That Eric Alper

Bill Frisell has released his fifth Blue Note album In My Dreams, a family reunion of sorts that brings some of the acclaimed guitarist’s closest friends together into a unique sextet featuring Jenny Scheinman on violin, Eyvind Kang on viola, Hank Roberts on cello, Thomas Morgan on bass, and Rudy Royston on drums. Though their deep musical history goes back decades, the musicians had never performed together in this particular configuration, and together they travel wide expanses of American music including Jazz and Americana staples, as well as Frisell originals.

Frisell — a “mild-mannered maverick [who] has made a colossal impact” (The New Yorker) — has pursued a singular musical career more than four decades. The guitarist turns 75 on March 18 and will be celebrating his milestone birthday with a series of special concerts across the U.S. this Spring. See a full list of tour dates at billfrisell.com.

BILL FRISELL 75th BIRTHDAY CONCERTS:
March 4-5 – Blue Note Jazz Club – Los Angeles, CA
March 7 – SFJAZZ @ Herbst Theatre – San Francisco, CA
March 12 – PDX Jazz @ Aladdin Theater – Portland, OR
March 13 – Moore Theatre – Seattle, WA
March 19 – Federal Theatre – Denver, CO
March 21 – Nelson Atkins Theatre – Kansas City, MO
March 22 – Philbrook Museum – Tulsa, OK
March 27-28 – Appel Room @ Jazz at Lincoln Center – New York, NY
March 29 – Sellersville Theatre – Sellersville, PA

Frisell likes to remember a dream he had that transformed the way he thinks about music and his instrument. It occurred more than three decades ago, but he can recall it today as if he just snapped awake, roused by a mix of fright and awe. In the dream, Frisell finds himself in a breathtaking library surrounded by stacks of leather-bound volumes and antiquities. At the center of the room is a table, and seated around the table are several monk-like figures in hoods. They seem forbidding at first, but quickly reveal themselves as warm and welcoming. “We want to show you what things really are,” they say. “First, we’d like to show you what colors really look like.”

Frisell narrates: “So they open this little box and take out these small blocks. They point to one and say, ‘This is what red looks like.’ And it’s the most intense, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Then they say, ‘We know you’re a musician, so we’d like you to hear what real music sounds like.’ It felt like some sort of tube was going into my forehead and moving around, and it was the most incredible sound I’d ever heard. Nino Rota, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, Charles Ives, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams, Andrés Segovia, Robert Johnson — all this music I love, but all the parts were crystal clear. And then I woke up.”

Ever since, Frisell has been chasing the ideal of purity and vibrancy he experienced that evening in twilight. And he’s gotten closer than ever with the group of trusted collaborators he’s assembled for In My Dreams. “There have been times, over the years,” Frisell says, “where I’d be playing with these guys and it felt like I was approaching that dream I had all those years ago, where all that music was happening simultaneously.”

One way to see In My Dreams is as a meeting of two core groups. The first is the guitarist’s trio with Morgan and Royston, most recently heard on Frisell’s 2020 LP Valentine. The second is Frisell’s go-to string section, for lack of a better term, featuring Scheinman, Kang and Roberts, which debuted as a unit 20 years ago on Richter 858. A more accurate way to describe the lineup is to say that these are some of Bill Frisell’s favorite musicians, who’ve crisscrossed in his performances and recordings for decades, fostering a deep camaraderie. Frisell, “Throughout all these years, this group has just been sort of popping up as my guys, you know?”

That chemistry is evident throughout In My Dreams, which employs an elastic and inspired approach to production, through the oversight of producer Lee Townsend and veteran engineer Adam Muñoz. All of the core tracks were recorded live in 2025, at concerts in Brooklyn, Denver and New Haven. For certain songs, additional recording took place under Muñoz’s guidance at Opus Studios, in Berkeley, Calif. — and not simple note corrections, but full sections and soundscapes. The result is an ingenious hybrid recording, flawlessly melding the spontaneity of live performance with the sonic craft that can only be achieved in the studio.