MUSIC
​MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
​Various venues, until June 11

A few hours before Bill Frisell's opening-night concert at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, the guitarist offered a glimpse into his creative process during a fascinating "in-conversation" session. And, while it's clear Frisell prefers to let his guitar speak for him, he did crystallise the existential challenge many artists face, explaining earnestly that the journey to self-fulfilment never ends.

In the evening he presented one of the most recent stops on that astonishingly eclectic journey: his When You Wish upon a Star project, paying tribute to classic American film and TV music. Accompanied by singer Petra Haden, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston – all of whom share Frisell's inclination towards understatement – he evoked moods and memories in varying shades of nostalgia that never slipped into a sepia-tinted haze.

Haden, like Frisell (and like her father, the late Charlie Haden), typically favours essence over embellishment, and reached straight for the tender heart of songs such as Moon River and Lush Life. But it wasn't all romance and refinement: Psycho bristled with pointed unease, while You Only Live Twice saw Haden soar across – and then dive headlong into – Frisell's deliciously grit-flecked harmonic backdrop.

Saturday night was a study in contrasts, opening with the Kenny Barron Trio at the Melbourne Recital Centre. Elegant and eloquent, the 73-year-old Barron and his long-time colleagues (bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa and drummer Johnathan Blake) alternately swung and sashayed through an appealing program that displayed Barron's penchant for graceful lines, Brazilian rhythms and seamless trio interplay, even if there were no real fireworks.

Donny McCaslin's group, on the other hand, was so explosive that it threatened to set the Toff in Town stage on fire. Jonathan Maron's visceral electric bass and Jason Lindner's pitch-bending synths sent vibrations through our feet and into our heads, while Zach Danziger's drums thundered and roiled to the back of the packed room and beyond.

In the midst of all the turbulence, McCaslin and his saxophone stood firmly in the eye of the storm, unleashing bold, reverberant tones that grew increasingly fervent as the band built climax upon gritty climax, each more intense than the last. But even at their most fierce, the effect was more euphoric than aggressive.

McCaslin and his band are also more than capable of harnessing their energy (just as they have harnessed the enormous attention their work on David Bowie's Blackstar has brought them) and keeping it in check.

The weekend came full circle with another appearance by Bill Frisell on Sunday evening – this time in trio mode, playing for an adoring crowd squeezed into every inch of Brunswick's newly-opened Jazzlab club (run by festival director and former Bennetts Lane owner Michael Tortoni).

Frisell roamed characteristically far and wide, both in source material – exploring tunes by Monk, Paul Motian and Burt Bacharach along with his own compositions – and in approach, his inimitable guitar sound veering between delicate, tremolo-filled melodies, tartly dissonant chord voicings and grainy, effects-laden distortion. The wondrously simpatico Morgan and Royston were with him every step of the way, skipping from country-tinged shuffles to swaggering blues feels, or conjuring up free-form, atmospheric swirls of sound.

Frisell invited Petra Haden to join the band for two gorgeously hushed numbers, the musicians following Haden's lead as she floated from phrase to phrase. For an encore, they offered a rendition of When You Wish Upon a Star that, in its honesty and unadorned beauty, was as exquisite a ballad as you are ever likely to hear.