Label: ECM Records, 2026

Personnel - Chris Cheek: tenor saxophone; Mike Rodriguez: trumpet; Gil Goldstein: piano; Steve Cardenas: guitar; Steve Swallow: electric bass; Adam Nussbaum: drums.

At 85, Steve Swallow sounds as inspired as ever, maintaining the stylistic poise on electric bass, post-bop refinement, and functional compositional forms that have defined both his solo career and his work with his late partner in music and life, Carla Bley, as well as Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and George Russell. More meditative than exploratory, Winter Songs is his first album in a decade, featuring nine untitled original compositions. For the occasion, he assembled a group of simpatico musicians—a frontline of savvy melodicists comprising tenor saxophonist Chris Cheek and trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, alongside a solid rhythm section with pianist Gil Goldstein, guitarist Steve Cardenas, and drummer Adam Nussbaum.

What the sextet plays is consistently lucid and alive, beginning with “One”, a smooth, elegant post-bop piece elevated by Goldstein’s magnetic pianism. Rodriguez demonstrates his trademark fluency and articulation, while Swallow and Nussbaum engage in empathic interplay beneath the surface. The piece culminates in a thematic unison before leading naturally into “Two”, a 3/4 delight in which Swallow’s electric bass gently propels the flow over Nussbaum’s supple brushwork. The drummer is deeply musical, softly caressing the kit to create an effortless sense of cohesion.

You can feel Swallow reconnecting with elements of his musical past, and “Three”, a 4/4 ballad harmonically enriched by Steve Cardenas’ guitar, together with “Four”, whose radiantly blissful, bohemian character carries an elegant swing, reminds us that jazz—in its purest forms—is far from dead. At the outset, Cheek unfolds a glossy improvisation before joining Rodriguez in persuasive unison figures that pave the way for Goldstein’s charismatic solo.

Cerebrally constructed, “Six” is a swinging vehicle for the horn players to stretch out, “Eight” is a slow-burning meditation with Cheek taking the lead, and “Nine” closes the album in a gently mournful mood. Winter Songs may not be particularly innovative, but it is infused with lyrical sophistication and harmonic finesse. Swallow’s instinctive, unforced playing continues to keep the finest traditions of jazz alive while subtly renewing them.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - One ► 04 - Four ► 06 - Six

Label: ECM Records, 2020

Personnel - Carla Bley: piano; Steve Swallow: electric bass; Andy Sheppard: saxophones.

Pianist/composer Carla Bley forged an unprecedented path in the jazz world on account of exceptional creative capacities. Her quarter-century drum-less trio, which includes her husband, bassist Steve Swallow, and the British saxophonist Andy Sheppard, enriches the ECM catalogue with another disc, Life Goes On, the follow-up to Andando El Tiempo (2016). Effectively, Bley’s unique compositional lay outs translate into unmistakable sonic aesthetics delivered with elegance, strength, tenderness and wittiness.

This album is composed of three suites and opens with the title track, whose four distinct, poised and warmhearted parts suffuse an underlying magnificence that refuses excesses of any kind. The first of them, “Life Goes On”, is a pristine blues, early defined by Bley’s bass lines and with the melodic voice leading alternating between Swallow and Sheppard, two assured improvisers. The second part, “On”, is deliciously sluggish in its lyricism and a vehicle for Swallow and Bley’s gracious remarks. Already with Sheppard on board blowing the concluding theme statement, a spark of Monk’s “Ask Me Now” becomes clearer. After the waltzing third part - “And On” - there’s the last section, “And Then One Day”, which brings into my head another jazz classic. Harmonic movements similar to Lee Morgan’s “Totem Pole” seem to be transported here and filtered through the trio’s exclusive prism.

Inspired by Trump’s first observation on entering the Oval Office, Beautiful Telephones comprises three segments. The first of them is a piano-bass duet immersed in such pathos that impels Swallow to quote Chopin’s famous funeral march. The second part, mysterious and dreamy, contrasts with the more hopeful third, which, at the outset, includes a rhythmic piano-bass duality that feels more cohesive than disjointed. Bley and Swallow, knowing exactly when to lay back and when to push, have their emotionally-rich layers touch a tango-inspired literacy, effortlessly mingled with an instinctive swinging thrust.

The last suite, Copycat, starts as a soul-soothing ballad and ends as an elegant, dialoguing post-bop bliss shaped with unisons and cascading melody replications. This fine pulsing interplay is achieved with the help of a classic sense of time and privileged articulation.

Bley, Swallow and Sheppard engage on straightforward jazz narratives devoid of artificiality. This music is gripping and immensely fun.