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Call to Reserve Your Spot Today (917) 267-0365 or email amanda@roulette.org
$5 Kids and Adults Sliding Scale

An afternoon of explosive fun with dynamic trombonist Steve Swell who will perform a short solo performance demonstrating the number of ways he likes to improvise with plenty of funk, alternate techniques, circular breathing and explosive riffs. A brief talk about improvising in general with an energetic Q&A. All kids and adults will then be invited for a number of improvising game pieces, including a call and response that anyone regardless of instrument can join.  Musicians at all proficiencies welcome as well as dancers, poets and other dreamers. In addition, you will become a human sound sculpture and a human sound machine.

Please bring an instrument or something to make a sound with. Your voice, body, hands, paper. A limited amount of percussion instruments will be available. Steve has taught classes in musical performance, composition and improvisation to all age groups in NYC public schools as a teaching artist for over 10 years as well as having conducted master classes at New England Conservatory, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, Tulane University, University of Alabama, Bucknell University, Hochshule fur Musik in Dresden, Germany, and the Guimares Jazz Festival, Portugal.

http://www.steveswell.com

Born in Newark, NJ, Steve Swell has been an active member of the NYC music community since 1975.  He has toured and recorded with many artists from mainstreamers such as Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich to so called outsiders as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor and William Parker.  He has over 30 CDs as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artists on more than 100 other releases.  He runs workshops around the world and is a teaching artist in the NYC public school system focusing on special needs children.

Steve was nominated for Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2011 by the Jazz Journalists Association, was selected Trombonist fo the Year 2008, 2009, 2010 by the magaznie El Intruso of Argentina and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation for teaching. The Downbeat Critics Poll selected him for the Trombone category in 2010, 2011 & 2012

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Steve Swell and Omar Tamez pay homage to Tamez’s father Nicandro Tamez, a prolific yet unsung Mexican composer in the avant garde tradition, and Swell premieres his new long-form work “Composite #8″,  with Omar Tamez (guitar) Steve Swell (trombone) Darius Jones (alto) Jonathan Golove (cello) James Ilgenfritz (bass). Renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart presents Water is Tops, using sound, spoken word, and movement arts to explore the sonic, ritual, philosophical aspects of water, with multi-instrumentalist J.D. Parran, dancer/choreographer Ni’ja Whitson, and others.

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Steve has been a part of big bands or large ensembles as long as he has been performing. He's toured and recorded with the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Alan Silva, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and many others. Steve Swell's Nation of We was created at the end of 2005 to foster what he hopes is more of an integration of the disparate musical scenes now residing in New York. Steve gives written information, conductions and other, on the spot, musical directions, but by and large, each performance is dependent upon the members of the ensemble and their contributions. The written material is really only a rough guide as to what can develop spontaneously which is what gives the music its magic. The ensemble itself is an amalgam of improvisers from the various musical enclaves found in NYC. By gathering the many different improvisational disciplines found in this city, quite possibly new improvisational vocabularies and sensibilities will develop thereby keeping the art of improvisation a lively one here in our hometown. These three nights will give the band the opportunity to really come together as never before. Nation Of We has one recording on Ayler Records.

Steve Swell, born in Newark, New Jersey, has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher's College. He has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton and Jemeel Moondoc. Swell has 30 recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers", recorded on the CIMP label, was ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He received grants from USArtists International in 2006, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006. Steve is also well known for his many collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, William Parker, and his many projects including "Slammin' The Infinite" with Sabir Mateen, The Ullmann/Swell 4tet featuring Barry Altschul, "Unified Theory Of Sound" with Cooper-Moore, "Fire Into Music with Hamid Drake and his large ensemble, Nation Of We. He was the Jazz Journalist's Association Trombonist of the Year nominee for 2008, named Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2009 by El Intruso, an Argintinean Jazz journal and selected for the 2010 Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category. Steve is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with special ed kids and was awarded the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation for recognition of that work.

Full Description:

Steve has been a part of big bands or large ensembles as long as he has been performing. He's toured and recorded with the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Alan Silva, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and many others. Steve Swell's Nation of We was created at the end of 2005 to foster what he hopes is more of an integration of the disparate musical scenes now residing in New York. Steve gives written information, conductions and other, on the spot, musical directions, but by and large, each performance is dependent upon the members of the ensemble and their contributions. The written material is really only a rough guide as to what can develop spontaneously which is what gives the music its magic. The ensemble itself is an amalgam of improvisers from the various musical enclaves found in NYC. By gathering the many different improvisational disciplines found in this city, quite possibly new improvisational vocabularies and sensibilities will develop thereby keeping the art of improvisation a lively one here in our hometown. These three nights will give the band the opportunity to really come together as never before. Nation Of We has one recording on Ayler Records.

Steve Swell, born in Newark, New Jersey, has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher's College. He has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton and Jemeel Moondoc. Swell has 30 recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers", recorded on the CIMP label, was ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He received grants from USArtists International in 2006, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006. Steve is also well known for his many collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, William Parker, and his many projects including "Slammin' The Infinite" with Sabir Mateen, The Ullmann/Swell 4tet featuring Barry Altschul, "Unified Theory Of Sound" with Cooper-Moore, "Fire Into Music with Hamid Drake and his large ensemble, Nation Of We. He was the Jazz Journalist's Association Trombonist of the Year nominee for 2008, named Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2009 by El Intruso, an Argintinean Jazz journal and selected for the 2010 Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category. Steve is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with special ed kids and was awarded the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation for recognition of that work.

Full Description:

Steve has been a part of big bands or large ensembles as long as he has been performing. He's toured and recorded with the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Alan Silva, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and many others. Steve Swell's Nation of We was created at the end of 2005 to foster what he hopes is more of an integration of the disparate musical scenes now residing in New York. Steve gives written information, conductions and other, on the spot, musical directions, but by and large, each performance is dependent upon the members of the ensemble and their contributions. The written material is really only a rough guide as to what can develop spontaneously which is what gives the music its magic. The ensemble itself is an amalgam of improvisers from the various musical enclaves found in NYC. By gathering the many different improvisational disciplines found in this city, quite possibly new improvisational vocabularies and sensibilities will develop thereby keeping the art of improvisation a lively one here in our hometown. These three nights will give the band the opportunity to really come together as never before. Nation Of We has one recording on Ayler Records.

Steve Swell, born in Newark, New Jersey, has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher's College. He has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton and Jemeel Moondoc. Swell has 30 recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers", recorded on the CIMP label, was ranked number 2 in the 2004 Cadence Readers Poll. He received grants from USArtists International in 2006, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006. Steve is also well known for his many collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, William Parker, and his many projects including "Slammin' The Infinite" with Sabir Mateen, The Ullmann/Swell 4tet featuring Barry Altschul, "Unified Theory Of Sound" with Cooper-Moore, "Fire Into Music with Hamid Drake and his large ensemble, Nation Of We. He was the Jazz Journalist's Association Trombonist of the Year nominee for 2008, named Trombonist of the Year 2008 & 2009 by El Intruso, an Argintinean Jazz journal and selected for the 2010 Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category. Steve is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with special ed kids and was awarded the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation for recognition of that work.

Full Description:

w/Rob Brown, alto; Chris Forbes, piano; Hilliard "Hill" Greene, bass; Michael T.A. Thompson, drums, percussion

"One of the most adventurous and prolific members of the New York free-jazz community" according to Ed Hazell of Signal To Noise, Steve Swell's reputation, work ethic and committment to excellence has kept him in the forefront of improvised music and a leading voice on his instrument for more than 20 years. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Swell has been an active member of the New York music community since 1975. He has established himself as a premiere leader and sideman of some of the most exciting groups ever assembled, giving performances at festivals, clubs and theaters in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America. His composing talents have been recognized the world over. His "Suite for Players, Dreamers and other Listeners" was voted number 2 in the 2006 Cadence Reader's Poll. Swell has thirty recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases. He has taught master classes at universities, elementary schools, high schools, shelters and community centers all across the U.S, and Europe. He is also a teaching artist in the NYC public school system working mostly with special needs children and was awarded the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation in recognition of that work. In 2008 he was nominated Trombonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association and was named Trombonist of the Year, 2008 by the Argentinean journal, "El Intruso." Swell's curiosity and need to create has led him to becoming a much heralded sideman affording him the opportunity to participate as an integral part of groups led by some of the most renown musicians in the jazz and improvised worlds. Among those notables are Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Alan Silva, Roswell Rudd, Jemeel Moondoc, Ken Vandermark, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Roscoe Mitchell, Dave Burrell, Elliott Sharp and Bill Dixon to name a few. Swell is constantly searching new ways in which to express his restless imagination in his music through his composing and trombone playing. Touchingextremes.com says of Swell's trombone playing: "We are ever so lucky to have friends like Steve Swell, who plays the damn thing as if that was the last day of his life, injecting the music with huge soul, gravitational pulls towards the right energy channels and astounding technical wizardry."

This concert will feature a relatively new ensemble with some of improvised music's finest contributors. It will feature Swell's writing along with his unique, on the spot direction of incorporating this group's rich improvisation abilities along with his compositions. An extra element of improvisation that determines the direction of the music.

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Steve Swell's Nation Of We

Saco Yasuma, Will Connell, Ras Moshe, Sabir Mateen, Darius Jones---Reeds
Flip Barnes, Matt LaVelle, Roy Campbell---Trumpets
Peter Zummo, Dave Taylor, Steve Swell--Trombones
Jason Huang, Charles Burnham, Rosie Hertlein, Daniel Levin---Strings
Todd Nicholson, Alby Begochian--basses
Chris Forbes---Piano
Jackson Krall---Drums

Steve Swell, born in Newark, New Jersey, has been living, working and performing in New York City his entire adult life. In the mid-seventies he studied with Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper after attending Jersey City State Teacher's College. He has toured and recorded
with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers Lionel Hampton and Buddy Rich, to
so-called outsiders like Anthony Braxton and Jemeel Moondoc. Swell has 20 recordings as a
leader and is a featured artist on more than ninety other releases. His CD, "Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers", recorded on the CIMP label, was ranked number 2 in the 2004
Cadence Readers Poll. He received grant from USArtists International in 2006, a program of the
National Endowment for the Arts, an MCAF award (LMCC) in 2008 and was commissioned for the
Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006. Steve is also well known for his many collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Alan Silva, William Parker, and his many projects including "Slammin' The Infinite" with Sabir Mateen, The Ullmann/Swell 4tet featuring Barry Altschul, "Unified Theory Of Sound" with Cooper-Moore, "Fire Into Music with Hamid Drake and his large ensemble, Nation Of We. He was the Jazz Journalist's Associations Trombonist of the Year nominee for 2008. Steve is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with special ed kids.

Steve has been a part of big bands or large ensembles as long as he has been
performing. He's toured and recorded with the big bands of Lionel Hampton, Buddy Rich,
Alan Silva, Cecil Taylor, Bill Dixon, Jemeel Moondoc, William Parker and many others. He
formed this band at the end of 2005 to foster what he hopes is more of an integration of the
disparate musical scenes now residing in New York. Steve gives written information,
conductions and other, on the spot, musical directions, but by and large, each performance
is dependent upon the members of the ensemble and their contributions. The written
material is really only a rough guide as to what can develop spontaneously which is what
gives the music its magic. By gathering the many different improvisational disciplines found
in this city, quite possibly new improvisational vocabularies and sensibilities will develop
thereby keeping the art of improvisation a lively one here in our hometown. These three
nights will give the band the opportunity to really come together as never before. Nation Of
We has one recording on Ayler Records.

Full Description:

The Ullmann/Swell 4 is Gebhard Ullmann (winds,) trombonist Steve Swell, bassist Hill Greene & legendary drummer Barry Altschul. This emotional and intense quartet has toured the U.S. and Canada and recorded their first CD, Desert Songs and Other Landscapes, for the CIMP label in 2004. In October and November of 2006 The Ullmann/Swell 4 will be performing in Europe for the first time. The road-tested results that define their absorbing compositions verify the group's deep commitment to the idea that a music based on earnest communication proves most compelling.

Full Description:

"Trombonist Steve Swell presents a quartet of first rate musicians in the avant tradition of improvising using composition as a jumping off point for frreewheeling, intelligent improvisations. Featuring Jemeel Moondoc, alto; John Voigt, bass and Reggie Nicholson, drums."

Full Description:

The Implicate Order: Ursel Schlicht, piano and Steve Swell, trombone, compositions and improvisations. Unified Theory of Sound: Jemeel Moondoc, alto: Nathan Breedlove, trumpet; Cooper-Moore, piano; Wilber Morris, bass; Kevin Norton, drums, percussion; Steve Swell, trombone. About Swell's CD, Moons of Jupiter, John Murph wrote in JazzTimes, "Steve Swell extends the lineage of adventurous trombonists Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III and George Lewis... (he) keenly balances the hemispheres of the free and structured..."