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
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 00:51:32
Additional information
| Label | |
|---|---|
| SKU | SGL16162 |
| Qualities | DSD 512 fs, DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 24 Bit, WAV 192 kHz, FLAC 96 kHz |
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| Release Date | March 3, 2025 |
Press reviews
The Free Jazz Collective
“Terrestrials” contains the sort of freer solos that I would die for, walking the line between tonality on one side and the chromatic disregard for it on the other, the improvisation weaving it’s silken thread between the two fabrics creating a clear but wavy melody that is just as elusive rhythmically. “Circa” starts with a theme that wouldn’t be amiss off a Pat Metheny album, but then continues with a wandering melody line full of chromatic interest, the like of which I can’t get enough of at the moment….The structures of the pieces are relatively simple allowing for the soloists to gleefully stretch the music creatively….it all sounds remarkably fresh by today’s standards and seems like it could have been recorded later than the original date.”
All About Jazz
“This bracing, time traveling set of music is every bit as dynamic as one might expect given the participants— Shepik, Samworth, bassist Phil Sparks, and drummer Michael Sarin. Sounds swirl, tones waft, instruments prod, and this quartet demonstrates that discursive displays and focused findings are of equal importance in the art of life and the life of art. Sensitivity can sometimes be found in the interplay between these four (“Song Of Then”), but there’s also a love of the lewd, an embrace of the skronky, and a passion for playfulness in these encounters. This is a crew that appreciates and investigates everything from the avant-folk and blues of Ornette Coleman (“Rambin'”) to the nocturnal fever dreams of Robin Holcomb (“Nightbirds”), adding both into a winning portfolio that includes original music built on prickly sway and waltzing allure (“Bent House”), sounds of dystopia and myopia (“Confluenza”), and a general love for the marriage between the beautiful and the unnerving. This one was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait.”
JazzDaGama
“Shepik and Samworth will confound yet please critics with each of the songs on this remarkable recording Quartet 1991. ‘Songs’ is the key operative word here. For if you listen carefully these nine tracks making up the album are marvellous examples of this form of music. The music is melodically profound in every sense of the term. There is old-fashioned lyricism here, poignant at times (read that as ‘Bent House’ and ‘Circa’) and played with heartfelt emotions, and completely bereft of machismo. Other songs (‘Confluenza’, for instance) are really fine, dynamic accounts, with virtuosity appropriately to the fore. This makes for some pretty imposing music – especially on ‘PLAW’ – but the end result is no less exhilarating. The reason: Brad Shepik and Ron Samworth succeed in plumbing the depths of melody the way that good musicians should….Some of the disc’s most fruitful music-making involves movements packed with counterpoint between the guitarists including a feisty conjunction of sparky guitar from Shepik while Samworth plays liquid lines. The song in question is Ornette Coleman’s ‘Ramblin’. This commendably adventurous song is typical of a programme that is truly spectacular. It can make us eavesdroppers on a personal aural journal that has been exquisitely captured on tape. Tony Reif brings the session to life in his liner notes. His account of the odyssey that became this disc is fascinating. To think that we almost lost this music completely until Reif found a way to bring it to life again…”
The Province (Vancoiuver)
“This will appeal to fans of the textured guitar interplay that is closely associated with earlier Bill Frisell. But don’t come looking for a showcase of purely lead solo fire. Songs such as Shepik’s lovely Song of Then is full of open space, understated rhythm-guitar interplay and a gorgeous bass solo. It’s always a pleasure when sessions this good finally find release…this stands as a document of two excellent players finding their now fully developed tones and styles.”
All About Jazz
“The record sounds lively and compelling 25 years after it was recorded and it’s notable that the set doesn’t sound mired in the downtown musical vibe of the early 1990s. Shepik’s tone palette varies from clean to distorted, his melodic lines from legato fast-tempo triplets to choppy staccato phrases. [Samworth] plays very tightly in rhythmic and thematic synch with Shepik, and his solos are refreshingly cliché-free. There’s a mood of exploration, rather than destination, in many of the pieces….Highlights of the set are the contemplative “Nightbirds” and the closing “Song of Then.” “Nightbirds” is a tightly-structured multi-part piece that mixes composed lines and short improvisational passages. It’s a satisfying, melodically memorable work. “Song of Then” with its expansive 9-minute length, includes a well-conceived bass solo from Phil Sparks and subtle rhythmic support from drummer Michael Sarin, and draws the set quietly to its conclusion….Transferring an original analogue recording directly (and conscientiously) to hi-res digital preserves the analogue character of the sound. While many original digital recordings from the late 1980s and early 90s sound artificial, hard and flat, the 24/192 transfer of the Quartet 1991 multitrack studio tapes, and the careful efforts to mix, edit and master them, yields a warm sonic playback experience, more like a good late-era LP than an antiseptic early CD.”
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