Reviews

Bill Frisell is the rare artist who makes avant-garde music accessible.

Performing Thursday night at the Dallas Museum of Art's Jazz Under the Stars, the Seattle guitarist didn't shy away from free-form dissonance: Ten minutes into the concert, he was clicking his pedals like a mad scientist and sounding like Jimi Hendrix jamming with Ravi Shankar.

But no matter what planet he landed on, he always came home to a sweet, soulful melody. Sam Cooke's civil-rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come" was the showstopper as it grew from a whisper into a glorious wail. Equally sublime was his bebop trip down "Moon River."

Mr. Frisell's CDs get lumped into the jazz bin, but the beauty of his music is it knows no boundaries. Backed by the super-elastic rhythm section of Tony Scherr (bass) and Kenny Wollesen (drum), he segued from a swaggering blues take on Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" into Burt Bacharach's candy-coated "What the World Needs Now Is Love": two peace anthems, approached from opposite ends of the spectrum.

After the intermission, he settled into a hypnotic West African groove, driving it faster and louder until it blossomed into fuzz-toned hard rock. Later, he spun a totally different trance in Lucinda Williams' ballad "Ventura" by creating an electronic loop from his guitar and harmonizing with himself.

Not all of the electronic experiments were a success. Some just felt like excuses to break momentum at the end of a song so he could ease into the next tune with no pesky applause (the ploy often worked).

Nobody's ever going to accuse this guy of playing to the crowd. Facing his band, with his back to the audience the whole show, his guitar strings were heard but never seen.

But that's OK. In a world full of mildly talented showoffs, wallflower virtuosos like Mr. Frisell are welcome any day.