May
04

Bill Frisell - "GA RESIDENCY PASS"

Great American Music Hall

San Francisco, CA

Tickets

Tickets are not available.

Event Details

On sale Friday, 2/3 at 10am!

*This is a FULLY seated event*

$200 "GA RESIDENCY PASS" - this pass grants access to "General Seating" to all four (4) Bill Frisell shows from May 4th - 7th, 2023. Events are fully seated, first come, first served.

Doors 7 pm | Show 8:30 pm

Bill Frisell

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During the darkest days of the pandemic we found ways to keep going. We helped one another. I played my guitar and wrote music every day. Lots and lots of music. I had the chance to look back on things I’d written before and see them in a new light. I learned new songs. Music saved me. My friends saved me. I thought about my family, my teachers, my heroes.

I dreamed of new possibilities. I thought about all the things that hadn’t happened yet.
I wondered what it might sound like if someday I could get together with Greg Tardy, Gerald Clayton, and Johnathan Blake. That would be amazing! FOUR.

My friend Luke Bergman and I love to sit around and play our guitars together. We couldn’t do that then.
He was in Washington state and I was in Brooklyn. I would send him little bits of music and he’d return them reimagined. Back and forth. He was an angel savior for me during that time. Luke is a master harmonizer, organizer, orchestrator, imaginator. Now we can be back together in the same room again. And what a room. Grace Cathedral!!!

I’ve played for many years with Tony Scherr and Kenny Wollesen as a trio. I’ve played for many years with Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston as a trio. Sometimes Thomas, Kenny, and I play as a trio. Sometimes Tony, Rudy, and I play as a trio. I love all these guys so much.
We love, trust, and respect each other.
I dreamed about what it might sound like if we all played together. FIVE.

We try to be prepared. We practice. We work hard. We never know what’s coming.
My favorite place to be in the music is when we don’t know what’s going to happen next. That’s where all the good stuff is. You’re at the beginning with the whole world in front of you. Every time I’ve had the chance to explore with Ambrose Akinmusire something magic happens. He is fearless. I don’t want to even talk about it. I don’t don’t want to break the spell. We’re just at the beginning. I can’t wait for us to get together with Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston.

When I was a little kid growing up in Denver in the 50’s, my father went away on a trip to San Francisco. He brought back stories of poets, beatniks, and modern-abstract art.
My imagination was fired up. A few years later I had the chance to visit there myself. I rode on a cable car up and down those hills and tasted crab for the first time at Fisherman’s Wharf. Back then I wanted to be a race care driver or a surfer. I saw the Pacific Ocean and real surfers. It’s seemed like everyone was driving sports cars. MGs and Corvettes and stuff. It was amazing.

Then the 60’s happened. I wanted to be a hippy. We all looked to San Francisco.
Music took over. I got together with my friends and started playing and haven’t stopped. And now, to have the chance to be together with all these amazing folks, in this town, in these beautiful venues…I can not begin to tell you how thankful I am.