Lively Personalities in the ECM Catalog
Frisell and five original personalities create one of ECM's liveliest outings.
When Bill Frisell's Rambler (1985) arrived, AllMusic reviewer Scott Yanow greeted it as evidence of something already clear to close listeners: Frisell could play nearly anything and make it sound like himself. The quintet—Kenny Wheeler on trumpet, Bob Stewart on tuba, Jerome Harris on electric bass, and Paul Motian on drums—brought enough distinct voices that the record never settles into a groove so comfortable it stops paying attention. This was Frisell early in his career, before his name became synonymous with Americana and Southwestern imagery. The album consists entirely of Frisell compositions, seven of them, and they move between styles without announcing the shifts: there's humor (the track "Music I Heard" wears its joke lightly), there's swing, there's something closer to free playing, all of it anchored by the rhythm section's refusal to do what you expect. Yanow called it one of the most lively records in the entire ECM catalog, which matters because ECM records don't typically work that way. The label's reputation rests on restraint, space, deliberation. Rambler is restrained too, but it's also genuinely playful—the kind of record where strange instrumental combinations and unexpected harmonic turns feel like surprises rather than concepts. It's not the obvious place to start with Frisell, but it's a solid one, and it shows a guitarist comfortable enough with his voice that he could let others push back against it.
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