Arctic Passage by Reg Schwager

includes pdf of album art

liner notes:

When I first started attending jazz workshops the rule was strict and unbending - the guitar and piano don’t play together. They take turns. The potential for rhythmic and harmonic clashes is too great. Nobody wants to hear those flat and natural nines rubbing against each other. But then I started working with pianists from a slightly earlier school who got angry when they saw me politely waiting my turn. “Play!” yelled Wray Downes. “Don’t just sit there!” bellowed Ian Bargh. Fine - this was way more fun anyway. And after checking out duos like Herb Ellis and Oscar Peterson, Jim Hall and Bill Evans, and César Camargo Mariano and Hélio Delmiro, it became lear that with a little planning and a lot of listening this could be a wonderful combination.

I was glad David Restivo was around when I called him for this project. He is a very in-demand player and is often touring, or teaching in Winnipeg, Antigonish or elsewhere. Together we’ve toured Brazil with Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass and worked with people like Mel Tormé and Kevin Mahogany. David’s playing combines sensitivity, fire, imagination and a wide-ranging musical conception that transcends style.

For this recording we’re playing some new songs of mine plus a handful of familiar standards (musical comfort food).

Morning People wake up early, are cheerful and talkative, and get a lot accomplished in the day. Arnhem is where my mother’s parents lived in Holland. There are certain places that I see when I and daydreaming, or half-asleep, or in the process of improvising. I don’t really understand why this is, but the neighbourhood around my grandparents’ is somewhere I frequently go to in this way.

My father comes from a place near Bandung in Central Java, Indonesia. The music there is out of this world. One For Jerry was written for Jerry Fuller, a generous and knowledgeable bebop drummer that David and I both apprenticed with. Arctic Passage comes from a voyage I took on the Amundsen, an icebreaker that is used for scientific research during the summer. “What should I call this one?” I asked my wife Kiki. “Waves on the Ocean,” she offered. I shortened it to Waves.

Poor Butterfly is a song I’ve played many times with Peter Appleyard, who is one of my favourite musicians and people. I associate Three O’Clock In The Morning with Dexter Gordon. The tempo here is faster than his, as though more caffeine than alcohol was consumed in the night. The chords to Whispering form the basis for the bebop classic Groovin’ High. We chose to use the older melody here. Alexander’s Ragtime Band is an early song by Irving Berlin. I never it much attention until I heard a wonderful version by Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins. Stephen Foster is considered to be America’s first great songwriter. His songs are the oldest standards I know, except for maybe Greensleeves. the lyrics to Hard Times Come Again No More, as much as anything, are drew me to this song.

- Reg Schwager, 2013

review:

Guitarist Reg Schwager has worked with some of the most famous performers in jazz, including Diana Krall, George Shearing and Peter Appleyard. In addition to being a distinguished sideman, though, he’s also genuinely adventurous. Schwager has just released two contrasting CDs that testify to the range and quality of his work.

His duet with pianist David Restivo, Arctic Passage (Rant 1346), presents two musicians gifted in the myriad permutations of melody and harmony, etching work of glittering lyricism. Most of the compositions are Schwager’s own, themes worthy of further exploration, but there are also distinctive accounts of Poor Butterfly and Alexander’s Ragtime Band, each enlivened by thoughtful chordal extensions that are bound to surprise. The dialogue is inevitably reminiscent of the perfect duos recorded by Bill Evans and Jim Hall in the 1960s.

Stuart Broomer - The Whole Note - May 2013

I play jazz guitar. A lot.