Big Sur cover

Big Sur

Released

This is not exactly a jazz album. Bill Frisell composed the music while staying on a ranch in Big Sur, and performed it for the first time at the 2012 Monterey Jazz festival. The 19-part suite is written for a quintet of guitar, violin, viola, cello, and drums (he’s reunited here with cellist Hank Roberts, who played on some of Frisell’s earliest solo albums), and it’s basically designed as program music — intended to convey the beauty, expanse, and fragility of that beautiful region of California. It does so exquisitely, and sometimes sadly.

Rick Anderson

Recommended by

Suggestions
Devotion cover

Devotion

Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, Andrew Cyrille
Catalpa cover

Catalpa

Jolie Holland
Bro/Knak cover

Bro/Knak

Jakob Bro, Thomas Knak
Concerto Piccolo cover

Concerto Piccolo

Vienna Art Orchestra
Ouch Evil Slow Hop cover

Ouch Evil Slow Hop

Sebastian "Seb" Rochford, Pamelia Kurstin
4D cover

4D

Matthew Shipp
Kneebody cover

Kneebody

Kneebody