Swainson,Neil Fire In The West CD

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.

1. Fire in the West 2. Fool's Gold 3. Cascades 4. Standing Back 5. Fell Among Thieves 6. Kyushu 7. Late Afternoon 8. Near North 9. Gone Away 10. Silver Mine