Which guitarists can be identified from just a few notes? BB King, John Lee Hooker, Albert Collins, Allan Holdsworth, John Scofield, Carlos Santana, Derek Bailey, Larry Carlton?

And William Richard Frisell, who will celebrate his 75th birthday in March 2026 and release his fifth Blue Note album, “In My Dreams”. But what makes him so unique? Two principles seem to be at play: an emphasis on pure melody, and a “bendy” aspect. One clue comes from a comment Frisell once made about his general modus operandi: “Allow notes to sustain simultaneously wherever possible”.

But ultimately, as they used to say about bassist Jaco Pastorius, it’s all in the hands, the pressure he exerts on the guitar neck (and it’s oft forgotten that Bill is a big man – 6’1” – with big hands). And he remains surely the most influential “jazz” guitarist of the modern era, his style detectable in the playing of Nels Cline, Julian Lage, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Gilad Ekselman, Mary Halvorson and many others. He’s also just been voted #2 guitarist in the 2025 Down Beat readers’ poll, narrowly pipped by Pat Metheny.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1951 (the same year as his beloved Fender Telecaster) and brought up in Denver, Colorado, Frisell started out on clarinet but soon started playing the guitar too, inspired by a love of Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Stones, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Wes Montgomery, Larry Coryell, his friend Mike Miller, John McLaughlin and Jim Hall, with whom he studied for a while.

He has gone on to one of the most eclectic, fascinating careers in music. He’s recorded over 20 solo albums, worked with vocalists David Sylvian, Marianne Faithfull, Elvis Costello and Norah Jones, pushed the sonic envelope with John Zorn, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Eberhard Weber and Jan Garbarek, made soundtracks for Buster Keaton movies, duetted with Mike Stern, Vernon Reid and Scofield and enjoyed long associations with drummer Paul Motian (28 albums, after an initial recommendation from Metheny) and tenor saxist Charles Lloyd.

But what are some of the key Bill tracks (all from solo albums unless otherwise stated) from over a remarkable, almost 50-year recording career?

“Isfahan” from “In My Dreams” (2026)

Recorded live (with a little post-production) and produced by Lee Townsend, Frisell’s new album gathers old friends Jenny Scheinman on violin, Eyvind Kang on viola, Hank Roberts on cello, Thomas Morgan on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. His rendition of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington’s “Isfahan” allows the guitarist to pay moving homage to Strayhorn, one of his all-time favourite composers: “When I hear his music, it’s like, how can a human being exist on this level? I feel like I spent my whole life just touching on that song, and it took me forever to get to the point where I could actually play it on a gig.”

“Throughout” from “Orchestras” (2024)

A timeless classic from Frisell’s pen gets an affecting orchestral treatment on this 2024 album marrying the guitarist’s regular trio with the Brussels Philharmonic, arranged by Frisell’s old Berklee College of Music lecturer Mike Gibbs. Frisell sets off on a memorable solo through the second verse, weaving intelligent, serpentine lines above the beguiling strings. “Throughout” has become a modern standard, appearing on Frisell’s 1988 ECM album “Lookout For Hope” and also “Before We Were Born” a year later, adding Arto Lindsay’s vocals and renamed as “Steady, Girl”.

“Crossing The Corpus Callosum” from “Second Sight” by Marc Johnson/Bass Desires (1987)

Frisell hooked up with Scofield, acoustic bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Peter Erskine on two classic Bass Desires albums for ECM during the 1980s. The guitar interplay between Frisell and Scofield was sometimes miraculous on these landmark releases, and this track perfectly encapsulates their contrasting styles. Frisell starts out with a soaring, epic, distorted solo, but the second half sees him unleash his sonic toolbox and take the tune unexpectedly into David Lynch territory.

“Holiday” from “Four” (2022)

Frisell’s music has often been compared to that of Thelonious Monk, and with “Holiday” the guitarist certainly came up with a theme worthy of the piano legend. The melody hints at Monk’s “Hackensack” (which Frisell covered on “Lookout For Hope”) and “Trinkle Tinkle”, while the bridge is cribbed from “I Got Rhythm”. The guitarist gets into a fascinating hide-and-seek solo section with saxophonist Gregory Tardy and pianist Gerald Cleaver. The lack of bass on the track just adds to its sheer giddy delight.

“Bird On The Wire” from “Here It Is: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen” (2022)

Frisell’s take on Leonard Cohen is a perfect distillation of his late-period style. He plays the melody deceptively “straight” but embellishes it with a whole array of arpeggios, harmonics and chord extensions, to the point where you’d sometimes swear there were two guitarists playing. Also listen out for Kevin Hays’ lovely piano accompaniment and a perfectly tasteful Immanuel Wilkins on alto.

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Matt Phillips is a London-based writer and musician whose work has appeared in Jazzwise, Classic Pop, Record Collector and The Oldie. He’s the author of “John McLaughlin: From Miles & Mahavishnu To The 4th Dimension”.

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_{Header image: Bill Frisell by Marko Mijailovic.}