Noted guitar player Bill Frisell will bring his alternately deeply intimate and epic orchestral multi-faceted compositions of time-honored jazz and folk songs to Valley Performing Arts Center on Thursday March 5 at 8:00pm. Frisell is joined by his Big Sur quintet members Jenny Scheinman, Eyvind Kang, Hank Roberts and Rudy Royston, in a performance of This Land – Woody Guthrie’s Better World. This show is the second in Valley Performing Arts Center’s Guitar series, sponsored by Elizabeth-Ann Purcell.
Frisell will examine one of folk music’s preeminent figures, Woody Guthrie. Best known for the classic “This Land Is Your Land,” Guthrie was at the helm of the folk music revival of the mid-twentieth century, and a major influence on Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, and John Mellencamp, among countless others. Drawing inspiration from Guthrie’s music and views, on the racial, social and economic struggles of his time, Frisell will explore the lineage of protest songs, whilst re-imagining familiar melodies through an adventurous perspective.
Bill Frisell’s Big Sur Quintet consists of his 858 Quartet – violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang and cellist Hank Roberts – along with drummer Rudy Royston. Notes Frisell, “It’s about these particular people and the chemical and human interaction. We’ve been together for about 10 years…. but I wanted to have drums. Rudy Royston is another of my closest musical brothers. He always knows exactly what to do to lift things up and surprise me. I am so excited to have him be a part of this. So we added Rudy Royston, the drummer who plays in my Beautiful Dreamers trio-so I’m calling it the Big Sur Quintet. It’s only five of us, but it’s either super-intimate, or very huge and orchestral. The possibilities are gigantic.”
Tickets range from $40 – $50 and can be purchased at http://www.valleyperformingartscenter.org/calendar/bill-frisells-big-sur-quintet/.