Ecm Records
2006
So There
About This Album
The late poet Robert Creeley was no stranger to jazz. His own work descended from Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, and he provided the link in the new American poetry between the Black Mountain school and the Beats; early on, he composed his work to the music of Bud Powell. Later he collaborated with the jazz musicians preeminent among them: Steve Swallow (whom Creeley collaborated with on numerous live occasions and on the bassist's ECM Home album in 1979, where his poems were sung by Sheila Jordan), and the late Steve Lacy. As evidenced on So There, Swallow is the perfect aural illustrator and collaborationist for Creeley because he allows the poet free reign, giving him a place to truly speak for himself. Swallow composed the music to follow the flow and rhythm of Creeley's taut, sometimes elliptical line and his rhythmic breath. The work for So There began in 2001, when Swallow got his old friend to read numerous poems into a microphone at Tom Mark's Make Believe Ballroom Studio in New York. Swallow began working his way through the poems, listening to them dozens of times to find those he most wanted to compose to. He worked on the music for years; creating compositions not only involving his bass, but also for piano.
Track List (try tracks 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 and 14)

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