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 100 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 & 2013 and was commissioned
twice for the Interpretations Series at Merkin Hall in 2006 and at Roulette in
2012. 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 & 2011, named Trombonist of the Year 2008-2010, 2012 &
2014-2015 by El Intruso, an Argintinean Jazz journal and selected for the
Downbeat Critics Poll in the Trombone category from 2010-2015. Steve is a
Teaching Artist in the NYC public school system working with special
needs children and was awarded the 2008 Jubilation Foundation
Fellowship Award of the Tides Foundation for recognition of that work.
