Neil Swainson - Fire In The West (CD)

Release Date: 08/19/22

Anticipated sophomore release for celebrated Canadian bassist. Swainson assembles and all-star cast including Lewis Nash & Renee Rosnes

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.