catalog after Christmas. Frisell is also noteworthy for being a very sophisticated musician who almost always plays this beat-up vintage Telecaster, and nothing else. Another great thing about Frisell is his expressiveness as an artist.

With Frisell's work, the emotion is crystal-clear, even in the New Age genre the music hovers within. Further, as an artist his work is incredibly understated. No flashy runs or wild sweep-picking. Usually his music is very mellow and slack feeling, with that Nashville twang and a jazz feel to the harmony.

Anyway, those are my two guitar heroes. Understand, Fripp is known for being a pain in the hiney, very persnickety and a bit obtuse, but Fripp is an ethical guy who stuck to his guns musically for nearly 40 years. Frisell I would say struggles with deep depression, but the guy punched his chip for at least 25 years to get the chance to do a few small-label recordings of the music he loved.

To my way of thinking, it is possible for a musician to be a high-talent and a miserable maggot of a human being, but in general I think you hear a person's virtue in their art music, and I count Fripp, even fussy, and Frisell, slack-key, New Age, and all, as not just musical talents but men with beautiful souls, and they are true heroes to me. The kind of people I would emulate, not just music I would like to emulate.

Anyway, I've left more bits hanging, and there are partial articles needing completion all over the place now, but I'm turning in for a long winter's nap. Have fun with the site, or go to the proverbial place of torment if you like. I'll be back tomorrow (tonight's evening, more accurately) most likely, as I'm warming to getting verbose at this blog. We shall see.