New York Guitar Festival Night One

Night One of the NYGF features two duos: Bill Frisell with Skúli Sverrisson and with Mary Halvorson with Tomas Fujiwara.

Bill Frisell has been a regular guest of the NYGF, and as with all of his past appearances, he is bringing a new duo partner. This time, it’s the Icelandic composer and bass guitarist Skúli Sverrisson, whose discography includes work with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Wadada Leo Smith, and over a hundred others. Frisell, meanwhile, has a discography best described as epic. It includes work with Elvis Costello, jazz legend Elvin Jones, and British composer Gavin Bryars. He has routinely ignored genre categories, working across rock, jazz, country, experimental, classical, and West African music. Guitar fans can be a contentious, opinionated lot – but there is unanimous agreement on Frisell’s place in the pantheon.

Drummer Tomas Fujiwara and guitarist Mary Halvorson have been collaborating for eighteen years. They met in New York City in the early 2000’s, and first started playing together in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum’s sextet. Since then they have become each other’s most frequent collaborators, working together in a myriad of projects led by Michael Formanek, Adam O’Farrill, Matana Roberts, Tomeka Reid, Ben Goldberg and Mike Reed. Fujiwara is also a part of Halvorson’s Code Girl and Amaryllis, and Halvorson is a member of Fujiwara’s bands Triple Double and The Hook Up. This rare duo performance showcases a project built on years of history and collaboration in a stripped down setting.