Quality Of Silence [Pure DSD]

Quality Of Silence was one of the first Direct Stream Digital (DSD) recordings made. It was recorded by Digital Music Products (DMP) Producer and Recording Engineer Tom Jung using a prototype Sony DSD recording system, the forerunner of the Sonoma DSD Workstation.

DSD is a more accurate and different approach to converting music from Analog to the Digital Domain. It samples a 1 bit word at 2.8224 Mhz per second with a frequency response that extends beyond 100kHz and has a dynamic range greater than 120db.

This project came about as a result of a conversation between Tom Jung and Steve Davis. The question we asked “Wouldn’t it be neat if someone would do a recording where the emphasis is as much on the space as the notes?” This is it.

The dynamic softness was not preconceived but rather was the result of the setup in the studio. Nobody wore headphones and no one was in an isolation booth. So, if we couldn’t hear each other, a dynamic adjustment had to be made.
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There aren’t many musicians who would agree to play this softly and uncluttered on an album. The ability to play less is a true sign of a seasoned veteran musician. That is why the four musicians on this album joined Steve Davis to form the Steve Davis Project.

And who else but Tom Jung could bring this project to sonic fruition? Every note on this recording had to be allowed to breathe. Each tune had a certain core and the artists had to get there in the most beautiful, open and spacious way possible. We hope that as listeners on repeated listening your appreciation for the Quality Of Silence will grow.

Jazz drummer Steve Davis was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1958. Following the advice of drum teacher Alan Dawson, Steve moved to New York City in the early 1980s to begin his career as a jazz drummer. Throughout the 1980s Steve built up a reputation in the New York scene, playing and recording with many big names.

Steve Davis has a keen ear that appreciates the sounds of silence as well as the sounds of music. “The power and beauty of a song is determined by the notes that you don’t play, as much as it is the notes you play,” Davis muses in the liners. Though an oft-touted goal, it’s one not generally made by drummers. Here, however, Davis really does “play” the silences thus living up to the promise of the project’s title. Indeed, it’s the charged negative spaces surrounding the notes as much as the notes themselves that keep resonating after the music has faded.

Here, Davis’ implosive minimalism is fleshed out by soprano saxist Tim Ries, guitarist John Hart, bassist Drew Gress and pianist Andy LaVerne. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” typifies the approach. Taken at a dizzyingly slow tempo, each pearl of Kern’s melodic strand stands alone, suspended against a black velvet void.

Even when the tempo zooms, there’s still great clarity. Davis is a visionary, a master percussionist whose sticks and brushes paint rather than pound. Yes, Davis solos with elan (check out his pungent sketch at the end of “Blackbird”). This, however, is a project in which group interactions rather than soloistic stunting carry the day.

Steve Davis Project
Steve Davis, Drums
Tim Ries, Soprano Saxophone
Andy LaVerne, Piano
John Hart, Guitar
Drew Gress, Bass