Trio Improvisations by Reg Schwager

includes pdf of album art

Liner Notes:

Improvising, with nothing pre-planned, or any discussion at all, is one of the most challenging and rewarding ways to make music. In Holland they call it instant composing. I feel lucky to be able to present here some improvised music with four master musicians whose work combines imagination, intuition, poise, humour and incredible ears.

I’ve been working with Michel Lambert for over 30 years in many different contexts. His playing is reassuring yet liberating at the same time. It’s difficult for me to conceive of any recording project or band without having him as the drummer. Michel’s list of credits is long and includes collaborations with Milcho Leviev, Ellery Eskellin, Rakalam Bob Moses and Raoul Björkenheim.

Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink were like Batman and Robin in my childhood. My Oma used to send me photos of them clipped from the Dutch TV guide. In 1980 I attended a workshop Misha was conducting at the Music Gallery in Toronto. We invited him for lunch with my family. Instead of flowers he brought plastic insects as a gift. And he was the only one to spot the weevils in the hot and sour soup we made for him. He peered over his glasses, paused a moment, and then finished his bowl without comment.

I first met Kenny Wheeler when he was teaching at the Banff Centre in 1984. He and drummer Eddie Marshall were the least talkative of any of the faculty but they were the two that I learned the most from. Kenny is also known to have a dry, understated sense of humour. Here are a couple of his sayings: “The saxophonist played chorus after chorus, each one better than the next.” “And at the end of the tune the lead trumpeter took everything up nearly an octave.”

Michael Stuart can play just about anything and brings his fresh, uplifting spirit to any musical situation. I knew his playing from an LP he made with the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine called “Remembrance” so it was a thrill when I finally got to work with him. His album “The Blessing” (with the great drummer Claude Ranger) is a classic. He is definitely one of my favourite musicians and people even though he always calls me “The Schwaaag”.

Reg Schwager, December 2012

Reviews:

Schwager is a limber, versatile guitar who favors a clean tone and thoughtful close harmony statements. He's unfairly unknown, and even his drumming partner on these tracks (who has recorded frequently with Francois Carrier) is comparably high profile. Hopefully these turns with star guests will raise his profile a bit, because he deserves it. There's quote a range of material on these terse tracks, recording over several sessions.

Things get started with bitty and spacious sound, and aptly chosen intervallic statements from the leader alongside Mengelberg and Lambert on "Out Class." Elsewhere, Schwager showcases excellent tonal sympathy with Wheeler on "Gander," the pair engaged in thoughtful commentary with tuned low toms. Schwager effectively blends into the mix with single notes but also lushly shapes Wheeler's unmistakable sound and phrasing. Wheeler feels his oats on the jittery, bustling "Cross Talk," while Schwager comps urgently in the lower register. They strike a balance between these approaches on the intense, abstract "Sense Less," Wheeler's lines poised just so between the telepathic interplay between Schwager and Lambert. "After Thought" is all obsessive Misha, stuttering and worrying little phrases, tapping against the confines of the music, almost like rattling code in search of an interlocutor. There's a whiff of Bailey in Schwager's choked chords here, and the whole works well with Lambert's loping half-time proto swing. The pianist plays nice on the lengthy "Hamlet," complete with a tasty unison line. And he conjures some lovely, arch harmony to open "Dysfunctional Harmony," joined by splashy, delicate commentary from guitar and drums, ultimately arriving at an almost stately Misha ending. On "Undertow," Stuart is darting, sometimes hesitant, ragged and raspy here but fragile and wispy there, sort of like Chris Speed via Jimmy Lyons. But even more satisfying is his beautiful, slightly wounded ballad work on "In Sight."

Who knows why this took so long to get released? Fine stuff that deserves your attention.

Jason Bivins - Cadence Magazine | Jan Feb Mar 2014.

Reg SCHWAGER – Michel LAMBERT : "Trio Improvisations"

Nous vous présentions au mois de mars le très étonnant "Journal des épisodes" du batteur québécois Michel Lambert. Cette fois, et sur le même label Jazz From Rant, il est associé au guitariste Reg Schwager, musicien d’origine hollandaise et indonésienne résident de longue date à Toronto. Pour eux, le jeu a consisté à réunir trois trios pour improviser avec le très posé Kenny Wheeler, le fantasque Misha Mengelberg ou Michael Stuart, saxophoniste au phrasé tourmenté. Avec chaque invité, le climat change et le duo d’hôtes se montre très ouvert et complice quelle que soit la situation. Un disque d’une grande diversité qui met à l’honneur ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la composition instantanée.

Jazz From Rant Rant 1245

Thierry Giard – Culture Jazz - Mardi 30 avril 2013


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.

Schwager and drummer Michel Lambert, one of Quebec’s finest free improvisers, make Schwager’s outer limits more apparent on Trio Improvisations (Rant 1245). It’s a special trio, with three different musicians occupying the third spot. The recordings come from sessions during a six-month period between 2001 and 2002 and include the powerful Coltrane-influenced Toronto saxophonist Michael Stuart, Amsterdam’s anarchic and brilliant pianist Misha Mengelberg (an early influence on the Dutch-born Schwager) and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, perhaps Canada’s greatest contribution to international jazz. The music is all free improvisation, though in this case that means harmonic and rhythmic structures arise and dissolve with frequency and ease. What makes the set most remarkable is that it’s anything but pastiche. While many CDs from different sessions sound like patchwork quilts, this one sounds like a suite, with a consistent approach that expands outward from Schwager and Lambert and embraces their various guests.

Stuart Broomer – The Whole Note - May 2014

Reg Schwager/Michel Lambert: Trio Improvisations (2001-02 [2013], Jazz From Rant):
Guitarist Schwager was b. 1962 in Netherlands, moved to New Zealand when he was 3, moved again at 6 to Canada, based now in Toronto. Has a handful of albums since 1985. Drummer Lambert plays with François Carrier and Maïkotron Unit. To make a trio they add Misha Mengelberg (piano), Kenny Wheeler (trumpet), or Michael Stuart (sax, probably tenor) for three improv cuts each. Mengelberg and Wheeler are very famous and acquit themselves well. Stuart isn't famous: b. 1948 in Jamaica, moved to Toronto in 1969, did a tour with Elvin Jones but has scant discography. (AMG gives him a couple dozen credits, but many are for engineering classical recordings, and some are dubious -- e.g., playing percussion on Love's Forever Changes.) His cuts are as strong as the stars', making him someone I'd like to hear more from. B+(***)

Tom Hull - On The Web - April 2013

I play jazz guitar. A lot.