During the 2006 sessions for a certain Nels Cline record, violinist Jeff Gauthier was producing, Gauthier had met cellist Maggie Parkins and a few years later, the two married. But I’m not here to talk about the love story, this is about their musical partnership, one that took a little longer to fully blossom.
In fact, it took the pandemic forcing them to be stuck at home together to inspire the musical collaboration that Parkins and Gauthier have come to call “The Smudges,” a marked departure from Gauthier’s long-running Goatette project.
On this day (February 14, 2022) the Smudges are releasing their first album Song and Call, a collection of originals mostly from Gauthier and a couple of improvisations. It’s definitely more on the classical side than the jazz side, but also on the adventurous, avant-garde side and Gauthier’s use of electronics in spots lends even more to the experimental bent found on some tracks. My favorite Gauthier tune in this bunch is entitled “The Gigue Is Up” and we’re premiering a nice little video of it above.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a gigue is a “popular Baroque dance that originated in the British Isles and became widespread in aristocratic circles of Europe; also a medieval name for a bowed string instrument, from which the modern German word Geige (“violin”) derives.”
Thus, the name is a pun in more than one way, but also hints as to what this song is about. It’s baroque but it also dances, played entirely with a violin and its larger cousin, the cello. Gauthier and Parkins work in perfect concert to serve a fetching, playful melody. Watching these amazing string musicians perform the song makes it all the more enjoyable.
Song and Call is now available, from Gauthier’s Cryptogramophone label.
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