There’s a certain offbeat humor to releasing an album titled *Winter Songs* just after the summer solstice. At least in the Northern Hemisphere, where bassist Steve Swallow calls home. But that’s not all—the tracks are simply numbered: One, Two, Three,… all the way to Nine. Although…

Numbers have the advantage of not needlessly sending listeners on a wild goose chase. Titles like “My First Day in Houston” or “Carlotta Sighs At Midnight” tempt one not to follow the music as a whole, but instead to search for evidence of an emotional depth that reveals itself between the sounds—if only one listens with enough interpretive sensitivity. The numbered “Winter Songs,” on the other hand, are quite different.

“Six,” for example, is a lively five-minute track in which the horns provide pleasant entertainment with lyrical solos. “Seven” opens with a piano-bass duet in which the two musicians, listening to one another, capture a shared mood before first one and then the other embarks on a solo, and together they build the intensity. And “One” and “Nine” unfold with a sense of calm and time, allowing the music to develop like thoughts, and frame the remaining tracks like a bracket.

But are these all really “Winter Songs”?

It depends on how you look at it. A defining characteristic of the album is its confidently understated performance. The notes don’t jostle for attention, and the musicians shine with calm and ease, as if they had all the time in the world—like on a long winter evening—there’s nothing to do anyway, so let’s just enjoy each other’s company!

Steve Swallow said of the creation of *Winter Songs* that, instead of giving the music everything he had—as he had done before—here the music gave him what he needed. He added, “Music is as fundamental as the air we breathe.” When an 85-year-old says that, he knows what he’s talking about.

The sextet sharing the stage consists of Steve Swallow on bass, his longtime collaborator Adam Nussbaum on drums, along with Gil Goldstein on piano, guitarist Steve Cardenas, trumpeter Mike Rodriguez, and saxophonist Chris Cheek. Together, they bring together three generations of profound jazz performers from the New York scene, who unfold their artistry in a relaxed manner.

And the recording provides the perfect setting for this unfolding: the stage of a spacious club creates an atmosphere in the listening room while also allowing the individual performers to be distinguished within the soundscape. When listened to through headphones, it also delivers a wealth of transients and details that make *Winter Songs* a truly intimate experience.

A wonderful recording. (Thomas Semmler, HighResMac)

Mike Rodriguez, trumpet
Chris Cheek, tenor saxophone
Steve Cardenas, guitar
Gil Goldstein, piano
Steve Swallow, bass
Adam Nussbaum, drums