Among her many poems, New Formalist verse-maker Rhina P. Espaillat wrote "Why Publish?", where she brilliantly encapsulates the reasons for making a creative gesture regardless of contemporaneity, while also considering the possibility that it may become relevant in the future for those who will stumble into that work of art by chance.
Touched by this purpose, master trombonist Steve Swell recorded a series of spontaneous pieces with the same mindset, imagining an analogous scenario for his alternative conceptions. Music that, who knows, a very long time from now will be discovered and admired by individuals who will be absolutely open to it, and capable of appreciating it in a totally different context than the one in which it was originally performed.
Of course, it's not necessary to wait that much before giving Swell's improvisational perspicacity its due. These investigations typically yield a plethora of uncommon sounds, thus prompting the listener to view this music as a tool for attaining a state that goes beyond the mere act of playing an instrument. Breathing, vibrating, murmuring, rattling, scratching, chatting, possibly becoming upset with that trombone: that's Swell. We are able to sense the psychophysical effort the artist has put into this recording because of the methods he employs. Even in situations where one's technical illiteracy could confuse a set of compelling bursts for something else, trusting the unascertained is still a pleasant feeling.
Swell's consistently interesting phrasing, his ability to discern when noise and sound should stop, and the overall familiarity that his small universe conveys — aside from a few temporary complications — all constitute added values to an acoustic experience that, as always with this musician, becomes as composite and revealing as the time we dedicate ourselves to it. Rather than waiting decades for someone to come across a great record fortuitously, it would be better if people immediately spread the word about the substance of what they're listening to. A substance that Relative Pitch's releases, it must be mentioned, hardly ever lack.
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