Biography
Vancouver has long stood out for its forward-thinking jazz and inventive music community, an exploratory ethos that Talking Pictures embodies through its collective approach. Guitarist and composer Ron Samworth assembled the group in 1993, shaping an ensemble sound in which every participant receives equal weight. As co-artistic director of the Vancouver-based New Orchestra Workshop Society, Samworth has worked alongside the band’s remaining members—trumpeter Bill Clark, cellist Peggy Lee, and drummer Dylan van der Schyff—all of whom have performed with the Society’s flagship NOW Orchestra. Onstage, Talking Pictures has supplied music for cabaret and theatrical productions, among them pieces by Weill and Brecht. The quartet’s initial pair of Red Toucan releases, Ciao Bella (1995) and The Mirror With a Memory (1997), present Samworth, Clark, and van der Schyff originals alongside covers of Robin Holcomb and Ornette Coleman, the composed material linked by group improvisations. These recordings recall the small-ensemble work associated with New York’s downtown scene and Montreal’s “musique actuelle” circles in the 1990s. In 2000 Songlines issued Humming, a Talking Pictures collaboration with Dutch saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra that highlights Dijkstra’s own compositions.
Albums
