Bill Frisell: Boubacar

[tot_Ou_tard]

It says Bill Frisell Interview, but it is not an interview. It's Frisell playing the song Boubacar. I love this song & it's great to watch him mess with all those pedals.

 

[R_of_G]

Great find Tot!

It's a tribute to guitarist/songwriter Boubacar Traore. Incidentally, on the same album (The Intercontinentals) on which Frisell debuted this song, he also covers the song "Baba Drame" which was written by Traore. Both songs have become great live pieces for Frisell.

 

[tjcurtin1]

Ok - especially for anyone who is just meeting Frissell via this clip... After a couple of minutes in, I began to suspect that this might be one of those hijackings/spoofs by that Ojala guy... The song 'Boubacar' per se really begins at about 4:50, so if you find the opening too odd, slide forward...

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Ok - especially for anyone who is just meeting Frissell via this clip... After a couple of minutes in, I began to suspect that this might be one of those hijackings/spoofs by that Ojala guy... The song 'Boubacar' per se really begins at about 4:50, so if you find the opening too odd, slide forward...

Ah yes, but the spacey stuff is part of the song.

I like spacey stuff

 

[R_of_G]

Ah yes, but the spacey stuff is part of the song.

Precisely. While it may not be a part of the actual composition as it appears in its officially released form on The Intercontinentals it is definitely a part of the way Frisell often presents the song in a live setting. He does this with many songs. Take his cover of Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" from the live album East/West. It has an intro part that's a good 2-3 minutes long before he starts the song proper, but there are still hints of the melody in there, and certainly tonal suggestions of what's to come. I think skipping forward is missing out on part of what makes Frisell Frisell.

 

[tjcurtin1]

I was only suggesting the skip if you were new to Frisell - I wouldn't want someone to check out before they got to hear his lovely work with the melody.

I'm a big Frisell fan, and enjoy much of his 'spaceyness', but I have to say that this intro doesn't do much for me; a little too much 'fooling around' with the machinery.