Steve Swell

Steve Swell (born in Newark, New Jersey, December 6, 1954) is an American free jazz trombonist, composer, and educator.

He is greatly influenced by Roswell Rudd, with whom he studied in the mid-1970s.

He was also a student of Grachan Moncur III and Jimmy Knepper.

Swell has led a number of projects, including Slammin' the Infinite (w/Sabir Mateen, Matthew Heyner, Klaus Kugel), Fire Into Music (with William Parker, Jemeel Moondoc, Hamid Drake), Unified Theory of Sound (with Cooper-Moore, Matt Lavelle) and his large ensemble Nation of We (aka NOW Ensemble).

Swell studied at Jersey City State Teachers College before moving to New York City in 1975 where he began his musical life, playing in top 40 bands, salsa bands, big bands (most notably those of Buddy Rich and Lionel Hampton) and performed on Broadway in Bob Fosse's Dancin' .

He then became a member of Makanda Ken McIntyre's band which led to tours and recordings with Tim Berne, Joey Baron, Herb Robertson, Jemeel Moondoc, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Bill Dixon, Butch Morris, John Zorn, Dave Burrell, Elliott Sharp, Rob Mazurek, Perry Robinson, Ken Vandermark.

Swell has received a number of awards including a USArts International (NEA) travel grant in 2006, grants from MCAF (LMCC) in 2008 & 2012, Foundation for Contemporary Arts and was nominated for Trombonist of Year, 2008, 2011 & 2020 by the Jazz Journalists Association.

He was chosen Trombonist of the Year 2008-2010, 2012 & 2014-2021 by El Intruso, the Argentine jazz journal.

In 2008 he received a fellowship award from The Jubilation Foundation of the Tides Foundation for his work in the New York City public school system and was selected by the Down Beat Critics Poll in the Trombone category 2010-2022.

He also received the 2014 Creative Curricula grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Steve earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from SUNY in 2016.

With Slammin' the Infinite

With Ullmann/Swell 4

With Nation of We

With Inner Ear

With Marshall Allen

Digital release

With Active Ingredients (Chad Taylor, Jemeel Moondoc, Tom Abbs, Swell)

With Joey Baron

With Tim Berne

With Anthony Braxton

With Rob Brown

With Jaki Byard and the Apollo Stompers

With Bill Dixon

With Jemeel Moondoc

With William Parker

With Roswell Rudd

With Alan Silva

With Cecil Taylor

With Ken Vandermark

With Tom Varner