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Steve Swallow

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Steve Swallow
Background information
Birth nameSteve Swallow
Born (1940-10-04) October 4, 1940 (age 84)
Fair Lawn, New Jersey, United States
GenresJazz, cool jazz, jazz fusion, avant-garde jazz, free jazz, post-bop, hard bop
Occupation(s)Electric bassist, composer, educator
Instrument(s)Electric bass, double bass
Years active1960-present
LabelsPalmetto, RCA, RCA, Atlantic, Watt, Blue Note, Winter & Winter, Verve, Impulse!
Websitehttp://www.wattxtrawatt.com/
Steve Swallow, Moers Festival 2012

Steve Swallow (born October 4, 1940) is a jazz bassist and composer noted for his numerous collaborations with musicians including Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton and Carla Bley.[1] He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar.

Biography

Steve Swallow in San Francisco 1981

Born in Fair Lawn, New Jersey,[citation needed] Swallow studied piano and trumpet, as a child, before turning to the double bass[1] at age 14. While attending a prep school, he began trying his hand in jazz improvisation. In 1960, he left Yale, where he was studying composition, and settled in New York City, playing at the time in Jimmy Giuffre's trio along with Paul Bley. After joining Art Farmer's quartet in 1964, Swallow began to write. It is in the 1960s that his long-term association with Gary Burton's various bands began.

In the early 1970s, Swallow switched exclusively to electric bass guitar, of which he prefers the five-string variety. Along with Monk Montgomery and Bob Cranshaw, Swallow was among the first jazz bassists to do so (with much encouragement from Roy Haynes, one of Swallow's favorite drummers). He plays with a pick (made of copper by Hotlicks), and his style involves intricate solos in the upper register; he was one of the early adopters of the high C string on a bass guitar.

In 1974-76 Swallow taught at the Berklee College of Music. He contributed several of his compositions to the Berklee students who assembled the first edition of The Real Book. He later recorded an album of the same name, with the picture of a well-worn, coffee-stained Real Book on the cover.

In 1978 Swallow became an essential and constant member of Carla Bley's band. He has been Bley's romantic partner since the 1980s. He toured extensively with John Scofield in the early 1980s, and has returned to this collaboration several times over the years.

Swallow has consistently won the electric bass category in Down Beat yearly polls, both Critics' and Readers', since the mid-80s. His compositions have been covered by, among others, Jim Hall (who recorded his very first tune, "Eiderdown"), Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Stan Getz and Gary Burton.

Partial discography

As leader or co-leader

  • Hotel Hello with Gary Burton (ECM, 1974)
  • Home - music to poems by Robert Creeley (ECM, 1980)
  • Carla (Watt, 1987)
  • Duets with Carla Bley (Watt, 1988)
  • Go Together with Carla Bley (Watt, 1992)
  • Real Book (ECM, 1993)
  • Deconstructed (ECM, 1996)
  • Are We There Yet? with Carla Bley (Watt, 1998)
  • Always Pack Your Uniform On Top (ECM, 2000)
  • Damaged in Transit (Xtra Watt, 2003)
  • L'Histoire du Clochard with Ohad Talmor (Palmetto, 2007)
  • Playing in Traffic with Ohad Talmor and Adam Nussbaum (Auand, 2009)
  • Into the Woodwork (Xtra Watt, 2013)
  • The New Standard with Jamie Saft and Bobby Previte (RareNoise, 2014)

As sideman

With Carla Bley

With Paul Bley

With Gary Burton

With Dave Douglas

With Don Ellis

With Art Farmer

With Jimmy Giuffre

  • 1961 (ECM, 1992 – re-issue of the 1961 Verve-albums Fusion & Thesis) - with Paul Bley
  • Emphasis, Stuttgart 1961 (hatArt, 1992)
  • Flight, Bremen 1961 (hatArt, 1993)

With Steve Kuhn

With Pete La Roca

With Joe Lovano

With Michael Mantler

  • The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (JCOA, 1968)
  • The Hapless Child (WATT, 1976)
  • Movies (WATT, 1977)
  • More Movies (WATT, 1980)
  • Something There (WATT, 1982)

With Gary McFarland

With Pat Metheny and John Scofield

With Paul Motian

With Jimmy Raney, Jim Hall and Zoot Sims

With George Russell

With John Scofield Trio

With Tore Johansen

References

  1. ^ a b Yanow, Scott. "Steve Swallow: Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 17 August 2011.

Category Yale alumni

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