Jazz guitar great Bill Frisell has shared the animated video for his rendition of the protest anthem “We Shall Overcome,” which serves as the closing track on the jazz guitar great’s upcoming album Valentine.
“I’ve been playing the song for years, and I’m going to keep playing it ’til there is no need anymore,” Frisell said of “We Shall Overcome” in a statement. “I can’t help but hope that day will come.” Frisell paired the track with the animated visual created by his daughter Monica Jane Frisell.
Valentine — Frisell’s first collaboration with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston — arrives August 14th via Blue Note Records. The 13-song set, available to preorder now, boasts Frisell originals alongside jazz standards, traditional songs and covers.
“This album is all about Rudy and Thomas and the musical relationship I have with them. We’ve played a lot for a number of years, but there was no evidence of it, so I really wanted to have a document of it, if only to show that it’s real and not this magical thing that I’ve imagined in my fantasies,” Frisell previously said in a statement. “There’s the physical mathematics of a trio. There is so much strength in it — it can lean to one side, but it will still stay up. The music is about everyone trusting each other to the point where everybody’s in the state of mind where you don’t know what’s going to happen next, and you feel safe enough to try anything. It’s like when you’re dreaming and you’re on the edge of a cliff, and you know on a certain level that it’s a dream, so you can just jump off. With this music, we could do that. All three of us could take big chances, and we’d always be rescued. It’s about the trust that makes risks possible.”
