born in newark, new jersey, steve swell has been living, working and performing in new york city for all of his adult life. he has toured and recorded with such diverse jazz personalities as mainstreamers lionel hampton and buddy rich, to so-called outsiders like anthony braxton, william parker and jemeel moondoc. swell has twelve recordings as a leader or co-leader and is a featured artist on more than sixty other releases.

he first came to public attention performing with makanda ken mcintyre in the multi-instrumentalist's concert at carnegie recital hall in 1985. he toured and recorded with altoist tim berne and his group 'caos totale.'  (two cds on the jmt label). during this time steve also toured and recorded with joey baron's 'barondown' who released three cds on jmt, new world and avant.

even though he is identified with the 'downtown scene' swell has been developing his style in the more so-called 'traditional avant-garde' arena. co-leading projects such as 'space, time, swing' with perry robinson, being a sideman in william parker's 'little huey creative music orchestra' and working with other similar people has kept him on this circuit.

his newest cd, 'unified theory of sound, this now' featuring jemeel moondoc, cooper-moore, wilber morris, kevin norton and matt laVelle, was released on the cadence label in march 2003. swell was a featured soloist in anthony braxton's opera, 'shala fears for the poor'.

julian began his career as a musician at the age of fourteen touring throughout europe with the european community big band. quickly he gained recognition as an original musician and joined the much acclaimed 21 piece uk big band "loose tubes".

in 1986 he was awarded the prestigious pat smythe award and has also been awarded several bbc awards.

in 1990 the julian argüelles quartet, with john taylor, mick hutton and martin france recorded their first cd "phaedrus".

the second cd "home truths" was released in 1995 with mike walker on guitar, martin france on drums and steve swallow on electric bass.

the bbc commissioned argüelles to write 60 minutes of music for a new band to be premiered at the 1996 bath festival, the octet was formed and the music became his fourth album "skull view" which was voted jazz cd of the year 1997 by the independent on sunday. his previous two albums had been voted jazz cd of the year in both 1995 and 1996.

julian has worked with musicians drawn from around the world including archie shepp, tim berne, hermeto pascoal, john abercrombie, dave holland, peter erskine, chris mcgregor, john scofield and carla bley. he is also a member of several big bands including the kenny wheeler big band, django bates' delightful precipice and colin towns' mask orchestra.

in 1999 julian released his first album for provocateur the critically acclaimed "escapade". his second, some 5 years later, was the much anticipated "as above so below", a large scale work for jazz and classical musicians featuring the 20 piece trinity college of music string ensemble.

john moved to new york city from new orleans in 1994, where he has become a highly in demand jazz bassist. he has worked with andrew hill, paul bley, lee konitz, kenny wheeler, dave liebman, maria schneider, fred hersch, john abercrombie, greg osby, tim berne and many others.

as well as performing john also teaches clinics and master classes world wide including the rhythmic music conservatory of copenhagen, portland state university and the maine jazz camp. john holds a b.m. in jazz performance from william paterson university.