Event Calendar

Monterey Jazz Festival Presents Bill Frisell's Big Sur Quintet
Jazz at Sunset feat. Bill Frisell's Big Sur Quintet
Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 7:30 pm

Monterey Jazz Festival Presents Bill Frisell's Big Sur Quintet

Presented by Monterey Jazz Festival

On Wednesday, November 6, 2013, at 7:30pm, guitarist Bill Frisell returns to the Monterey Peninsula for a performance of Big Sur at the Sunset Center. Commissioned by Monterey Jazz Festival and the Big Sur Land Trust in 2012, Frisell made the debut of the Music of Glen Deven Ranch last year at the 55th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival and subsequently recorded the suite as Big Sur for the Okeh label in March 2013.

Big Sur features an hour of original music­—19 compositions that explicitly reference the coastal-mountain environment, which was composed in the spring of 2012 during Frisell's residency at Glen Deven Ranch, the 860-acre property bequeathed to the Big Sur Land Trust. The Santa Fe New Mexican wrote in their review of the album that "the suite is an amazing testament to how a place can coax so much from a musical genius. Frisell, confronted by the Big Sur environment, 'filled up pages and pages,' he said. 'The music just kept coming.'"

With suite titles such as "A Good Spot," "Going to California," "A Beautiful View," "Big Sur," and "On the Lookout" evoke the remote and pastoral setting with musical blends of chamber jazz, country, classical, folk, and rock. "Big Sur is more than just a musical recording," wrote DownBeat Magazine. "It's a sonic novel—instrumental storytelling of the highest caliber delivered by an amazing storyteller." "[Big Sur] is a work that somehow manages to evoke not just the part of the country which is its inspiration, but American music as a whole," wrote All About Jazz.

Frisell will be joined by his original collaborating musicians in the 858 Quartet­—both on the Festival debut and the recording—including violinist Jenny Scheinman, violist Eyvind Kang, cellist Hank Roberts, and drummer Rudy Royston.

Tickets: $80 (includes VIP reception) / $45 / $29

$80 ticket includes:

  • Exclusive, prime seat location
  • VIP post-concert reception with the artists
  • Light refreshments with wine and beer provided by Scheid Vineyards and North Coast Brewing Company
  • CD autographed by Bill Frisell (limited quantities available)

All proceeds to benefit Monterey Jazz Festival's youth Jazz Education programs.