Bill Stewart

DIGIPACK EDITION

These four men may not have been a proper band before this date, but you'd never know it from the music. The musicians that appear on "Space Squid" only played one gig together as a band before recording this music.

Bill Stewart’s taste, intelligence and counterintuitive relationships to time have made him a favorite drummer of people like John Scofield and Pat Metheny. Having some new compositions that you want to record is a common motivation, no doubt, but does not always lead to albums that convey a deep reason to exist, or that feel like unified works.

"Space Squid" meets both of these challenges because Stewart is an intriguing composer and a leader with a coherent aesthetic based on the same qualities as his drumming: understatement, dry wit, unpredictable decision-making, esoteric lyricism. Backed up by Seamus Blake on the saxophone, Bill Carrothers on piano and Ben Street on bass, a group of like-minded musicians, for whom playfulness, musical pranks and the sheer joy of playing is serious business, and have dedicated their life to express their thoughts and feelings as well as their concept of beauty with all its intimate idiosyncrasies and vagaries, and put it out in the open for all to hear.

PERSONNEL:

SEAMUS BLAKE, tenor and soprano sax
BILL CARROTHERS, piano
BEN STREET, bass
BIL STEAWRT, drums

New York, September 23 & 24, 2014

TRACKS:

01. Paris Lope
02. End of Earth
03. Tincture
04. Septemberism
05. Happy Walk
06. Drop of Dusk
07. Dead Ringer
08. Blue Sway
09. If Anyone Asks You
10. Space Squid
11. The Band Wagon: Dancing in the Dark