Bill Frisell's 75th Celebration ft. Luke Bergman & Tim Angulo At The Moore March 13, 2026

What can be said about Bill Frisell that hasn’t been said? How does he play such achingly sweet melodies combined with such dissonance? How does he evoke feelings through music that language can’t reach? After all, that’s one of the goals of musical expression: the evocation of something beyond speech. Somehow he does it, year after year, night after night, spontaneously. The pure tone of his instrument, and then his attack, his chords, his choices.

They started playing and didn’t stop until the end, like a Grateful Dead show, morphing from tune to tune with no apparent set list, just whatever Bill started playing next. Tunes included “La-La Means I Love You” (The Delfonics cover) and “Follow Your Heart” (John McLaughlin cover), on which he opened it up with the distortion pedal, the Ibanez Tube Screamer, I think, and let it rock. The encore was “Home on the Range” and “We Shall Overcome,” both rendered with poignant arrangements conjured by Frisell. Some of his own tunes in the mix too, not sure the names. Lots of delay pedal throughout, looping on top of looping, these spontaneous Frisellian soundscapes that evolved and morphed before your ears. And he ended the show with a big fat open position C chord, just as I’ve seen him do before.

The side players were clutch. Bassist Luke Bergman, UW!, got an enormous sound out of a hollow-body electric bass, a round warm tone that lived beneath everything. And Tim Angulo, who Moore attendees may remember from the Ambrose Akinmusire set back in 2023, was locked in, including an unaccompanied drum solo that defied meter entirely, the kind of thing that makes you stop trying to count and just listen.

Seventy-five years old. Still doing it. Legendary.