Vancouver guitarist Ron Samworth and his quartet Talking Pictures collaborated with Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz on The Point of It All, a program of mostly Holcomb compositions, eight of them previously unrecorded.
At the time of recording (2009) cellist Peggy Lee was already part of Wayne’s Gravitas Quartet, and Peggy and Robin were performing occasionally as a duo. Ron and Peggy each composed a new song for the occasion, and Robin made an arrangement of “After the Gold Rush.” The results throw a different light on the music of one of America’s most distinctive yet ultimately elusive musicians and lyricists. As Robin put it, “Talking Pictures share an intimacy and intuition that is staggering and which they apply with joyful abandon in not only our mutual improvisations but also in their interpretation of my compositions. It was a wonderful experience for me, one of those rare situations wherein I can not only improvise and do whatever arises in the moment, but can also bring to the table any music I want to – the end result doesn’t have to be only an improvised project, or a chamber music project, or a songs project or a jazz project. There is great logic in their coloration and sense of balance, no matter how seemingly chaotic or contrary….Wayne and I have been playing each other’s music for more than thirty years. Talking Pictures have played together for over fifteen years. There are a lot of historical strands at work.”
Ron adds, “Robin’s music is the perfect vehicle for a band like Talking Pictures. There is such a wealth of information in any given phrase – melodic, harmonic and rhythmic, not to mention the extraordinary richness of lyrical imagery in her songs. It’s an improviser’s dream. Our band greatly values ensemble playing where we create unified improvised pieces that explore a variety of textures and moods. Robin and Wayne seem to share that open, collective spirit.”
In a post-modern world of sometimes gaudy mix-and-match stylistics, yet another record that confounds easy categorization may not seem unusual. But The Point of It All is unusual. For one thing it takes its time to get where it’s going, and this slow build has a cumulative effect. And, as the title suggests, there’s a lesson of sorts being expounded. There’s certainly something archaic about it, almost as if these songs had already existed as prototypes in another time and place, a lost America of long ago (one of them, “Johnny Has Gone for a Soldier,” in fact dates from the American War of Independence). You can hear this in Robin’s voice, which seems to lament even as it celebrates, and you can hear it in the sometimes circus-like and gospel-like tones and timbres of the instruments. Yet this music is very much about the 21st century, a symbolic distillation of the present. It does not mince words, and its catharsis is hard-earned, not nostalgic. It is also, at times, joyful and exuberant, even raucous. It seems to light up from the inside.
Robin Holcomb, piano, vocals
Wayne Horvitz, Hammond M-3, piano (3)
Ron Samworth, electric and acoustic guitar
Bill Clark, trumpet, flugelhorn (12)
Peggy Lee, cello
Dylan van der Schyff, drums
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 01:06:19
Additional information
| Label | |
|---|---|
| SKU | PWSGL15842 |
| Qualities | DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 24 Bit, WAV 88.2 kHz, FLAC 96 kHz |
| Channels | |
| Artists | |
| Composers | Friedman, Holcomb, Lee / McGeer, Samworth, Silverstein, Trad, Young |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | Acoustic Guitar, Electric guitar, Flugelhorn, Cello, Drums, Piano, Trumpet, Vocal |
| Original Recording Format | |
| Release Date | February 3, 2025 |
Press reviews
SoundStage!HI-FI
“Peggy Lee’s “Against the Drift,” is as close as The Point of It All comes to a pop tune, and it features a soulful Hammond B3 solo by Horvitz. Holcomb’s delicate voice is absolutely right for the song’s heartbreaking melody. “After the Gold Rush” also fits her voice well, and her arrangement of the song is both strange and compelling. Each of the musicians brings a singular voice to The Point of It All and responds with great sensitivity to Holcomb’s ideas. I’m tempted to call the music here avant-garde, but the ideas behind many of its free and dissonant passages will sound familiar to anyone who listens to free jazz or modern classical music. It’s a moving and powerful disc.”
The Provine
“This session finds the six musicians performing a series of Holcomb’s lovely compositions, including such fragile songs as “The Sweetest Thing” to the moody blue beauty of the aptly titled “Sad Waltz,” which features some wonderful interplay from trumpeter Bill Clark and cellist Peggy Lee. An altogether satisfying summit of improvisors with the chops to let the music breathe.”
All About Jazz
“More than any other Holcomb release to date, The Point of It All’s blend of form and freedom represents a fuller consolidation, coming closest to representing her varied musical interests. Lyrically, as ever, Holcomb’s messages, while strong, are delivered gently, without a big stick….Talking Pictures proves as capable of angular spontaneity (“Interlude”) as it is subtler interaction on the dark-hued “The Sweetest Thing,” and straightforward interpretation on the appropriately titled instrumental, “Sad Waltz”….The group also covers Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush,” here turned into something resembling chamber folk, with a strangely angular but round-edged instrumental introduction leading to Holcomb’s significantly reharmonized reading of Young’ iconic song….Expansive and deeply resonant, but in the quietest fashion possible, The Point of It All perfectly melds Holcomb’s divergent interests, with a group of musicians who seem perfectly connected to her evocative world on an empathic, telepathic level.”
Earshot Jazz
“Robin Holcomb has never been one to toe the lines of genre or, for that matter, expectation. Her art is singular: Who else creates music and lyrics that resonate deeply with the nation’s pre-industrial past, incorporate slanted jazz, and vividly evoke her own present moment? Holcomb does that so well that all the traditions and historical allusions of her music seamlessly meld: A lilting waltz may suddenly electronically distort into a winter of longing on a frontier plain, circa 1868. Or, an allusion in her lyrics to hardscrabble farm life may complement musical hints of unyielding church pews and bedraggled military musters far off during the Revolutionary War. On The Point of It All, Holcomb, a fine vocalist and even finer pianist, creates an almost fully convincing personal hybrid. To do so, she called a summit of outstanding musicians based in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, all of them able to range as far and wide as Holcomb asks – and to bring it all home…Each band member makes memorable contributions – memorable, above all, for their measured contribution to the whole.”
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.