Steve Swell's Fire Into Music

with Steve Swell: trombone Jemeel Moondoc: alto saxophoneWilliam Parker: double bass Hamid Drake: drum set - This is an album to be cherished, because it reaches back and incorporates styles from swing to post-modern free jazz; and because the playing of Steve Swell and the members of his quartet are as near-perfect as you are likely to find; and because the melodies capture the imagination with a complex beauty that hooks into the inner being of soulfulness. It encompasses a unity of elements that comes as close as possible to the transcendental poignancy to which great art often aspires. As a trombonist, Steve Swell is about as good as it gets, and few can match his original fusion of technique and emotion, with obvious influences as diverse as Jack Teagarden, Grachan Moncur, III, and Roswell Rudd…
…Swell’s extended performance here is one of the most impressive on disk by a trombonist in any era. Swell is on to something, though, and so are his colleagues, because unsung alto saxophonist Jemeel Moondoc is unassailable and on top of his game, his original, searing sound fused to an architectural structure reminiscent of Georges Braque; and percussionist Hamid Drake and bassist William Parker constitute the ultimate rhythmic pair, New Trier seizes Bed-Stuy with nary a missed beat. It does mean a thing, Duke, and it swings and it doesn’t, and Agnon might say it laughs when it speaks and it speaks when it laughs - but the point ain’t about theorizing, anyhow, but enjoyment here and there, and there and here. Steven Loewy, excerpt from the liner notes