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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZSWALLOW, Steve(b 4 Oct. '40, NYC) Bassist, composer, leader. One of the finest contemporary players on the instrument, he worked and recorded with George Russell, Paul Bley, Art Farmer, Stan Getz, Gary Burton, Carla Bley, John Scofield, Jimmy Giuffre, many others. In the mid-'60s while working with Burton he switched to electric bass, but without any of the rock gimmicks, inventing a jazz vocabulary for it: albums with the Jimmy Giuffre trio before and after plugging in are different but equally fine. His albums as leader have been few: Hello Hello '74 (with Burton) and Home '79 both on ECM; Carla '80 on XtraWatt, Duets '88 and Go Together on Watt were duos with Carla Bley; Swallow '91 on XtraWatt was basically a septet with (co-producer) Carla playing lightweight stuff; The Life Of A Trio with Paul Bley and Giuffre co-billed all of them; pianist Jorgan Emborg's quintet Over The Rainbow '92 on Storyville featured Swallow. His Real Book album, then Deconstructed '97 on XtraWatt had quintet lineups playing rejigged popular songs, harking back to the time when jazz had chords: the inventive intervals reminded one critic of Monk, and it was fun trying to figure out the origin of Swallow's tunes. |