Home » Jazz Articles » Steve Swell
Jazz Articles about Steve Swell
Hirsh / Swell / Clouse / Parker: Out On A Limb
by Mark Corroto
Can déjà vu be contagious? Or at least a particular quality or disposition that is communicable? This might be the question to ask after sitting down with Out On A Limb by the improvising quartet of Steve Hirsh, Steve Swell, Jim Clouse, and William Parker. The music this unit created spontaneously in April 2024 does not appear from thin air, it is a product of a half-century of innovation and modernism in music. Much of that history has ...
Continue ReadingRob Brown Quartet: Oblongata
by John Sharpe
Although reedman Rob Brown has a string of small group leadership outings to his name, dating back to his first, Breath Rhyme (Silkheart) in 1990, Oblongata may be one of his finest. The 2022 studio session reunites him with some of his most enduring collaborators, the same crew responsible for From Here To Hear (Rogue Art, 2019), as well as an outstanding appearance at the 2019 Vision Festival, namely trombonist Steve Swell, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer Chad Taylor.
Continue ReadingSteve Swell: Dances With Questions
by John Sharpe
American trombonist Steve Swell plays to the strengths of his talented cast of improvisers on the sprawling multifaceted Dances With Questions, a three-CD box set which documents his three day residency at the 2019 Krakow Jazz Autumn. The center piece is the 70-minute title cut for a dozen musicians, but the album also includes two discs of small group encounters captured in the city's legendary Alchemia club during the previous evenings. Swell, a veteran of the New York ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swell's Fire Into The Music: For Jemeel: Fire From The Road
by Alberto Bazzurro
Oltre tre ore di musica catturate in altrettante esibizioni live fra Texas (due, ottobre 2004) e Canada (la restante, settembre 2005) e oggi rese opportunamente disponibili sono ciò che ci offre questo triplo album composito ma per altri versi assolutamente monolitico. Lo firma un superquartetto, sempre quello, che attraversa i sette ampi brani (il primo occupa l'intero primo cd) con fare deciso, ottima capacità di gestire l'evolversi della musica prodotta, i suoi spazi intestini, felicemente bilanciati fra parti corali e ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swell’s Fire Into Music: For Jemeel: Fire From The Road
by Mark Corroto
If listeners only had the one recording, Swimming In A Galaxy Of Goodwill And Sorrow (Rogueart, 2007) from Steve Swell's Fire Into Music, and did not have the pleasure of hearing the quartet live in person, there certainly would be a large blank spot in their metaphorical dance card. The trombonist Swell, bassist William Parker, and drummer Hamid Drake must also mourn the loss of the fourth member of the quartet, alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc (1946-2021). Much like Ornette Coleman, ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swell, Asher Gamedze, Dan Rosenboom & Fergus Quill
by Maurice Hogue
An energetic episode this time around on One Man's Jazz! There's plenty of punch from South African drummer and composer Asher Gamedze, trombonist Steve Swell's Fire Into Music (featuring the late Jemeel Moondoc), L.A. trumpeter Dan Rosenboom with a killer band, New Zealand mates drummer Edward Ware and saxophonist Jeff Henderson reunion, the quirky Imaginary Big Band from England led by bassist Fergus Quill, and the French quartet Plume. Grounding it all is the excellent trio of pianist Eva Novoa, ...
Continue ReadingGebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell / Hilliard Greene / Barry Altschul: We're Playing In Here?
by John Sharpe
For musicians, one consolatory by-product of lockdown was the chance to reappraise the archives, which led to a subsequent bonanza of deserving material reaching the marketplace. Whether that was the genesis of the limited edition LP We're Playing In Here? is a moot point, but this 2007 studio recording by the Gebhard Ullmann / Steve Swell Quartet certainly more than justifies release. It is the fourth album by what was a cracking band, although it actually predates the outfit's second ...
Continue Reading
