Swallow, Steve

Steve Swallow was born on October 4, 1940 in the small town of Fair Lone , New Jersey , where he spent his childhood. Stephen began to play the piano, then on the trumpet, at the age of 14 he switched to double bass. In 1960, after graduating from Yale, where he studied composition, he settled in New York. The first serious line-up Steve Swallow got into was the trio of Paul Blei , one of the creators of new ideas of free jazz.

The next cast Steve played was the trio also featuring Paul Bleigh, in which the leader was clarinetist Jimmy Giuffrey . The style of music can be defined as gravitating towards the academic vanguard. The collaboration lasted from 1960 to 1962.

Further, Swallow participated in the sextet of yet another jazz innovator, George Russell , the creator of the Lydian concept of the mod organization, which served as the basis for mod jazz .

Since 1964, the bass player has been participating in the trumpeter quartet Art Farmer . Then he begins composer activity. In the same 1964, the leading jazz magazine Down Beat According to a survey of jazz critics, called Steve Swallow a new star.

In 1967, the musician began a long and fruitful collaboration with Gary Burton . They met, speaking together in the team of Stan Getz . Subsequently, they recorded more than 20 albums with Burton. Their collaboration began with the hobby of musicians in fusion and jazz rock styles. Swallow gradually switches to electric bass, which is more appropriate in these styles. In the early 70s, Steve was one of the first jazz bassists to completely abandon an acoustic instrument, preferring a 5-string modification of a bass guitar, on which he plays a copper pick , and intricate upper-case guitar solos became his style.

At the same time, he collaborates with pianists Art Land and Michael Knock in San Francisco, as well as with Michael Gibbs . From 1974 to 1976, he teaches at Berkeley College . In parallel to the rhythm section, he participates in the ensembles of Dizzy Gillespie , Steve Lacey , Michael Brecker , Michael Mantler .

In 1974, Swallow went to California, where, together with Gary Burton, began a collaboration with record company ECM records . Accordingly, in the style of the musician, a new turn took place towards the style that jazz critics define as the ECM style and which is associated with the synthesis of jazz with various musical trends and genres, primarily academic and folk music.

Since the late 70s, Swallow collaborated a lot with pianist Carla Bley , who becomes his life partner.

Thus, Steve Swallow was and remains one of the most sought-after bassists in jazz music. The stylistic range of his music is extremely wide: it is difficult to name the style of jazz starting from the "swing era", wherever he has contributed - from swing with Benny Goodman and bebop Gillespie to avant-garde Paul Blea, from bossa nova with Astrud Gilberto to jazz rock and fusion style.

As a composer Steve Swallow wrote many compositions performed by many musicians. Among them can be called “Falling Grace”, “Eiderdown”, “Сhelsea Bells”, “Hotel Hello”.

• Encyclopedic reference book “Jazz. XX century " (unavailable link from 06/14/2016 [1220 days])
• Radio of Russia (inaccessible link)
• Steve Swallow on Allmusic