The guitar is a great social instrument. Guitarists can sit round in a group, strumming and riffing in a way that is not so easy for other instruments. Perhaps that's why they make good musical hosts. Bill Frisell's Barbican gig was not so much about the US jazz guitarist's exemplary work as it was a chance for him to showcase others in the context of his own unconventional soundworld.
After a handful of numbers by the six-piece Bill Frisell Ensemble (featuring lap steel/Dobro player Greg Leisz), Eliza Carthy came on to sing her own music. The ensemble's swirling lines and jigsaw rhythms made them an interesting folk-rock backing band, and Frisell's guitar timbres matched Carthy's low vocals beautifully.
Frisell returned after the interval with his Intercontinental Quartet, featuring Brazilian songwriter Vinicius Cantuaria, oud player Christos Govetas and Malian percussionist Sidiki Camara. Their repertoire tended towards simple jams - improvisations over a repeated arpeggiated line; unison riffs for oud and electric guitar; what sounded like a Middle Eastern blues. The leader again showed his sensitivity as an accompanist on a sublime bossa nova song sung by Cantuaria: delicate, delicious, yet still quirky.
Despite its exotic agenda, the Intercontinental Quartet's music is not a million miles from the bluegrass jams on Frisell's more Nashville-oriented albums such as The Willies. He makes a good-natured, audible link between country music and "abroad" that even George Bush could get. The star guest was Djelimady Tounkara, the famous Malian guitarist. "It freaks me out just standing next to this guy," said Frisell. "I'm talking about one of the best musicians, including Beethoven an' all."
All 11 musicians reassembled to close the long evening with a series of jam sessions that were a little too formless to be real fun. Tounkara took charge of the unwieldy ensemble, directing the audience to clap, and played stunning virtuosic guitar runs. Frisell sat back and smiled. But the gig was an inspiration, a smart experiment that deserves to be developed and repeated.
