Fire In The West

A long-time fan of the front-line pairings of the 1950s bands of Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Horace Silver for whom Silver Mine is dedicated, Swainson shaped both his compositions and the blue-chip rhythm section of pianist Renee Rosnes with whom he'd worked in the 1990s cross border band Free Trade and Lewis Nash around this stylistic post-bop conception. With compositional dedications to musical influences the aforementioned Silver Mine, to impactful places Kyushu, a musical reflection of time spent on this Japanese island, to people Fell Among Thieves references a biblical parable that Swainson relates to some wonderful people he has known who fell into difficult company and circumstance, this new recording offers a personal glimpse inside Swainson's musical and compositional mind.