Track Listing

1. Blues for Los Angeles
2. Verona
3. Godson Song
4. Girl Asks Boy, Pt. 1
5. Pleased to Meet You
6. Lookout for Hope
7. Nature's Symphony
8. Egg Radio
9. Ballroom
10. Girl Asks Boy, Pt. 2
11. Sherlock Jr.
12. Gone, Just Like a Train
13. Wife and Kid
14. Raccoon Cat
15. Lonesome
16. More Blues for Los Angeles

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39331 in Music
• Released on: 1998-01-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Amazon.com essential recording
Bill Frisell is a soulful jazz minimalist with a sophisticated sense of harmony, a daring rhythmic approach, and an instantly recognizable, personal sound--part jazz, part rockabilly, part blues, part psychedelia--a remarkable melodist who can transmute single notes into sapphire tears. Yet while his fellow improvisors have pursued more and more complex forms, Frisell seems to be reaching back to the simplest folk forms to animate his post-modernist's view of Americana, and Gone, Just Like a Train is a cultural whistle-stop that conveys his land's epic rhythmic dynamism, regional diversity, and backwaters of mystery and quiet wonder. It's as if the Modern Jazz Quartet interpolated Cream, and together with his remarkable collaborators, bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer Jim Keltner, the Bill Frisell Trio successfully plumbs a variety of expressive forms within the raging seas of intellectual complexity that have traditionally defined the domain of modern jazzman. --Chip Stern

Jazz Times
Frisell has a mysterious take on the guitar, one that can suggest and function in just about any style there is, conjure a wide range of textures and tones, work in a variety of registers (sometimes at the same time), and effortlessly slip from inside to outside. With assistance from bassist Viktor Krauss and drummer to the superstars Jim Keltner (Cooder, Dylan, Clapton, Harrison), he draws on all of those resources for this follow up to 1997's Nashville.

Customer Reviews

minimalist jazz
While watching the movie "Finding Forester", a so-so film with a great soundtrack, I noticed a skeletal rendition of "Over the Rainbow" that supplied just enough notes to make it recognizable. I immediately recognized it as the work of Bill Frisell.

Culling a musical phrase down to its essence is what makes Frisell's music at once simple yet profound. I agree with the reviewers who comment that this CD grows on you. Frisell plays in a manner that sounds easy, but few guitarists could duplicate his musicianship. His simplicity belies his facility and technical skill. In the same manner, Tiger Woods shows us all what a simple game golf is.

The trio of Frisell, Kraus, and Keltner convey a transparency sustained by their interplay and the skills they each bring to the ensemble. The comparisons with Cream, etc., may seem farfetched given how different this music is from that style, but I understand that comment completely.

I would have given this CD three stars at first listen; then four a few weeks later. I may come back later and give it five.

So Satisfying on Sundays
This is the album where Bill Frissell finally did it. You wake up on Sunday at noon and take half an hour to start the coffee and want to give the world a hug only you're way too tired. This is what you want to hear.

Good Mix
I have never heard of Frisell before I read this CD's Stereophile Magazine review, where it got the prestigious "Record of the Month" award. As my past experience shows, the guys at Stereophile know a thing or two about music, and so I bought this CD. And you know what? they were right.

Offereing a good mix of jazz and blues, much musical variety, and some excellent bass performance, this CD will never let you down. It's also very well recorded, and worth listening to in a good hi fi system.