Vinyl Vault: “Home” by Steve Swallow

Carla Bley and Steve Swallow appear at Dazzle next week and the Vinyl Vault gets on the bandwagon by featuring a Steve Swallow album entitled “Home.” It’s a 1980 ECM release that took Swallow eight years to write. The concept of the album was to put music to the poetry of Robert Creeley. Creeley’s poetry tends to be spare, but poignant and powerful. Swallow spent years combing Creeley’s work for just the right poems, then meticulously creating a musical framework for each. Swallow then gathered a top flight band to perform his compositions. Sheila Jordan signs the Creeley poems; Steve Kuhn provides the piano work, David Liebman plays various saxophones, Lyle Mays adds synthesizers to an otherwise all acoustic performance, Bob Moses plays drums and of course Swallow adds his distinctive bass voice. The end result is both highly creative and highly satisfying. Check it out for yourself with host Geoff Anderson on Tuesday, March 19 at 8:30 pm on KUVO Jazz.