Steve Swell & Ellen Christi: Songs From the Poetry Box (Book w/ CD insert)

Songs From the Poetry Box refers to an actual box where trombonist and improviser Steve Swell keeps notebooks where he has been scribbling down ideas for music, poems, and spur of the moment thoughts or feelings he’s been experiencing for many years. Sometimes he will jot down an entire poem in these notebooks while at a live music performance or traveling somewhere. It is in the Poetry Box where these ideas marinate and grow into poems and songs of hope, the possible. They are a way of enabling Steve to connect the various environments he inhabits as a musician activist, spiritual seeker and observer of a world filled with ugliness and beauty and how to navigate it all. This 70 page book contains poems from the album of the same name, which comes as a CD insert, glued into the back. The album features sound design by Steve's musical partner for the project, vocalist Ellen Christi.

Album personnel: 

Steve Swell, poetry (all tracks), trombone (tracks 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 21), pocket trumpet (track 4, 21), rubber gloves/percussion (track 11)

Ellen Christi, sound design (all tracks), vocals (tracks 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 20)

Additional Personnel:

Tom Bruno, drums (track 14)

Roy Campbell, trumpet (track 14)

AJ Federico, guitar (track 19)

Sam Newsome, soprano saxophone (tracks 2, 4, 5, 15)

William Parker, bass (track 9, 14, 20), rain-stick (track 18)

Cover photo by Robert Sutherland-Cohen

Recorded by Ellen Christi

Mastered by Jim Clouse, Park West Studios

You can stream/download the album here:

https://steveswell.bandcamp.com/album/songs-from-the-poetry-box

Steve Swell, born in Newark, NJ, has been active in the NYC music community since 1975. He’s received grants from USArtists International 2006, MCAF (LMCC) 2008 and 2013, a Creative Curricula grant (LMCC) 2014, nominated Trombonist of the Year 2008, 2011 & 2020 (Jazz Journalists Association) and received the 2008 Jubilation Foundation Fellowship Award (Tides Foundation) for his work in NYC schools. He’s been recognized by the Downbeat Critics Poll: 2010-2018, 2020-2024 and Trombonist of the Year 2008-2010, 2012, 2014-2021, 2023-2024 (El Intruso). His poems appear in “Voices in the First Person II” (Centering Music, 2023), SUNY Metropolitan Review, 2015 and “Silent Solos-Improvisers Speak” (Buddy’s Knife, 2010). 

https://www.steveswell.com

https://steveswell.bandcamp.com/

Ellen Christi has performed in theatrical productions, improvising groups and solo vocal concerts. Ms. Christi is a co-founder of NYC Artists' Collective and the of Network Records, a record label promoting contemporary jazz. She’s received grants and commissions from the New York State Council of the Arts and Meet the Composer. Ellen was recently commissioned through the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. She teaches master classes in vocal technique/improvisation in the United States and Europe. She’s worked with: Tom Bruno, Ray Anderson, Mark Dresser, Andrew Cyrille, Reggie Workman, Rashid Ali, Ed Blackwell, William Parker, Jeanne Lee, Roy Campbell, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, and Hans Koch.

https://www.ellenchristi.com/ https://ellenchristi.bandcamp.com/