Arthur Kell Speculation Quartet At Scott's Jazz Club

Arthur Kell Speculation Quartet
Scott's Jazz Club
Belfast, N. Ireland
May 23, 2025

Outlier comedian and agent provocateur Bill Hicks had a sketch where he greeted the audience with the news that this would be his last gig. Yeah, it was sad, he acknowledged, but he had enjoyed every minute of the ride—every lonely car journey between towns, every featureless airport waiting lounge, every cancelled flight, every mattress-stained motel room, and every dumb audience who stared at him like a dog who has just been shown a card trick... Of course, Hicks was only joking, was he not? But it was a reminder that the life of a touring artist is not all glamor and glitz. The boys in the Arthur Kell Speculation Quartet know that.

With just two hours' sleep after their previous gig in Gratz, Austria, followed by a 4am train and a sixteen-hour journey, via Amsterdam, they were understandably pooped by the time they took to the stage of Scotts Jazz Club. You could have forgiven the four musicians for wondering where the hell they were. The table of Bostonians at the front might only have added to any lingering sense of disorientation.

Once the music started, however, the adrenaline kicked in. Kell's bass ostinato and drummer Allan Mednard's cantering groove announced the vibrant, West African-flavored "Hatlaf Zitav." It established a template of sorts for the set, with guitarists Nate Radley and Brad Shepik delivering the bright unison melody before soloing in turn. It was a privilege to watch two of New York's finest contemporary six-stringers strut their stuff—their virtuosity devoid of pyrotechnic bombast.

Without pause, the quartet launched into "Pisciotta Blue." With Mednard switching to brooms, his rhythms provided a lithe, though unobtrusive, backdrop to solos of contrasting hue from Shepik and then Radley. Bassist and drummer duly took their turns in the spotlight on this atmospheric number. Most of the tunes had serious road-tested mileage under their belts, but a new one—birthed and nurtured over the first week of the quartet's 12-date European tour—bristled with spikey guitar work and bustling drumming that was thrilling to behold.

The introductory story behind "Dada" was as entertaining as the tune itself—Kell regaling the audience with a tale of misadventure, a scarcely believable good Samaritan and a hairy car journey across Spain. An irresistible shuffle underpinned a series of short, blues-inflected exchanges between the two guitarists who closed out in unison over Mednard's snappy patterns. After such muscular tension, the brushes-steered "Lullaby/Omni" felt like a collective exhalation. Here, Kell's lyricism as both a writer and musician came to the fore, though it was Radley's peach of solo—understated yet emotive—that stood out, replete with the weave of Americana colors that made his album Morphoses (Fresh Sound new Talent, 2015) such a revelation.

Another big bass ostinato—picked up and mirrored by both guitarists—ushered in "Dry Delta." The measured to-and-fro between Shepik and Radley contrasted with the ferocious fusillade unleashed by Mednard in a finale to remember. Not for nothing has the drummer been a go-to for the likes of Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jeremy Pelt, Aaron Parks, Noah Preminger and Caroline Davis—his power and control throughout the set were exhilarating, his finesse and touch captivating.

After the intermission, the quartet delivered another hour of tightly arranged material penned by Kell. His slurred bass motif introduced "Regatta," another vehicle for sparkling guitar solos that sprang from a bed of percolating rhythms. With a veritable bagful of grooving ostinatos, Kell pulled out another winner on an untitled number that followed the distinctly modern aesthetic of the music that preceded it. Bebop vocabulary was largely absent, the blues but a ghostly vein. Refreshingly, neither guitarist was tethered to pedal boards, both favouring clean articulation and flowing lines.

The quartet rocked out on the fiery "Polyamorphous," the biggest cheers reserved for Mednard's blistering drumming in the home stretch. The only way to go from there was down a notch, and the hushed reverie of Radley's arpeggios and Shepik's sympathetic phrasing—over spare bass and light yet probing brushes—provided welcome balm.

"Dark Green No.15" reverted to driving rhythms and dual guitar forays. It was the storm before the calm of "Speculation"—a brooding ambient sculpture reminiscent of ECM-era Bill Frisell, enlivened by Mednard's thundering snares and chattering cymbals that hissed like monsoon rain.

By way of adieu, Kell turned the clock back twenty years with "Crinkum Crankum," a cut from Traveller (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2005). Age cannot weary a good tune, however, and its knotty twists and turns eventually released a vamp that was a green light for Mednard. His fire and precision unfolded in close step with the repeating motif spun jointly by guitars and bass.

Earlier, Kell recounted how rain had accompanied the band in Berlin, followed them in Graz and lay in wait in Belfast. "It feels good to be playing music inside," he observed wryly. Like Hicks, who was on the road until his health gave out, these musicians put up with all the hassles and the grind for the high of two hours making music before an appreciative audience. It may all just be a ride, as Hicks would have it—but did we not love every minute of it?