Guitarist Bill Frisell's double CD East / West consists of, you guessed it, the CDs East (live at Yoshi's in Oakland, California) and West (live in the New York Village Vanguard). At East he gives his interpretation of standards such as My Man's Gone Now, Goodnight Irene and People, which he transforms with great ease into a world city blues sound. However, these recordings from December 2003 turn
… out to be a valid preparation for West, which was recorded half a year later. The opener, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, is presented as a lost blues theme that could come straight out of a Jim Jarmusch movie. Frisell manages to achieve what a saxophonist like John Lurie can conjure up from his instrument: claustrophobic atmospheres enveloped by the constant threat of dormant discomfort that can lurk on any street corner, but with a hypnotic appeal that makes you decide not to move anyway. East / West is by far the blues CD of 2005. (AD)more
