Of the many artists whose music registers with a particular symbiotic and ambient resonance at the historic Lobero Theatre, gentle-spirited guitar hero Bill Frisell ranks high on the list. Frisell’s remarkable and genre-bounding career spans some 40 years and countless albums and projects. At the outset, he shook up the jazz guitar world with his welcome lyricism, subtle tone, and playful sense of adventure and evolved outward and upward into many different musical areas.
In whatever incarnation, those uniquely Frisellian qualities that always seem to come alive in the Lobero’s warm-hearted jumbo living-room atmosphere. Memorable evenings with Frisell included a duet with longtime ally drummer Joey Baron, a double-trio all-star night with his and John Scofield’s trio, and a band featuring Santa Barbara–based bassist David Piltch. Next Thursday, May 15, Frisell marks a too-long absence from the room with the group of friendly partners called the “Good Dog” band, a reference to his arty, rootsy 1999 album Good Dog, Happy Man. (Listen at spoti.fi/44D4lBp )
Frisell, who has also played the Lobero as a sideman with the worldly Montecitan Charles Lloyd, said about the venue, “A room like that would be more like something you’d see in Italy, just an old, really great theater. … I love playing in that room.”