Bill Frisell’s Disfarmer Project

When: Oct. 27  
Where: Walker Art Center, 1750 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 612-375-7600

By all accounts, Mike “Disfarmer” Meyer was a strange man. An oddball. Eccentric. A “genius,” some would say. Born and raised in the farming community of Heber Springs, Arkansas, he hated both his name and the whole idea of planting seeds and tending to crops. To nullify both of these forces in his life, he had his name legally changed to the single moniker Disfarmer, and made his living during the Great Depression and the 1950s by taking black-and-white studio portraits of the townspeople.

Disfarmer died in relative obscurity in 1959, but thousands of his photographic plates were discovered in 1974 by an enterprising newspaper publisher and professional photographer, Peter Miller, who sent copies of them to Modern Photography magazine. Since then, Disfarmer’s stark, haunting photographs have been exhibited around the world and are now recognized as a treasure trove of classic American portraiture.

The idea of marrying the music of preeminent jazz guitarist Bill Frisell with Disfarmer’s photos came from Charles Helm, director of the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, who introduced Disfarmer’s photos to Frisell.

“The first time I saw the photos, it was mind-blowing,” Frisell recalls. “I started generating ideas immediately. Those photographs are so strong in so many ways. They’re almost like going back in a time machine.”

It took a few years, but Frisell’s musical ideas were finally given a chance to coalesce through a partnership between Ohio State’s Wexner Center and the Walker Art Center. The result, Musical Portraits from Heber Springs: Bill Frisell’s Disfarmer Project, makes its way to the Walker on October 27.

As powerful as Frisell found Disfarmer’s photos, however, he didn’t want to create a “Broadway show” of musical clichés and slides. “Musically, I wasn’t trying to represent the photos, but rather to create an atmosphere, an imaginary impression of what was going on in Disfarmer’s mind at the time,” Frisell explains. To find out “how the air smells and what the people look like,” Frisell drove to the town in Arkansas where Disfarmer lived. “When I got there, I talked to the town’s funeral director, who had known Disfarmer since he was a kid and was one of the people who found Disfarmer’s body when he died.”

That encounter changed everything, says Frisell. “After that, it was more about Disfarmer the man and not so much about the photos. ” The music draws part of its inspiration from Ozark fiddle music (which Disfarmer played), but also uses a wide range of jazz, classical, and electronic textures. While photos are projected on several screens, Frisell’s trio responds to the photos through the music. “There are basic musical themes that we come back to, but it’s still very open,” says Frisell. Like the artist who inspired it, the Disfarmer Project is sure to be captivating and original, a one-of-a-kind snapshot of two iconic American artists in a fascinating conversation through time.