Tune of the moment: Feet First

I didn't intend for the "tune of the moment" to be an all Steve Swallow feature, but what the hell, I'm just playing his stuff a lot these days. Like a lot of his tunes, it's very friendly, but sits a little... funny. They're good for blowing in that they make you think a little bit, and don't make it easy for you to just play to the big emotional payoff. I play this with an ECMish half time funk feel- at least yesterday I did.

Get the lead sheet free from Steve Swallow's site.

YouTube audio with Adam Nussbaum after the break:

Tune of the moment: Eiderdown

Eiderdown is a great tune  by Steve Swallow that deserves to be played a lot more, and has been coming up a bunch  lately in sessions and in my listening. The lead sheet is available free, along with a lot of other great stuff, from Swallow's publishing site, shared with with Carla Bley, wattxtrawatt.com. So there's no excuse for not having it in your book!

John Stowell likes to play this one a lot, but he hasn't recorded it yet, that I know of. The version I've been listening to is from Jack Dejohnette's 1975 record Cosmic Chicken. It's been out of print for years, and was never reissued on CD, so good luck finding it. It is available through some of the LP ripping blogs, if you google around for it.



One version that is legally available is from Pete LaRoca's Basra:



Get Basra | get Eiderdown

Steve Swallow interview @ Trap'd

I haven't been getting around to the other blogs as much as I should, but here's something to shake me out of my anti-social torpor: Ted Warren at Trap'd interviewing bassist Steve Swallow. Here's a selection:

You have worked with most of the great drummers out there. (Roy Haynes, Pete LaRoca, Jack DeJohnette, Adam Nussbaum, to name a few). Do you have any favorites to work with and/or people you think you have an especially deep musical connection with?

I'm reluctant to name names, for fear of leaving someone out. Clearly, the drummer I'm next to on the bandstand is the guy I'm most focused on; it's a very intimate and intense relationship. If things don't go well with the drummer I'm left with an incredibly sore lower back by the end of the gig, the product I suppose of trying to force the music into a smooth, relaxed flow. Of course, this can't be done. Either you find a groove with a drummer or you don't, and sometimes I'm surprised that it's not there with a highly regarded drummer, or that it's magically there with a drummer of less renown. I like that you refer to a "deep musical connection." Really connecting with a drummer involves so much more than the placement of beats; touch, dynamics, the drums' tuning, the drummer's response to what's going on elsewhere on the bandstand and many other factors are equally crucial.

Go read the whole thing. H/t to Jon McCaslin at Four on the Floor for linking to this. He also gives a link to Swallow's site, which has his and Carla Bley's lead sheets available to download free of charge.

Metheny/Moses/Swallow

Just go here.