"Zachary Swanson is a versatile bassist performing music in an array of styles, with focus on improvised, experimental, original and folk music. Using gut strings and a personalized technique, Zachary has developed a conception of the double bass that heightens the integrity of various musical environments; from playing adventurous improvised music to backing singer-songwriters.

In the summer of 2018, Swanson toured Italy and appeared at the Sile Jazz Festival with guitarist Nico Soffiato for their duo project, Dogwood, promoting their album 'Hecate's Hounds' on the Italian label nusica.org. Dogwood features an introspective approach to composition and improvised music with focus on exploring space and timbre. In March of 2019, the band Harbinger with Jarvis Earnshaw and Daniel Carter released their self-titled debut album. The music occupies a unique realm, with Earnshaw on sitar, tape-delay, and voice, Carter on a rotating cast of wind instruments, and Swanson on double bass. He has also appeared on Gaucimusic records as part of the 'Live At The Bushwick Series' releases. In March of 2020, 577 Records will be releasing 'Astroturf Noise', a trio with Sam Day Harmet on mandolin and Sana Nagano on violin. This group explores the intersection between free improvisation and bluegrass. In January of 2020, The Nick Horner Family self-released the album 'Sans Sebastienne' with Swanson on electric bass.

Zachary is currently working on a forthcoming duo album with violinist Tom Swafford, and an improvised trio record with saxophonist Derrick Michaels and drummer Dalius Naujo, among being active in many other projects in the greater New York area.

Swanson has appeared on albums released by 577 Records (Astroturf Noise, Federico Ughi Quartet's Heart Talk and The Listening Group), pfMentum (Sanctuary by Trumpets and Basses), Gaucimusic (Live At The Bushwick Series with Aron Namenwirth, Daniel Carter and Joe Hertenstein) and nusica.org (Dogwood's Hecate's Hounds). As an independent artist, he has been a part of many self-released albums over the years including Ghost Narratives, a duo with Tomchess, Harbinger (2019), Chamber Music (2016), a duo release with guitarist Stelios Mihas, Antenna (2015), the Movement Trio's Back of the Room (2012) among others.17883923_275106216282135_1898542423907972316_n-1Photo by Douglas Lowinger

Zachary has performed at series' and festivals such as the Red Hook Jazz Festival with Tomchess' Moonship Quartet, the Inside Out music series at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the 577 Forward Festival, AE Randolph Presents, and is a regular performer at the Bushwick Improvised Music Series. He has also appeared at the Great Eastern Music Festival in Montauk, Falcon Ridge, Take me to the River, and Charm City Folk and Bluegrass Festival backing folk and Americana artists such as Letitia VanSant, He-Bird She-Bird, Greg Cornell, and Pluck & Rail.

As an educator, Zachary has visited McDaniel College and Towson University to give a improvisation workshops with Derrick Michaels, Stelios Mihas and Jon Seligman. He has also given performances and hosted Q&A's at Marlboro College in duo with vocalist Amanda Bloom, a duo with Rodney "Godfather Don" Champman, and again with the ensemble No Land Bands, a project that combines jazz and Syrian music to promote awareness of the Syrian refugee crisis.

Zachary began his bass studies at the age of 6 in his home state of Massachusetts, and is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. He can be seen performing regularly throughout New York City and beyond."

"Baltimore-native Derrick Michaels is a saxophonist | composer | bandleader and an audacious force in the creative music community. As an instrumentalist, he boasts a sonorous tone, a rich expressive palette, and a propensity for dynamic improvised performances. As a bandleader, he invites a wide array of brilliant musicians into the creative fold, engaging with an expressive continuum that spans the history of written and improvised music. With deep roots in straight-ahead jazz, along with decades of experience collaborating in indie-rock, pop, and other eclectic music scenes, his expressive gamut reflects a love for the universal expression of human nature through musical vibrations.

As an independent creative-music teacher, Michaels favors process-oriented creative guidance for both improvisers and composers. Nurturing the personal characteristics of each musician reveals a sense of autonomy that will fuel each musician's lifelong creative journey. Rather than prescribe the tried-and-true idiomatic devices that pervade institutional music education, Michaels works to emancipate the creative wellspring that flows within each student. From that orientation, anything is possible (with practice).

As a concert presenter and bandleader, Michaels leads entirely improvised concerts, endeavoring to integrate the stalwart lyrical essence of jazz with the venturesome sonic whirlwind of 21st-century classical music.

Michaels' 2019 concert series "Derrick Michaels Presents" positioned his own tenor saxophone playing amid 28 brilliant improvisers from Baltimore and New York City, delivering 12 engaging improvised concerts full of depth, nuance, sensitivity, and imagination. These ensembles ranged in instrumentation from classic jazz quartets to lush chamber ensembles, demonstrating the unifying power of improvisation.

His 2020 series "Posture of Possibility" (which was temporarily interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic) is a showcase of 12 young improvisers whose creative contributions could very well carry the torch of this music into the next generation - juxtaposing two sets of music with variable instrumentation in order to highlight the creative flexibility inherent in this most fluid of art forms.

While his creative output is widely variable by design, Michaels currently leads two primary Baltimore-based ensembles: "The Great Unfolding" (Derrick Michaels-tenor saxophone, John Dierker-reeds, Chris Pumphrey-piano, Mike Kuhl-drums) and "Born From Silence" (Derrick Michaels-tenor saxophone, John Dierker-bass clarinet, Zack Branch-cello, Derek Wiegmann-bass). Each group exploits a rich concurrence of spontaneous creative input from each member of the ensemble.

As a co-leader, Michaels is a member of Odd Man Out (with Dave Ballou, Michael Formanek, and Mike Kuhl), Trio Xolo (577 Records), Michaels-Weber-Kuhl, and Talking Points.

As a side-person, his saxophone playing has been a part of the Out of Your Head Collective, Phil Cunneff New Trio, Chris Pumphrey Sextet and "Music For Quiet Spaces", Ben Frock's "Love Unit Orchestra", Theljon Allen's Universal Language, Colin Renick's "Kinetic Renick", Station North Jazz Orchestra, Charm City Brass Band, Jazz Lunch, Baltimore Boom Bap Society, and more.

Over the years, many important musical relationships have developed with the likes of Ellery Eskelin, Susan Alcorn, Michael Formanek, Dave Ballou, John Dierker, Tony Martucci, Eric Kennedy, Zach Swanson, Mike Kuhl, Savino Palumbo, Jon Seligman, Theljon Allen, Alex Weber, Jeff Reed, Phil Cunneff, Ben Frock, Chris Pumphrey, and a growing list of respected names within the broader community."

"Dalius Naujokaitis began his musical career in the late eighties and was an avant-garde feature of the Vilnius jazz scene performing with Juozas Milašius, Vladimir Chekasin, Petras Vyšniauskas, Skirmantas Sasnauskas and others. He moved to New York in 1995 and made an impressive entry to the NYC scene with a series of original solo performances at Jonas Mekas' Anthology Film Archives. Shortly he found Free Music on Second Street group, and partaking in the Now We Are Here Orchestra' projects with Jonas Mekas (vocal). At the same time Dalius collaborated with famous master of avant-garde film Ken Jacobs in "Lumiere/Naujokaitis/Jacobs: Nervous System Concerts, also with modern dance group "Limbic Six" and Tiny Mythic Theatre. His music and drumming is featured in films by Jonas Mekas "Happy Birthday To John Lennon," "On My Way To Fujijama I Saw," "This Side of Paradise" and in film by Moira Tierney "Circus." He has played and recorded with a variety of New York bands such as Kenny Wolleson's Himalayas and Wollesonics, Art Baron, Butch Morris, Joey Barron, Briggan Krauss, Jeff Ballard, Brazilian Girls, Tim Keiper, Jonathon Haffner, Otomo Yoshihide, Rocco John Group, and On Davis' Cartoon Satellite. Dalius leads and drums for New York based avant-garde music group Untyte, which performs ancient Lithuanian folk tunes with a downtown NY edge."