The Squid's Ear Magazine


Swell, Steve presents: Planet Dream (Clean Feed)

The trio of Steve Swell, Daniel Levin and Rob Brown in music of a "social contract" enabling highly creative music, with no rigid boundaries, collective and empathic.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Steve Swell-trombone

Rob Brown-alto saxophone

Daniel Levin-cello


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UPC: 5609063001488

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF148
Squidco Product Code: 11752

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2009
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardstock Gatefold Sleeve
Recorded at Newsonic Studios, Brooklyn, NY by Seth Misterka on February 10th, 2008. Mixed and mastered by Seth Misterka at Newsonic Studios.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"In this present age of the history of humanity, there are few places left for a true utopia. The world has already experienced some of those ideal systems, but the results were tragic. Even in literature utopian thinking seems to have vanished. Only in music is there still a place to wonder, especially when it deals with spontaneous and non-hierarchical procedures. Musical improvisation is becoming the only possibility left to forge micro-societies of freedom and egalitarianism, without having to choose between the two to achieve good results.

That's what trombonist and composer Steve Swell had in mind with the project Planet Dream, "a sound world where everything is as it should be, where the acceptance of self, the acceptance of change, the acceptance of others and their music should come to us as naturally as the air we breathe". Those "others" are alto saxophonist Rob Brown and cellist Daniel Levin, each one with their own concepts and processes of music making. The trio established a kind of "social contract" which enables the music to be what it is here: highly creative, with no rigid boundaries, free-flowing, developed with the respect of each individual space, but at the same time collective and empathic. A sample of what the world could be if everybody wanted it, after all a very ancient dream. But take note: this isn't wishful music; it's really happening here. And that is very, very precious."-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"Born in Newark, NJ, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975. He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker. He has over 40 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artists on more than 100 other releases. He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children.

Swell has worked on music transcriptions of the Bosavi tribe of New Guinea for MacArthur fellow, Steve Feld in 2000. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers" (CIMP) ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He has also received grants from USArtists International in 2006, MCAF (LMCC) awards in 2008 and 2013 and has been commissioned twice on the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006 and at Roulette in 2012.

Steve was nominated for Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2011 by the Jazz Journalists Association, was selected Trombonist of the Year 2008-2010 , 2012 and 2014-2015 by the magazine El Intruso of Argentina and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation. Steve has also been selected by the Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category each year from 2010-2016.

Steve is presently a teaching artist through the American Composers Orchestra, Healing Arts Initiative , Mind-Builders Creative Arts Center (Bronx), the Jazz Foundation of America and Leman Manhattan Preparatory School.

Steve was also awarded the 2014 Creative Curricula grant (LMCC) for the project: "Metamorphoses: Modern Mythology in Sound and Words" which was taught in a month long residency at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan."

-Steve Swell Website (http://www.steveswell.com/SteveSwellBio.htm)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Rob Brown (born February 27, 1962) is an American free jazz saxophonist and composer.

Rob was born in Hampton, VA. He started playing saxophone at the age of 12 or 13. His first gigs were with a local Virginia and swing band. He eventually studied at Berklee College for two years and worked privately with both Joe Viola and John LaPorta. After a year on the west coast, Brown bounced back to Boston, where he met pianist Matthew Shipp. He moved to NY in 1984 where he enrolled at New York University, earned a music degree, and studied with saxophone masters such as Lee Konitz, but the teacher who had more influence on Rob conceptually was Philadelphian Dennis Sandole. Rob took the train to Philly once a week to study with him for a year and a half.

His first issued recording was the duet with Shipp Sonic Explorations and since then has been actively leading groups or working as a sideman with Shipp, William Parker, Whit Dickey, Joe Morris and Steve Swell.

He is a 2001 CalArts/Alpert/Ucross Residency Prize winner and has received many Meet The Composer Fund grants. In 2006 Rob was awarded a Chamber Music America New Works grant."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Brown_(saxophonist))
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Daniel Levin is "one of the outstanding cellists working in the vanguard arena" (All About Jazz), "ridiculously fluent, virtually overflowing with ideas" (New York City Jazz Record) and "very much the man to watch." (Penguin Guide to Jazz). No matter what setting he plays in, cellist Daniel Levin occupies a musical space bordered by many kinds of music, but fully defined by none of them.

"Demonstrating an impressive breadth of texture and contrast, the cellist Daniel Levin comes well prepared for a career in jazz's contemporary avant-garde." (Nate Chinen, The New York Times).

Elements of European classical music, American jazz, microtonal and new music, and European free improvisation all figure prominently in his unique sound. As critic John Sharpe observes in The New York City Jazz Record, "he invokes all manner of musics with prodigious skill: jazz, classical, improv, noise, vocal chorus. His technique is unquestioned and he revels in the physicality of the instrument. Those with an adventurous streak or interest in the outer reaches of the cello universe will find much to savor."

Born in Burlington, Vermont, he began playing the cello at the age of six. In 2001, he graduated with a degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, and arrived on New York City jazz scene shortly therafter. Since then, Daniel has developed his own unique voice as a cellist, improviser, and composer. Ed Hazell noted upon release of Levin's first record as a leader, "Cellist Daniel Levin is a major new voice on his instrument and in improvised music." He has performed and/or recorded with Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Gerald Cleaver, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Dresser, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri, Joe Morris, William Parker, Ivo Perelman, Warren Smith, Ken Vandermark, and many others. Daniel is the recipient of a 2010 Jerome Foundation award."

-Daniel Levin Website (http://daniel-levin.com/about)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Out of the Box (improvisation) 5:20

2. Not Necessarily This, NorThat 8:52

3. Planet Dream (improvisation) 4:05

4. Juxtsuppose 5:07

5. #2 of Nine (improvisation) 4:26

6. Airtight 5:51

7. And Then They Wept (improvisation) 4:59

8. City Life (improvisation) 4:38

9. Texture #2 9:13

Related Categories of Interest:

Clean Feed

Improvised Music
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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