This analogue-recorded session might be the best-sounding recording of early 1990s guitar-based downtown jazz-rock. The 24/192 transfer of the Quartet 1991 multitrack studio tapes, and the skillful new mix and mastering deliver a warm and detailed sonic picture. Guitarists Brad Shepik and Ron Samworth play tight ensemble passages and refreshingly cliché-free solos, ably supported by drummer Michael Sarin and bassist Phil Sparks. – Mark Werlin

Twenty-five years after it was recorded (in Seattle in 1991), the first production by what was soon to become Songlines was finally released. At the time, this twin-guitar recording project was felt to be flawed musically, and its twenty-something co-leaders moved on to bigger things. Brad Shepik became the guitarist in Dave Douglas’s Tiny Bell Trio and was soon leading and recording his own bands, some of them for Songlines. Vancouver’s Ron Samworth founded the quartet Talking Pictures, featuring Peggy Lee and Dylan van der Schyff (check out their 2010 collaboration with Robin Holcomb, The Point of It All). The multi-track session tapes stayed in the closet, until on a hunch we digitized them in 24/192. The hunch proved true: although the guitars had not been completely isolated from each other, it turned out to be possible to digitally edit around rough spots in the composed material (the improvisations were generally fine as is).

So what we have here is music of its time that still feels fresh today, and sounds much better than if it had been released in the 90s. Certainly there is some historical interest in light of these performers’ subsequent careers, including collaborations with other guitarists: Brad with David Tronzo, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder, Steve Cardenas and others in Paul Motian’s Electric Bebop Band and Joey Baron’s Killer Joey; Ron with Tony Wilson in his band Bugs Inside and right up to today in The Peggy Lee Band. But the ultimate justification is the particular character of this collaboration.

It’s true that there are a swirl of influences in the music. Brad: “Conceptually I hear Ornette Coleman, Jerry Granelli, Jay Clayton, Julian Priester, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz. Guitar-wise Frisell, Scofield, Metheny, Abercrombie, Jim Hall, Jimi Hendrix.” Ron: “The Zorn, Frisell, Tom Cora, Tim Berne, Knitting Factory scene was what I was checking out as well as Paul Bley, Ornette, Henry Threadgill and Paul Motian. There were a lot of influences to sort out – all of the jazz guitar guys Brad just cited for sure, Miles, Coltrane and especially the AACM, Ornette and the Downtown New York scene. The NY scene was great because it was not just rock-influenced jazz but full on genre-busting. Skronk, Hendrix, tango, minimalism, bebop, complexity, classical, folk music – whatever you brought to the table could co-exist, and that, to me was liberating.”

Out of all these influences this one-off created some memorable, compelling music. Brad’s pieces especially, four of them never subsequently recorded, display a tense lyricism, and his playing an urgent logic. And the way the guitars interact and complement each other is often beautiful. Drummer Michael Sarin is killing throughout, limning and shadowing the shifting rise-and-fall with unerring grace.

Brad Shepik- electric guitar (l. channel)
Ron Samworth- electric guitar (r. channel)
Phil Sparks-bass
Michael Sarin- drums

The post Quartet 1991 appeared first on NativeDSD Music.