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Jimmy Haslip’s ARC Trio Joins Forces with the John Daversa Big Band Interpreting the Music of German Composer MSM Schmidt.
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Nguyên Lê, Steve Khan, Mike Miller, Mer Sal, Oz Noy and Brian Auger among the guest soloists on ARCeology
“It comes as no surprise that a band made up of Jimmy Haslip, Scott Kinsey and Gergö Borlai should sound so good. But the real surprise is how well their music expands to realize the visions of MSM Schmidt, John Daversa’s Big Band plus an incredible host of guest soloists. Okay, lots of great playing and lots of notes! But Jimmy Haslip’s unique ability to hear the big picture grounds everything beautifully and qualifies as a masterclass on its own. I’m a fan of all of the players, and can tell you that this is one fun album to listen to.” - Peter Erskine

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Featuring:

Featured Soloists:
Electric Bass - Jimmy Haslip
Keyboards / Piano: Scott Kinsey
Drums: Gergö Borlai

The John Daversa Big Band
​TRUMPETS
John Daversa: director, conductor & horn arrangements
Jesus Mato Jr.
Kathrine Hamann
Janelle Finton

​TROMBONES
Dante Luciani
Chad Bernstein
Eli Feingold
John Kricker: bass trombone

​TUBA
Aaron Tindall

​SAXOPHONES
David Mason: lead alto
Shane McCandless: alto
Seth Crail: tenor
Steve Guerra: tenor
Frank Capoferri: baritone saxophone & bass clarinet

​FLUTE
Katisse Buckingham

​VIOLIN
Abby Young

​Additional Synthesis & Programming
Michael Schmidt
Steve Khan: acoustic & electric guitar (tracks 1, 8)
Seamus Blake: tenor saxophone (tracks 2, 3)
John Daversa: trumpet (track 2)
Mer Sal: vocals (track 3)
Nguyên Lê: electric guitars (tracks 4, 5)
Judd Miller: EVI (track 5)
Mike Miller: electric guitars (tracks 6, 7)
Oz Noy: electric guitars (track 6)
Brian Auger: hammond B3 organ (track 7)
Steve Tavaglione: soprano saxophone (track 8)


​Executive Producer:  Michael Schmidt

Produced by:  Jimmy Haslip & Scott Kinsey
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Arc Trio engineered, mixed and mastered by Scott Kinsey at Wishbone Studio, Encino, CA.
John Daversa Big Band engineered by Dana Salminen at UM studios, Miami, FL.
Brian Auger B3 engineered by Karma Auger at Studio 1 LA, Venice, CA.


Transcriptions: Kyle Gordon

Album Design: Hélène Côté c/o of Morphist
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All songs composed by Michael Schmidt, GEMA, except “Quartet” composed by Scott Kinsey, Hey Now Music.
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Liner Notes | About The Songs
Track-by-Track Comments on ARCeology by Jimmy Haslip
1. Red and Gold
“Virgil Donati played drums on the original recording of this tune from Michael Schmidt’s 2017 album Life, but he played more of a pocket groove. The original recording also had Jerry Goodman playing violin and I wanted to keep the fiddle element in the little hook part of the song. I discussed it with John Daversa and that’s when he got Abby Young to play violin, so I just doubled her line. It reminded me of what violinist Mark O'Connor did with Michael Brecker back in the day on ‘Itsbynne Reel’ (from 1988’s Don’t Try This at Home). Actually, that tune inspired Russell Ferrante to do an arrangement of a Yellowjackets song called ‘Freda’ that also featured fiddle (from 1991’s Greenhouse). It's an interesting texture to bring into a jazz fusion context. The title of this composition originally was ‘Ready and Go.’ And when we were recording it for Life, I persuaded Michael to call it ‘Red and Gold.’ I had Steve Khan play an acoustic guitar solo and also got Katisse Buckingham to lay some demanding flute parts alongside the big band. John said, ‘It’d be great to get some virtuosic flute player to play on this tune.’ Luckily, I had worked with Katisse a lot and got him on board.”
2. Swing
“There’s a track on Michael Schmidt’s album Evolution called ‘Swing Your Troubles Away,’ and we decided to abbreviate it to just ‘Swing’ for this version. Scott Kinsey thought of bringing in saxophonist Seamus Blake to play on it, which was a great idea. I’ve never worked with Seamus before, but Scott’s worked with him a bunch. And I think he did a fabulous job playing over this tune. Seamus really captures that kind of Michael Brecker spirit here.”
3. Quartet
“I was a little concerned about this song because the harmony and the lines that Scott wrote were pretty pyrotechnic. But John just tackled it head-on! He didn’t flinch and he got it done. It’s a pretty impressive piece of music to begin with, and to have the big band performing on this is just awesome. I think also once Michael heard the tune, that’s when he started thinking this project should be an ARC Trio record. We finally came around to accepting that and decided to move forward with it. This is a Scott Kinsey composition and he had the idea of bringing in vocalist Mer Sal, to just kind of scat on the tune. So it has a connection to the big band legacy, where you’d have a vocalist like Ella Fitzgerald or Lena Horne, but we’re also taking it a bit to the left.” Added Daversa, “The best plan for arranging this tune was to simply amplify Scott’s ‘mad scientist’ keyboard parts. Doubling those lines at first seemed impossible. I had to shed that for a while, let go, and then hope for the best.”
4. Qin Shi
“This song is named for an ancient Chinese emperor from thousands of years ago, famous for his army of terracotta warriors. It was previously recorded on Michael’s album Utopia. And Nguyên Lê’s solo here is just amazing.”
5. Si Kitu
 “The title of this song, which sounds kind of Asian in some way, is actually African. It means ‘everything's okay.’ I could just imagine Nguyên playing on these two songs, ’Qin Shi’ and ‘Si Kitu.’ They definitely were demanding tunes, but if anybody was up to the task it would be him. Nguyên is a really incredible guitar player.”
6. Mirrors
“That was the hardest one to play on for me, as a bass player. It just had a very awkward bassline, but we made it happen.” In fact, Gergö wanted to redo his drums after hearing what he played. So we went around in circles on it for a minute until we finally found some common ground that worked. It was an original piece by Michael that had never been recorded, so we really wanted to have this on the album. And the fact that it was called ‘Mirrors' made me come up with the idea of having dueling lead guitars, so there’s a Mike Miller solo and an Oz Noy solo. I’ve known Mike since the mid '70s. We worked on a bunch of records together with Gino Vannelli and a variety of other things over the years. And, of course, he was in the last version of Chick Corea’s Elektric Band with Gary Novak and Jimmy Earl. So he’s had a wonderful career and I was glad to be able to get him on this project.”
7. Clark Kent
​“I always liked this song of Michael’s. On his Evolution album it had a very long title — “Clark Kent Versus Secret Insurance Agent” — which I shortened and Michael went along with. I was searching for something different on this one. I had been working a bunch over at Brian Auger’s studio about eight blocks from my home in Venice, California. I just got a feeling that it would be a cool tune for him, to add a compelling element to this record. Brian was one of the godfathers of fusion, so it seemed like a no-brainer to get him involved on this fusion big band record.”
8. Falling
​“This song was from an earlier MSM Schmidt album called Transit. Originally it was called ‘Falling Down’ and I had a negative thought about that, so I asked Michael if we could just change it to ‘Falling,’ which he agreed to. Steve Khan solos on acoustic guitar, once again. And then I brought in Steve Tavaglione for a soprano sax solo. I wanted to have him somewhere on the record and ended up getting him on this track. And because there was an available slot, I did a fretless bass solo on this tune which turned out real nice.”
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