The Squid's Ear Magazine


Swell's, Steve Imbued With Light: Hommage a Galina Ustvolskaya (Silkheart)

Continuing his series of hommages to classical composers, New York trombonist Steve Swell assembles his sextet to improvise under the influence of Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006), whose truly unique "out of the box" approach to structuring sound brings force and intensity to Swell's compositions, yielding inspired performances from all musicians.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Steve Swell-trombone

Herb Robertson-trumpet, toys

Ben Stapp-tuba

Sara Schoenbeck-bassoon

Christopher Hoffman-cello

Robert Boston-piano

Harris Eisenstadt-drums, percussion


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UPC: 3760131275056

Label: Silkheart
Catalog ID: SHCD-166
Squidco Product Code: 35212

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at West Park Studios, in Brooklyn, New York, on March 29th, 2024, by Jim Clouse.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"One of the great pleasures of listening to music is discovering a new artist you love. It kindles a special "wow" reaction whenever you hear a new sound that touches you. It's the reaction that Steve Swell had when he first heard the music of Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya. "I just thought, this is so off the charts. How can anybody be doing this?" Swell said. "It's just so out of the box, especially for the time she was composing."

Born in St. Petersburg in 1919, Ustvolskaya studied with Dmitri Shostakovich in the 1940s, but didn't start composing in her characteristic style until around 1950. Ustvolskaya's compositions can startle any listener with their focus and intensity. And as Swell listened to Ustvolskaya's work, certain elements resonated with him. For instance, on "Hammer," Robert Boston's hard piano blows echo the explosively rhythmic urgency of Ustvolskaya's music. Her pieces thunder on the edge of a precipice, calling to God, waiting for a reply that never returns from across the void.

In contrast, Swell's music--as iconoclastic in its own way as Ustvolskaya's--is bustling and social, spontaneous, lively with sudden contrasts in tempo and mood, balanced but irregular in outline. Enfolded into Swell's compositions, Boston's sharp, clear chords buttress discursive eighth note melodies like a demented Bud Powell, or they add an element of contrast in more peaceful surroundings, or become another rogue element of unpredictability in Swell's multilayered, radically unstable narratives. Swell uses that steady rhythm as a contrasting element in his composition "Rocks Have Lives Too." The same regular beat, highly ornamented by the band, occurs in "Compositie #12," as well.

Swell's misty curtain of dissonant sound create a backdrop out of which soloists skitter forward and retreat. Since improvisation is part of everything he does, he includes five free improvisations showcasing the members of the ensemble."-Ed Hazell, liner notes


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)
12/3/2024

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

"Clarence "Herb" Robertson (born February 21, 1951) is a jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist. He was born in New Jersey and attended the Berklee School of Music. He has recorded five solo albums for the JMT record label and also worked as a sideman for Tim Berne, Anthony Davis, Bobby Previte, David Sanborn, George Gruntz, Bill Frisell and Paul Motian, among others."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Robertson)
12/3/2024

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

"Composer and Tubist, Ben Stapp, although classically trained with Tommy Johnson and Roger Bobo while pursuing his love for jazz tuba, Ben further opened up his horizons while living in Portugal, hanging out at Clean Feed's record store. Since then he's been living in New York since 2007 and experienced the diversity of New York's music scene including engagements with Steven Bernstein's Universal Melody Brass Band, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), toured with Red Barrat, played with the Garden State Philharmonia at Carnegie Hall, with Slavic Soul Party, Mario Pavone's Accordion Project, playing Earle Brown with the ECCE Ensemble at MIT, frequent traditional jazz and brass band freelancer, Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain, tubist for the Chelsea Symphony, with TILT at Lincoln Center to Premier John Luther Adam's Sila, for Eli Yamin's Blues Band, Sousaphone player for Jacob Sac's live Heavens Trombone Choir, plays tuba in Stephen Haynes Quintet with Joe Morris, Warren Smith, and William Parker, and dedicated Colombian-music tubist with Martin Vejarano's Cumbia River Band, Chia's Dance Party, Pablo Mayor's Folkore Eurbano, and the experimental Alejandro Florez' Tin Throat Ensemble."

-Ben Stapp Website (http://www.benstapp.com/wordpress/)
12/3/2024

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

"Sara Schoenbeck is a bassoonist who dedicates herself to expanding the sound and role of the bassoon in the worlds of classical, contemporary notated and improvised music. The Wire magazine places her in the "tiny club of bassoon pioneers" at work in contemporary music today and the New York Times has called her "riveting, mixing textural experiments with a big, confident sound."

Originally from California, Sara spent her time on the west coast freelancing in various orchestral bassoon sections such as Santa Barbara Symphony, California Symphony, Redlands, Mancini Orchestra, the Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra and touring as a member of creative music ensembles Gravitas Quartet with Wayne Horvitz, Ron Miles and Peggy Lee, Anthony Braxton's 12+1(tet) and Vinny Golia's Large Ensemble. Sara also recorded for various sound and film projects including the Matrix 2 and 3 and Spanglish.

Sara now calls Brooklyn home and performs regularly with Petr Kotek's SEM ensemble, the composers group WetInk, Wordless Music Orchestra, LPR, Anthony Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra, Gravitas, Harris Eisenstadt's Golden State Quartet,the Lyrica Chamber Orchestra as well as performing with many other creative and inspiring musicians in the New York scene.

She has performed at major venues and festivals throughout North America and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Kitchen, Iridium, Disney Hall, SXSW, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, Free Music Festival in Antwerp Belgium, Biennale Musica in Venice Italy, Montreal Jazz Festival, Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival and the San Francisco Jazz Festival to name a few. Sara received her BFA from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts."

-Sara Schoenbeck Website (http://saraschoenbeck.weebly.com/bio.html)
12/3/2024

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

"Christopher is a cellist, composer, producer, engineer and filmmaker. He currently performs in Henry Threadgill's Pulitzer Prize winning ensemble Zooid, Anat Cohen Tentet, Kenny Warren Trio, Tony Malaby, Michael Blake, Darius Jones and his own projects. He has worked with Martin Scorsese, Yoko Ono, Bleachers, Iron & Wine, Ryan Adams, Marianne Faithfull, Michael Pitt & Pagoda, Marc Ribot, Butch Morris, Lee Konitz, Rudy Royston, Anna Webber, Ryan Scott, Anthony Coleman, Jeremiah Cymerman & many others."

-Christopher Hoffman Website (https://www.christopherhoffman.com/new-page-1)
12/3/2024

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

"Robert Boston is a pianist who regularly performs free jazz, contemporary classical, rock and electronic music. As a composer, Boston endeavors to fuse his eclectic experience, finding form within mechanical noise and functionality of harmony/melody for each specific dance piece or instrumentation. He has scored dances by Korhan Basaran, Diane Coburn Bruning, Giada Ferrone, Loni Landon, Lone Larsen, Jodi Melnick, Pietro Pireddu, Caitlin Trainor, and the Martha Graham Dance Company. Boston has appeared on NPR's Front Row and at the Prospect Park Bandshell, the Joyce Theater, 92Y Tribeca, The Knitting Factory, The Stone, Rockwood Music Hall and Pianos, among others. Formerly Principal Pianist for the Mark Morris Dance Group, he is currently Music Director at Barnard College Department of Dance."

-Robert Boston Website (http://robertboston.net/about.html)
12/3/2024

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

"One of only a handful of drummers equally well known for his work as a composer, Brooklyn-based Harris Eisenstadt (b. Toronto, 1975) is among the most individual and prolific musicians of his generation. His resume includes studies with some of the most respected names in jazz and improvised music, West African and Afro-Cuban drumming, and performance credits in jazz, film, theater, poetry, dance, contemporary concert music and opera.

Eisenstadt has performed all over the globe, received grants from organizations such as Meet The Composer, American Composers Forum, Canada Council for the Arts, and appeared on more than 60 recordings since 2000, including twenty as a leader. Recordings of his compositions often appear on the Songlines, Clean Feed, No Business, and 482 Music labels, and are consistently included on critics' best-of lists. Recent honors: Rising Star Percussion Percussion, Arranger, and Composer categories of the Downbeat international critics poll; Best Album, Drummer, Composer categories of the El Intruso international critics poll.

His first work for orchestra, Palimpsest, was premiered by the American Composers Orchestra, as part of the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute at Miller Theater, Columbia University (2011). Eisenstadt's second orchestral work, Four Songs, commissioned by the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra, was premiered at the Brooklyn Museum (2013). His first string quartet, Whatever Will Happen, That Will Also Be, was premiered as part of Eisenstadt's twelve-set residency at The Stone in NYC (2015). As a writer and radio producer, he has contributed to National Public Radio and AfroPop Worldwide. Eisenstadt is also an active AfroCuban batá drummer in New York and a longtime researcher in African and diaspora vernacular traditions. He has travelled to West Africa twice (Gambia, Senegal) to research Mandinka and Wolof music, and to Cuba twice (Matanzas, Havana) to research Afro-Cuban music."

-Harris Eisenstadt Website (http://www.harriseisenstadt.com/bio/)
12/3/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Hammer 14:16

2. Three Card Monte 2:15

3. Rocks 15:39

4. Abstract Manifold 2:12

5. Imbued With Light 5:00

6. Ear Hygiene 2:09

7. Essential Workers 2:56

8. Toe The Wet Sprocket 1:55

9. Composite #12 10:55

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Jazz & Improvisation Based on Compositions
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Septet recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Recent Releases and Best Sellers
New in Improvised Music

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Silkheart.


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