By Matt Micucci
The celebrated jazz drummer and composer Bill Stewart is set to release his new album Space Squid on Pirouet Records on Feb 5, 2016.
With this record, Stewart has said to have aimed to reach for the sky and plumb to the depths. It will feature ten Stewart originals and one jazz standard, to run the gamut from irreverence to revelation.
Bill Stewart is highly regarded for his distinguished way of playing the drums, which is characterized by a melodic focus, and its polythithmic, or layered identity.
The melodies, harmonies, phrase lengths and measure lengths of his compositions are often altered, so as not to conform too closely to the traditional jazz language. This puts him in the postmodernist category, and reflects his concept of forward-looking, and his desire of not wanting to repeat what others have alread accomplished.
On Space Squid, he is joined by a group of like-minded musicians – Seamus Blake on saxophone, Bill Carrothers on piano and Ben Street on bass.
For them, 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 idiosyncracies and vagaries, and put it out in the open for all to hear.
Speaking of the title of the album, Space Squid, Bill Stewart said “I like the sound of the title and I am slighly fascinated with squid and octopus. They can also be delicious.”