Jazz Articles about Steve Swell

About Steve Swell

Year in Review

John Sharpe's Best Releases of 2020

by John Sharpe
December 23, 2020

With so few performance opportunities since March, and musicians in continuing limbo, the continued stream of new releases has been a surprise, but a welcome one. For me, and many others, music has been a source of solace in an otherwise dreadful year. That makes it all the more invidious to pick and choose between honest artistic endeavours. As always it's better to view the selections as a chance to pick up on something that you might otherwise have missed. ...

Album Review

Steve Swell: The Center Will Hold

Read "The Center Will Hold" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
December 20, 2020

Unusual instrumentation inspires NYC-based trombonist Steve Swell to ever greater heights on the six compositions comprising The Center Will Hold. Pride of place goes to veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille, who certainly deserves the extra billing he receives on the cover. Beside him are a mixture of long time colleagues of the trombonist, violinist Jason Kao Hwang and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, and more recent collaborators, pianist Robert Boston, who fulfilled a leading role on Swell's accomplished Brain In A Dish (NoBusiness, ...

Album Review

Mars Williams: An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4: Chicago vs. NYC

Read "An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4: Chicago vs. NYC" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
December 14, 2020

For more than a decade, Mars Williams has been making (to borrow a phrase) Christmas music great again. He does so by exchanging the saccharine for the sublime, intersecting holiday classics with the music of Albert Ayler. Born out of his Chicago Ayler repertory band which can be heard on Witches And Devils At The Empty Bottle</em> (Knitting Factory Records, 2000), Williams applied the Gospel and spiritual nature of Ayler's methodology to Xmas music. While the eponymously titled first volume ...

Album Review

Whit Dickey: Tao Quartets: Peace Planet & Box of Light

Read "Tao Quartets: Peace Planet & Box of Light" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
March 5, 2020

Possiamo dire che l'assioma secondo il quale tutti i jazzisti sono sottovalutati, non sia poi così paradossale. Parliamo naturalmente dei musicisti che mettono al primo posto del loro operato il fare artistico e non la realizzazione di un prodotto solo ben accetto sul mercato. Spesso ci troviamo di fronte a musicisti che subiscono tale disattenzione in modo ancora più evidente, se confrontata alla mole e alla qualità del loro lavoro. Quest'ultimo concetto è sottolineato da Clifford Allen nelle ampie note ...

Album Review

Dave Sewelson: More Music for a Free World

Read "More Music for a Free World" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 4, 2020

While baritone saxophonist Dave Sewelson may not be as widely-recognized as those whose company he regularly keeps, this long-standing veteran of William Parker's Little Huey Orchestra and the Microscopic Sextet has long been a force in wielding his weighty axe, lending lower-end punch with vigor and dexterity for several decades. Here he's reunited with Parker, drummer Marvin Bugalu Smith and trombonist Steve Swell for a follow-up to a recording from 2018, Music for a Free World (FMR Records). Like its ...

Album Review

Steve Swell / Robert Boston / Michael Vatcher: Brain In A Dish

Read "Brain In A Dish" reviewed by John Sharpe

by John Sharpe
January 7, 2020

It is hard to think of a more complete trombone player on the scene than Steve Swell. While a go-to sideman for the likes of William Parker, Ken Vandermark, Jason Kao Hwang and Tim Daisy, he has also amassed a significant body of work over the years in his own right. Although his output has featured compositions of increasing sophistication, Swell remains a committed and accomplished improviser, and that is the turf he stakes out on the eleven extemporized studio ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steve Swell, Ziv Taubenfeld & Ivo Perelman

by Maurice Hogue
December 25, 2019

This episode carries on from the previous, playing music from a some of the important independent labels that keep creative music alive. ESP-Disk has been around, survived one crash in the 80s, and is still releasing great music. Son Of Local Colour is a 50-year-later follow up to English pianist Peter Lemer's original Local Colour album for ESP. The label suggested an anniversary concert to celebrate, and the gig at Pizza Express in London was recorded. Prolific saxophonist Ivo Perelman ...