Jazz guitarist Bill Frisell of the US

HCM CITY — Guitarist Bill Frisell, widely known as one of the most versatile players in jazz history, will perform for the first time in Việt Nam at the "Bill Frisell: Summer on Guitar" concert.

The concert, which will take place on May 26 at the Soul Live Project Complex in District 3 in HCM City, aims to continue the journey of bringing wonderful and creative sounds of contemporary jazz closer to the public.

The concert is under the banner of the Soul Live Project Series: Jazz Through Time with the aim of showing Vietnamese audiences the unique diversity of jazz music, performed by masterful and world-renowned artists.

The concert features Thomas Morgan on bass, Rudy Royston on drums, and Bill Frisell on guitar.

The audience will experience a musical space of jazz full of improvisation and romance, as natural as breathing. They will be treated to an interesting conversation of the three instruments on stage, as well as the creative musical approach and expression of the trio.

Frisell said: “I’m very excited to come to Việt Nam. Music is such a mysterious, magical and wonderful thing. Music has the most extraordinary power to connect and bring people together.”

Frisell’s prolific career as guitarist, composer and arranger demonstrates his extraordinary range and depth, with work rooted in jazz but incorporating elements of blues and other popular American music traditions.

Immediately recognisable for his unique sound, he has transformed the modern guitar landscape.

Friseell is a graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in the US, ranked as one of the top four music academies in the world. He has received a Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Jazz Album” for his album Unspeakable, which represented a stylistic shift by exploring R&B/funk rhythm.

Whether playing avant-garde jazz, Americana or pop, or composing film scores, Frisell's focus on timbral clarity and elegance shines through.

He is a man of many tastes, and his music includes characteristics of rock, country and bluegrass, among other styles. He is among the most recorded guitarists of his generation who seeks to erase boundaries between jazz and country, blues and folk, and improvisational vanguard music.

Recognised as one of America’s 21 most vital and productive performing artists, Frisell was named an inaugural Doris Duke Artist in April, 2012. He has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, filmmakers and painters, and has appeared on over 250 recordings, including 40 albums of his own. —VNS