Growing up in Denver, Frisell studied the clarinet before turning to the guitar in his teens. In the early 1980s, Pat Metheny recommended Frisell to Paul Motian for a recording session, which began a long-running partnership between Frisell and Motian. At the same time Frisell became the in-house guitarist for ECM, working on several important albums. Later he moved east and was prominent in the New York scene, joining John Zorn as a member of the band Naked City. In the 1990s he explored Americana and country music while living in Seattle. In 2005 Frisell received a Grammy Award for his album “Unspeakable".