Steve Swallow

Guitarist John Scofield offers a warm and affectionate tribute to a lifelong friend and mentor on Swallow Tales, an album devoted entirely to the compositions of the great electric bassist Steve Swallow. Joined by Swallow himself and by longtime drummer Bill Stewart, Scofield revisits a songbook he has known intimately for half a century, having first studied with Swallow as a young musician. The trio recorded the whole set in a single relaxed day, and that spontaneity is audible in every track:…

Andando el Tiempo features new music of wide emotional compass by Carla Bley, and underlines her originality and resourcefulness as a jazz composer.  “Saints Alive!” sets up animated conversations between the three musical participants with striking statements from Steve Swallow’s bass guitar and Andy Sheppard’s soprano sax.  The stately “Naked Bridges/Diving Brides” draws inspiration from Mendelssohn and the poetry of Paul Haines.  And the powerful three part title composition – which addresses…

A striking album of new music from pianist/composer Carla Bley, whose trio with Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow is now in its 25th year. Individual associations among the players go back much further: bassist Swallow first recorded music by Carla in 1961. So when Bley says “Life Goes On”, a lot of life is alluded to. The album, realized in the Auditorio Stelio Molo Studio in Lugano in May 2019, with Manfred Eicher producing, takes the form of three suites. The title piece begins as a stoical blu…

After introducing his new trio with pianist Paul Bley and double bassist Steve Swallow in two 1961 albums on Verve, clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre embarked on a tour of Europe, this recently discovered, well-recorded concert in Graf, Austria the perfect example of his unique concepts yielding intensely focused, harmonically challenging, rhythmically abstract, and exquisite chamber jazz.

The Jimmy Giuffre 3 with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow only lasted about a year, but their work, which ranged from blues to tempo-less group improvisation, became a major influence on a wide variety of subsequent music from 'soft jazz' to 'hard-core' free improvisation. This double CD reissues their only known well-recorded concerts, originally released in 1992/3 on hat ART 6071/2. In addition, there are six previously unissued performances from the Bremen concert, three trios and three piano…

The Jimmy Giuffre 3 (Giuffre, clarinet; Paul Bley, piano; Steve Swallow, double bass): the 1961 Verve albums Fusion and Thesis, recorded in New York in March and August 1961, plus unissued pieces, remixed by ECM in 1990.

So There (XtraWATT, 2006) sets readings by poet Robert Creeley to music by Steve Swallow (bass), with Steve Kuhn (piano) and the Cikada String Quartet; recorded 25 August 2001 in West Shokan, NY, and 27-28 August 2005 in Oslo.

Damaged in Transit (XtraWATT, 2003) is a live trio album by Steve Swallow (bass) with Chris Potter (tenor saxophone) and Adam Nussbaum (drums), recorded on tour in France in December 2001; nine Swallow compositions, produced by Swallow.

Steve Swallow's settings of ten poems by Robert Creeley, sung by Sheila Jordan with Steve Kuhn, David Liebman, Lyle Mays and Bob Moses, recorded in September 1979 at Columbia Recording Studios, New York, and first released by ECM in 1980.

Winter Songs (ECM, 2026) is Steve Swallow's first leader album since 2013: nine originals, One to Nine, played by a sextet with Chris Cheek, Mike Rodriguez, Gil Goldstein, Steve Cardenas and Adam Nussbaum. Recorded September 2024 at Sear Sound, New York.

Carla Bley (piano), Andy Sheppard (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Steve Swallow (bass) play five Bley compositions, including three suites. Recorded in April 2012 at the Auditorio RSI in Lugano, produced by Manfred Eicher; Bley's first album as leader on ECM itself.