The Westerlies - Have You Heard? The Music of Bill Frisell, Vol. 1 (2026)

It is an incredible honor for The Westerlies to be able to share the world premiere performances and recordings of these 11 Bill Frisell compositions contained herein. Bill’s music and humanity has been a foundational source of inspiration to The Westerlies since the very beginning. A fountain we return to, over and over, whenever we need a pure dose of heart and imagination.

I first got to know Bill growing up in Seattle, hearing his bands playing at local festivals and clubs, and later getting to know him as a friend and mentor. Few artists have managed to weave a thread across the fabric of American Music with such heart and boundless creativity. Whenever Bill picks up a guitar, or a pencil and paper, genres and boundaries dissolve entirely.

But what strikes me most about Bill’s music, across all his records and bands of unexpected instrumentations
— it’s about the people. In the spirit of the great ensemble music across genres and traditions, Bill creates musical scenarios ripe with possibility that celebrate and showcase the humanity and artistry of his collaborators.

Bill’s example gave The Westerlies the courage to form a band of our unusual instrumentation, commit to building an original body of work, and keep going for 15 years now.

In 2020–2021, with concerts and tours cancelled due to the pandemic, Bill found himself at home for an extended period of time for the first time in many years. The way he stayed sane was to wake up every morning, have a cup of coffee, grab his guitar and a musical notebook, and start writing. Music-making with no agenda other than pure discovery and exploration.

Around 2024, we started chatting about the potential of The Westerlies exploring some of that music, and a few days later, I received a folder containing dozens of new pieces. Combing through these notebooks, I had a feeling of excitement I can only equate to the experience of seeing an exhibition of Picasso’s sketches for the first time: a brilliant artist working through ideas and shaping the same subject matter through a process of transformation and revision.

In the case of Bill’s notebooks, first a melody might appear, then a few days later shaded with a palette of harmony, only to be sketched into a fully formed structure a few days later. To see this process on paper was absolutely fascinating and deeply inspiring.

What followed was a year-and-a-half-long process of exploring and arranging the source material with the utmost reverence — a collective way of working and shaping material The Westerlies have been developing for 15 years now. In some instances, that led to a very direct realization of the notes on the page. In other cases, it meant cracking open the material with improvisation and building arrangements which felt like our most honest realization of what the material wanted to be.

What you will also find is a musical chronicle of one of the most significant periods in recent history. The dates, titles, and music read like journal entries. “Madness Hopeless,” “Dose,” and “Impeach,” all the way through the most recent work, “A Wonderful Day,” from January 2024.

We are so grateful to Bill for the trust and honor to share the premiere recordings of these new works, and we hope you enjoy the music.

Riley Mulherkar — Trumpet
Chloe Rowlands — Trumpet
Andy Clausen — Trombone
Addison Maye-Saxon — Trombone