Bill Frisell & Vernon Reid

Review of Smash and Scatteration

In 1984, at the dawn of the CD age, two guitarists who would prove to be among the definitive voices of the coming decade got together for a one-time duo collaboration. Bill Frisell was the better-known at the time; he had played in Europe with his former Berklee composition professor Mike Gibbs in the late '70s, which led him to Eberhard Weber's group and various other ECM affiliations (Jan Garbarek, Paul Motian, Bass Desires) and his own first album in 1982. After working with Reid, Frisell formed and sustained an exceptional band, a trio with Kermit Driscoll and Joey Baron often augmented by other players, and continued playing with Motian and Joe Lovano as well as Ginger Baker, Tim Berne, Paul Bley, Don Byron, Allen Ginsberg, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz, the News for Lulu trio with George Lewis and John Zorn, Gary Peacock, the Power Tools trio with Melvin Gibbs and Ronald Shannon Jackson, Bobby Previte (see Gramavision 79448) and many others.

Vernon Reid gained much of his early exposure in Ronald Shannon Jackson's original Decoding Society, then achieved mega-rock fame as guitarist and prime mover of Living Colour, a leading messenger of progressive funk in popular music. Reid then went on to collaborate with the likes of Jack DeJohnette (with John Scofield), Carlos Santana, Finis Tasby, Hal Willner and Bernie Worrell (see Gramavision 79469).

An indescribable melting pot of music for plucked strings, with everything either guitarist ever heard from country picking and Django Reinhardt swing to Hendrix reveries and Sun Ra moonscapes -- and the nine tracks are real tunes, with the composing chores shared by Frisell and Reid. Eloquent, experimental and great fun. Frisell: Roland 300 guitar synth, prepared acoustic guitar, Gibson electric guitar, DX drums, Ovation acoustic guitar, Electro-Harmonix delay, DX drums. Reid: Steinberger guitar, Roland 700 guitar synth, Midi to Korg Poly 800 synth, DX drums, six-string banjo, Washburn electric-acoustic guitar, Les Paul electric guitar, Stratocaster electric guitar.


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