A World-Class Concert From Guitarist Frisell

The buzz in the crowd before the start of Bill Frisell’s concert at the Skirball Cultural Center Thursday night made it obvious that the highly regarded guitarist would be preaching to the converted.

So it was no surprise that the low-keyed Frisell was greeted with a roar of appreciation when he arrived on stage to begin his solo set. His demeanor can be described, at best, as modest. Sandy-haired, with a slowly retreating hairline, wearing wire-rimmed glasses, he was a kind of Bill Gates with a guitar.

But there was nothing geeky about his playing, which clearly identified him as one of this era’s most influential guitarists. His initial piece, “Moon River,” was the first of several standard ballads (“Days of Wine and Roses” and “When You Wish Upon a Star” followed) in which he applied a musical deconstruction technique, taking the songs apart, shaping his interpretations around a sparse articulation of the melodies framed within floating, broken arpeggios.

And that was only the start. Frisell has been one of the most versatile guitarists in jazz for two decades, and he demonstrated his remarkable creative eclecticism with a set of brief cameos, cruising easily among styles ranging from hard-edged, feedback jazz-rock to prairie folk sounds and multiple electronic overlays. In 1 1/2 hours of solo playing he managed, in his quiet way, to effectively survey most of the important stylistic areas in ‘90s jazz.

The overflow audience, enthusiastically in sync with everything Frisell played, finally had an opportunity to communicate its approval when a listener cried out, “Thank you for being born,” and the crowd added a quick flurry of applause. Frisell took an aw shucks stance, thanked his listeners, hitched up his guitar and went back to cranking out his irresistible collection of world-class guitar playing.