The Smudges: Song and Call Jeff Gauthier & Maggie Parkins

• 1Music of Chants (In Memory of John Cage)02:30
• 2Julius Caesar Eyebrows05:32
• 3The Gigue is Up05:19
• 4Kasha's Lament03:28
• 5Matter of Time05:59
• 6Song and Call09:24
• 7Blitva03:33
• 8Palindrones (For Bobby)06:25
• 9Release11:00
• Total Runtime53:10

Info for The Smudges: Song and Call

Genre defying compositions, daring improvisations and electronically manipulated sounds; The Smudges are cellist Maggie Parkins and violinist Jeff Gauthier. Gauthier is known for his work with Wilco-guitarist Nels Cline and his twin brother drummer Alex Cline, as well as projects with Yusef Lateef, Mark Dresser, Adam Rudolph, Todd Sickafoose and many others. Maggie has performed and recorded extensively with her sister; Bjork harpist Zeena Parkins, accordionist Guy Klucevsek, and is cellist with the Eclipse Quartet. Together since 2008, the Smudges blur the lines between acoustic chamber jazz and classical new music.

"The highly original work of violinist Jeff Gauthier and cellist Maggie Parkins, stars of the West Coast new music scene, resists classification. How deeply their Smudges debut rings and pulsates and pleases." (Downbeat)

Jeff Gauthier, cello
Maggie Parkins, violin

The Smudges
are violinist Jeff Gauthier and cellist Maggie Parkins. The origin of their name is shrouded in mystery. Smudges on a window? Herbs that chase away evil spirits? The seamless integration of daring improvisation and varied musical styles that define these L.A. based musicians? The answer is emphatically YES!

The Smudges met after a Nels Cline recording session for his album New Monastery that Jeff produced in 2006. A few years later Maggie and Jeff were married and shortly thereafter The Smudges were born. However, it took a global pandemic and suspension of all live concerts for them to hunker down in their home studio and document their work. Thus, the album Song and Call came into being.

Sara Parkins Born into an extraordinary musical family that includes downtown NY composer/harpist Zeena Parkins (Bjork, John Zorn, Butch Morris, Skeleton Crew), and her twin sister violinist Sara Parkins (Angeles Quartet, Eroica Trio), Maggie Parkins has been playing in ensembles with her sisters most of her life. She has since become a fixture on the West Coast scene as an accomplished new music cellist with Eclipse Quartet, Mojave Trio, and Brightwork newmusic. As an improviser she has played and/or recorded with the Jazz Passengers, Anthony Braxton, Guy Klucevsek, Caetano Veloso, Bjork, Zeena Parkins, Billy Childs, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, and many others.

Jeff Gauthier created his own musical family around his West Coast jazz/new music label Cryptogramophone, where he has been in-house producer for such artists as Nels Cline, Alex Cline, Mark Dresser, Bennie Maupin, Ben Goldberg, Jenny Scheinman and many others. As an improvising violinist Jeff has performed and recorded with artists like Nels and Alex Cline, Yusef Lateef, Adam Rudolph, Mark Dresser and Myra Melford, to name a few. He was a member of the seminal L.A. group Quartet Music with Nels and Alex Cline and bassist Eric von Essen for 12 years, and after von Essen’s death started own ensemble The Jeff Gauthier Goatette with both Clines, pianist David Witham and bassist Joel Hamilton which has recorded five CDs for Nine Winds and Cryptogramophone.

This album contains no booklet.