Neil Swainson Returns With “Fire In The West”
Neil Swainson has returned with a new quintet album called Fire In The West, which marks his first album as a leader since 1987. The bassist created a great band for the 10-song collection with pianist Renee Rosnes, drummer Lewis Nash, trumpeter Brad Turner, and saxophonist Kelly Jefferson. Swainson says the chemistry was evident.
“I had met and played with everyone before,” he says, “but never all together. However, I sent the charts ahead of time, they all did their due diligence on these fairly demanding tunes, and, as a result, there was no stress. We just sailed through the gig and the recording.”
Swainson, who has played for everyone from Woody Shaw to Robert Gambarini, is influenced by classic jazz artists from the ‘50s. As such, the music has a post-bop styling with some modern approaches.
Check out the title track, which was inspired by a plane ride through the smoke of wildfires in the bassist’s native British Columbia.
Fire In The West is available now on CD and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).
Fire In The West Track List:
- Fire in the West
- Fool’s Gold
- Cascades
- Standing Back
- Fell Among Thieves
- Kyushu
- Late Afternoon
- Near North
- Gone Away
- Silver Mine
