Bill Frisell Quotes

I feel so lucky that my high school was right in the middle of Denver, which is one of those sort of segregated towns, with black and white and Hispanic neighborhoods. But the school I went to was right in the middle of the whole thing.

I hate labels; the problem is that if you say you're one thing, it's hard for people to imagine you as something else. Music is way more complicated than that.

I used to edit myself. If something seemed super-simple I had to make it more complicated. Now I'm trying to let what's in there come out and acknowledge where I come from. I'm trying to make it more..true.

I've been lucky with the circle of people I'm playing with. We've played enough that there's a language we talk with each other when we play.

I spend a lot of time copying saxophone players and trumpet players. Not to say that it is not important to listen to guitar players, but there's so much music out there and so many possibilities. I like anyone who plays any instrument.

I love listening to other musicians and seeing what they do to gain their distinctive respective sounds and edge.

First I was a European-style player, then I was a downtown 'noise guy,' and now some people call me an Americana guy.

I do know the older I get, the more I'm referencing music I heard as a kid.

Every time I play with someone, not just a new person, but someone I've been with all along, that's where I really learn.

To me, jazz is a place where anything is possible.

There's always this sound out there that's just a little beyond my reach & that just sort of keeps me going.

It's incredible how one song or even one little phrase or just a few notes, if you really concentrate on it, can be a kaleidoscope of possibility.