STEVE SWALLOW
Steve Swallow was born
in New York City in 1940, and spent his childhood in Fair Lawn, New Jersey.
Before turning to the acoustic bass at age 14, he studied piano (with Howard
Kasschau, who also taught Nelson Riddle) and trumpet. His otherwise miserable
adolescence was brightened by his discovery of jazz. He took many of his first stabs at improvisation with Ian Underwood (who
subsequently became a Mother Of Invention and an L.A. studio ace), with
whom he attended a swank New England private school.
During his years at Yale University he studied composition
with Donald Martino, and played dixieland with many of the greats, including
Pee Wee Russell, Buck Clayton and Vic Dickenson. In 1960 he met Paul and
Carla Bley, left Yale in a hurry, moved to New York City, and began to tour
and record with Paul Bley, The Jimmy Giuffre Trio and George Russell’s sextet,
which featured Eric Dolphy and Thad Jones. He also performed in the early
‘60s with Joao Gilberto, Sheila Jordan, and bands led by Benny Goodman,
Marian McPartland, Chico Hamilton, Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, Clark Terry and
Bob Brookmeyer, and Chick Corea.
In 1964 he joined The Art Farmer Quartet featuring
Jim Hall, and began writing music. Many of his songs have been recorded
by prominent jazz artists, including Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Stan Getz,
Gary Burton, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Jack DeJohnette, Steve Kuhn, Lyle Mays,
Jim Hall and Pat Metheny. And he was recently sampled by A Tribe Called
Quest.
He toured from late 1965 through 1967 with The Stan
Getz Quartet, which also included Gary Burton (replaced in 1967 by Chick
Corea) and Roy Haynes. In 1968 he left Getz to join Gary Burton’s quartet,
an association he maintained, with occasional interruption, for 20 years.
He has performed on more than 20 of Burton’s recordings, the most recent
being Six Pack, released in 1992.
In 1970 he switched from
acoustic to electric bass and moved to Bolinas, California, where he wrote
music for Hotel Hello, a duet album for ECM with Gary Burton. Returning
to the East Coast in 1974, he taught for two long years at the Berklee College
of Music. In 1976 he was awarded a National Endowment For The Arts grant
to set poems by Robert Creeley to music, which resulted in another ECM album, Home. He performed with such
diverse soloists as Dizzy Gillespie, Michael Brecker, George Benson and
Herbie Hancock, and recorded with Stan Getz (on an album featuring Joao
Gilberto), Bob Moses, Steve Lacy, Michael Mantler and Kip Hanrahan. He also
played on recordings produced by Hal Willner, on tracks featuring, among
others, Carla Bley, Dr. John and James Taylor.
In 1978 he joined the Carla
Bley Band. He continues to perform and record with her extensively, in various
contexts.
He toured and recorded
often with John Scofield from 1980 to 1984, first in trio with drummer Adam
Nussbaum and then in duet. He has since toured often with Scofield, and
has also produced many of his recordings.
He has also co-produced several albums with Carla Bley,
including Night-GIo (1985), which she wrote
to feature him, and Carla (1987), a collection of his songs featuring
her. In 1978 he also produced the first of four albums for the British saxophonist
Andy Sheppard. In the ensuing years he produced recordings for Karen Mantler,
Lew Soloff and Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, and recorded and/or toured
with, among others, Joe Lovano, Motohiko Hino, Ernie Watts, Michael Gibbs,
Rabih Abou-Khalil, Paul Bley, Henri Texier, Michel Portal and Allen Ginsberg.
Since 1988 he and Carla
Bley have performed duet concerts in Europe, the United States, South America
and Japan. Duets, an album of their songs arranged for piano and
bass, was released in 1988, and a second recording, Go Together, in
1993.
In December of 1989 he
reunited, after 27 years, with Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley to record two
discs for Owl Records entitled The Life Of A Trio. This trio toured
frequently until Spring of 1995, and recorded for Owl and Soul Note Records.
In 1991 he composed and
produced Swallow, a recording featuring his five-string bass and
several of his long-time associates, including Gary Burton, John Scofield
and Steve Kuhn.
He recorded often in 1993.
John Scofield and Pat Metheny’s I Can See Your House From Here, on
which he played with drummer Bill Stewart, was released on Blue Note Records;
this quartet toured in the summer of 1994.
Real Book, his third XtraWATT disc, was recorded in December
of 1993 and released in 1994; its cast included Tom Harrell, Joe Lovano,
Mulgrew Miller and Jack DeJohnette.
In Spring of 1994 he was
featured at the London Jazz Festival in a concert of his compositions with
lyrics written and sung by Norma Winstone. 1994 also contained concert appearances
in Japan with Steve Kuhn and in Europe with The Very Big Carla Bley Band,
Jimmy Giuffre and Paul Bley, The Paul Motian Electric BeBop Band, NielsHenning
Orsted Pedersen, and Carla Bley and Andy Sheppard. A live recording of this
trio, Songs With Legs, was released on WATT in early 1995, at which
time they again toured Europe. He also recorded in Spring of 1995 with Steve
Kuhn, Michael Franks, John Taylor, Pierre Favre and Julian Arguelles. In
July he and Carla Bley performed duets in Brazil, and in the fall returned
to Europe for a lengthy tour.
In Spring of 1996 he found
himself again touring Europe, first with Bley and Sheppard and then with
John Scofield and Bill Stewart. He subsequently co-produced and played on
Scofield’s first album for Verve Records, Quiet. He also co-produced
and played on The Carla Bley Big Band Goes To Church, recorded live
at Umbria Jazz in Perugia, Italy, and toured and recorded with Paul Motian.
In November of ‘96 he introduced
The Steve Swallow Quintet, with Chris Potter, Ryan Kisor (subsequently replaced
by Barry Ries), Mick Goodrick and Adam Nussbaum, to audiences in Europe,
and recorded with this group after its tour. The resulting album, Deconstructed,
features his compositions based on classic Tin Pan Alley song structures;
it was released in early 1997.
He toured relentlessly
in 1997 with Trio 2000 (with Paul Motian and Chris Potter), Carla Bley,
John Scofield and several others, and recorded with several diverse artists,
including Henri Texier (with Lee Konitz and Bob Brookmeyer), Glen Moore,
Ettore Fioravanti and Michel Portal. He also produced the first of two recordings
by French drummer/composer Christophe Marguet.
In the Spring of 1998 he toured and recorded with Lee
Konitz and Paul Motian, and toured with Brazilian guitarist Paulo Bellinati.
He also participated with Carla Bley in the Copenhagen Jazzvisits program, and was nominated
for the 1999 Danish Jazzpar. In April he directed and performed his music
for big band with the Harvard University Jazz Band, and in June recorded
with pianist Christian Jacob. In July he participated in a tour presenting
the concert version of Carla Bley’s Escalator Over The Hill, and toured
in trio with Lee Konitz and Paul Bley. He toured in the Fall with Paul Motian’s
Electric Bebop Band, and with John Scofield and Bill Stewart. He also toured
in duo with Carla Bley, which resulted in a third Duets CD entitled Are
We There Yet?
In March and April of 1999
he toured again with his quintet. Reviewing the band’s performance at
Ronnie Scott’s Club in the Times of London, Chris Parker wrote “...this
was as near a perfect display of small-group jazz - robust yet exquisitely poised, cogent but surprisingly
delicate - as has been heard in London in recent years.” An XtraWATT
CD entitled Always Pack Your Uniform On Top, recorded live at Ronnie’s,
was released shortly thereafter.
Following a week in Tokyo
with Carla Bley’s 4X4, he toured with Bobby Previte’s Bump The Rennaisance
(which also featured Ray Anderson and Wayne Horvitz), and then returned
to Europe for the July festival circuit with 4X4. In August he produced
Karen Mantler’s Pet Project, his third collaboration with her.
He continued a madcap year of touring in the Fall with John Scofield
and Bill Stewart, Toots Thielemans with Kenny Werner, Norma Winstone
with John Taylor and Ralph Towner, and finally with Carla Bley and Andy
Sheppard.
2000 proceeded apace. After
a return to Tokyo with Carla Bley, this time performing Fancy Chamber
Music, and to Sao Paulo performing Duets, he traveled Europe again with
Paulo Bellinati. European festival-goers found him with Bobby Previte
in July, and with John Scofield in August. In September
he reunited with Lee Konitz and Paul Bley for appearances in the USA,
and then returned to Europe for further tours with Bobby Previte and
Carla Bley.
2001 promises further adventures. He will tour again with Carla Bley and Andy Sheppard in the Spring and with John Scofield and Paulo Bellinati in the Fall. In November he will convene his own trio, Damaged In Transit, which includes Chris Potter and Adam Nussbaum. The trio will record following a European tour; this recording will be available on XtraWATT/ECM in the Spring of 2002.
He has placed first (electric bass) in the Downbeat
International Critics Poll since 1983, and in the Downbeat Readers Poll
since 1985. He has also won the Jazz Times poll (electric bass) for
the past few years. He lives now in contented isolation with Carla Bley,
in the mountains of upstate New York
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
(Visit http://www2.pcom.net/rminer/SteveSwallow.html for a more detailed list)
as
a leader:
Always Pack Your Uniform On Top, XtraWATT 10
Are We There Yet?, WATT 29 (with Carla Bley)
Deconstructed, XtraWATT
9
Real Book, XtraWATT 7
Go Together, WATT 24 (with Carla Bley)
Swallow, XtraWATT 6
Duets, WATT 20 (with Carla Bley)
Carla, XtraWATT 2
Home, ECM 1160
Hotel Hello, ECM
1055 (with Gary Burton)
featured with others:
Carla Bley, Night-Glo,
WATT 16
Carla Bley, Sextet,
WATT 1 7
John Scofield, Shino/a,
ENJA 4004
John Scofield, Out Like
A Light, ENJA 4038
