Into the Woodwork presents a quintet led by bassist Steve Swallow in twelve of his own compositions, with Carla Bley, his partner in music and life, on organ. A band with electric bass, electric guitar and organ suggests fusion, but Swallow told ECM he wanted to show that electric instruments "can yield a more varied textural palette". Many of the tunes run into one another, so the album plays almost as a chain of linked medleys.
Tenor saxophonist Chris Cheek and guitarist Steve Cardenas had worked with Swallow in Paul Motian's bands. The group began as a drumless quartet, until Jorge Rossy, a friend of both, asked to join and Swallow wrote him into the music. Bley, who had lately concentrated on piano, reworked her organ parts in long duo sessions with Swallow. The quintet recorded on 15 and 16 November 2011 at Studios La Buissonne in Pernes-les-Fontaines, at the end of a three-week European tour. Gérard de Haro and Nicolas Baillard engineered the sessions, and Swallow produced.
The hushed opener Sad Old Candle sets the tone of close ensemble playing. From Whom It May Concern is a ballad dedicated to the poet Paul Haines, librettist of Bley's Escalator Over the Hill. Cheek sings a sad-eyed melody on it before a limpid solo from Cardenas. Rossy leads Back in Action with funky solos, and Exit Stage Left opens on the fluid sound of Swallow's electric bass. The title, Swallow explained, plays on things coming out of the woodwork: he wanted a sense of going into somewhere slightly unusual.
ECM's notes quote The Guardian: "Swallow is an ingenious melodist who leaves a lasting impression by economical means." Of an earlier edition of the quintet, The Times of London had written that it was "as near a perfect display of small-group jazz – robust yet exquisitely poised." S. Victor Aaron (somethingelsereviews.com, 2013) stressed that for all its electric instruments this is not a fusion record. Not everyone was won over: Steve Arloff at MusicWeb International (2014) praised Cheek and Cardenas but found most of the tunes too laid back for his taste.
This is the CD edition, catalogue XtraWATT/13 (279 8380), released on 14 June 2013.
