Biography
Dave Sewelson works as a saxophonist, composer, and bandleader from New York City’s East Village. While he handles nearly every member of the saxophone family, the baritone remains his central horn. Its dense, resonant, textured sound shifts between bleats, roars, honks, moans, wails, and vocal lines. He ranks among the most emotionally direct and frequently requested improvisers on the avant-garde circuit. His first album as leader, Synchro-Incity, appeared in 1979. Longstanding partnerships include composer and saxophonist Phillip Johnston across Fast ’n’ Bulbous and additional projects, as well as a founding role in the Microscopic Septet. He has maintained an enduring association with bassist William Parker as a permanent member of the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, appearing together across numerous ensembles and recordings. His quartet released Our Earth/Our World in 2016. Two years afterward came the widely praised Music for a Free World, recorded with Parker, Steve Swell, and Marvin “Bugalu” Smith; that project was followed in another two years by More Music for a Free World. In 2021 he assembled a quartet featuring lap steel guitarist Mike Neer, bassist Dave Hofstra, and drummer Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks, whose first recording, Smooth Free Jazz, surfaced that December.
Born in Oakland in 1952, Sewelson started on trumpet at age nine, switched to baritone horn at eleven, spent time on drums, took up electric bass at thirteen, added upright bass, and returned to saxophone at twenty-one. Since the early seventies he has concentrated on baritone saxophone yet remains fluent across most of the instrument’s range.
He relocated to New York in 1977. Early acquaintances included Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb. In 1979 he appeared on Horvitz’s No Place Fast and subsequently directed the 25 O’Clock Blues Band during the sessions that produced Synchro-Incity. He participated in Horvitz’s Simple Facts in 1980, the occasion of his initial meetings with Parker and John Zorn. In 1981 he recorded Ghost of a Trance with saxophonist Peter Kuhn for Hat Hut. The next year he joined bassist Saheb Sarbib & His Multinational Big Band for the Cadence Jazz debut Aisha, which also featured Jemeel Moondoc, Frank Wright, Roy Campbell, and Steven Bernstein; later that year the ensemble issued Live at the Public Theater. In 1983 Sewelson entered the original Microscopic Septet lineup for their first album, Let’s Flip!, alongside future associates Hofstra on bass and composer Phillip Johnston on soprano saxophone. He stayed through 1989, contributing to Off Beat Glory and Beauty Based on Science.
Sewelson entered Parker’s Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra in 1994 for the debut Flowers Grow in My Room, which also included drummer Susie Ibarra, saxophonists Will Connell, Rob Brown, and Assif Tsahar, vibraphonist Gregg Bendian, and Hofstra on tuba. The group’s fluid, expanding roster moved to the new AUM Fidelity label for 1997’s Sunrise in the Tone World. The following year he appeared on Johnston’s Tzadik debut Music for Films.
Entering the new century, Sewelson became a central soloist in Parker’s large ensemble. The collective released Mayor of Punkville on AUM Fidelity in 2000 and the concert document Raincoat in the River, Vol. 1: ICA Concert on Eremite. He convened a group with Daniel Carter, Parker, Dee Pop, and Hofstra for a CBGB performance that yielded the live album Freedomland: Amusement Park in 2002. Two further Little Huey releases arrived in 2003—Mass for the Healing of the World on Black Saint and Spontaneous on Splasch—while Sewelson, Little Huey, and Carter also issued Freedomland: Yia Yia’s Song.
Cuneiform issued Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind in 2005, the first album by Fast ’n’ Bulbous, a New York-based Captain Beefheart tribute band whose personnel comprised Johnston, Sewelson, guitarist Gary Lucas, trombonist Joe Fiedler, trumpeter Rob Henke, and drummer Richard Dworkin. In 2006 Sewelson joined Parker’s Olmec ensemble for Long Hidden: The Olmec Series and Little Huey’s For Percy Heath, the latter captured live at the 22nd Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.
During 2007 Sewelson, baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, and double bassist Hofstra formed Two Sisters Inc. and recorded the album Scaribari. That June the William Parker Orchestra premiered and documented his extended composition Double Sunrise Over Neptune at Vision Festival XII in New York; the recording appeared to international notice in August 2008. Later that year Sewelson rejoined the Microscopic Septet for Lobster Leaps In and remained nearly a decade. Fast ’n’ Bulbous delivered their second album, Waxed Oop, in 2009.
After the Microscopic Septet released Friday the 13th: The Micros Play Monk in 2011, Sewelson participated in composer and trombonist Steve Swell’s Nation of We for The Business of Here: Live at Roulette and joined Parker’s orchestra, featuring guest soloist Kidd Jordan, for the widely acclaimed Essence of Ellington. He continued performing with his own groups, including Sewelsonics, and toured with additional leaders. The Microscopic Septet issued Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues in 2016; that same year Sewelson and Kuhn formed a quartet with Gerald Cleaver and Larry Roland that independently released Our Earth/Our World. Two years later he appeared with Parker on the double-length Flower in a Stained-Glass Window/The Blinking of the Ear.
Parker reciprocated in 2018 by joining Sewelson’s quartet for the widely praised Music for a Free World, which also featured drummer Marvin “Bugalu” Smith and Swell and was regarded by numerous critics as among the year’s strongest free-jazz recordings. Sewelson also contributed to Voices Fall from the Sky, a box set of previously unreleased Parker material. Near year’s end the live album Dependent Origination appeared on FMR, drawn from a 2016 California performance led by Alex Cline that featured saxophonists Sewelson and Kuhn alongside cornetist Dan Clucas and bassist Scott Walton.
In 2019 Sewelson, Parker, and tenor Kaelen Ghandhi joined drummer Kevin Murray for the freely improvised Live at the Bushwick Series. The following year the baritone saxophonist helped assemble the DUX Orchestra with Mats Gustafsson, Ibarra, Connell, and Hofstra, resulting in the improvised album Duck Walks Dog (With Mixed Results) on Lithuania’s NoBusiness Records. Sewelson also issued the follow-up quartet recording, the globally celebrated More Music for a Free World. December 2021 brought the release of Smooth Free Jazz, the debut album by the quartet of the same name, again featuring lap steel guitarist Mike Neer, bassist Hofstra, and drummer Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks.
Born in Oakland in 1952, Sewelson started on trumpet at age nine, switched to baritone horn at eleven, spent time on drums, took up electric bass at thirteen, added upright bass, and returned to saxophone at twenty-one. Since the early seventies he has concentrated on baritone saxophone yet remains fluent across most of the instrument’s range.
He relocated to New York in 1977. Early acquaintances included Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb. In 1979 he appeared on Horvitz’s No Place Fast and subsequently directed the 25 O’Clock Blues Band during the sessions that produced Synchro-Incity. He participated in Horvitz’s Simple Facts in 1980, the occasion of his initial meetings with Parker and John Zorn. In 1981 he recorded Ghost of a Trance with saxophonist Peter Kuhn for Hat Hut. The next year he joined bassist Saheb Sarbib & His Multinational Big Band for the Cadence Jazz debut Aisha, which also featured Jemeel Moondoc, Frank Wright, Roy Campbell, and Steven Bernstein; later that year the ensemble issued Live at the Public Theater. In 1983 Sewelson entered the original Microscopic Septet lineup for their first album, Let’s Flip!, alongside future associates Hofstra on bass and composer Phillip Johnston on soprano saxophone. He stayed through 1989, contributing to Off Beat Glory and Beauty Based on Science.
Sewelson entered Parker’s Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra in 1994 for the debut Flowers Grow in My Room, which also included drummer Susie Ibarra, saxophonists Will Connell, Rob Brown, and Assif Tsahar, vibraphonist Gregg Bendian, and Hofstra on tuba. The group’s fluid, expanding roster moved to the new AUM Fidelity label for 1997’s Sunrise in the Tone World. The following year he appeared on Johnston’s Tzadik debut Music for Films.
Entering the new century, Sewelson became a central soloist in Parker’s large ensemble. The collective released Mayor of Punkville on AUM Fidelity in 2000 and the concert document Raincoat in the River, Vol. 1: ICA Concert on Eremite. He convened a group with Daniel Carter, Parker, Dee Pop, and Hofstra for a CBGB performance that yielded the live album Freedomland: Amusement Park in 2002. Two further Little Huey releases arrived in 2003—Mass for the Healing of the World on Black Saint and Spontaneous on Splasch—while Sewelson, Little Huey, and Carter also issued Freedomland: Yia Yia’s Song.
Cuneiform issued Pork Chop Blue Around the Rind in 2005, the first album by Fast ’n’ Bulbous, a New York-based Captain Beefheart tribute band whose personnel comprised Johnston, Sewelson, guitarist Gary Lucas, trombonist Joe Fiedler, trumpeter Rob Henke, and drummer Richard Dworkin. In 2006 Sewelson joined Parker’s Olmec ensemble for Long Hidden: The Olmec Series and Little Huey’s For Percy Heath, the latter captured live at the 22nd Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.
During 2007 Sewelson, baritone saxophonist Claire Daly, and double bassist Hofstra formed Two Sisters Inc. and recorded the album Scaribari. That June the William Parker Orchestra premiered and documented his extended composition Double Sunrise Over Neptune at Vision Festival XII in New York; the recording appeared to international notice in August 2008. Later that year Sewelson rejoined the Microscopic Septet for Lobster Leaps In and remained nearly a decade. Fast ’n’ Bulbous delivered their second album, Waxed Oop, in 2009.
After the Microscopic Septet released Friday the 13th: The Micros Play Monk in 2011, Sewelson participated in composer and trombonist Steve Swell’s Nation of We for The Business of Here: Live at Roulette and joined Parker’s orchestra, featuring guest soloist Kidd Jordan, for the widely acclaimed Essence of Ellington. He continued performing with his own groups, including Sewelsonics, and toured with additional leaders. The Microscopic Septet issued Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down to Me: The Micros Play the Blues in 2016; that same year Sewelson and Kuhn formed a quartet with Gerald Cleaver and Larry Roland that independently released Our Earth/Our World. Two years later he appeared with Parker on the double-length Flower in a Stained-Glass Window/The Blinking of the Ear.
Parker reciprocated in 2018 by joining Sewelson’s quartet for the widely praised Music for a Free World, which also featured drummer Marvin “Bugalu” Smith and Swell and was regarded by numerous critics as among the year’s strongest free-jazz recordings. Sewelson also contributed to Voices Fall from the Sky, a box set of previously unreleased Parker material. Near year’s end the live album Dependent Origination appeared on FMR, drawn from a 2016 California performance led by Alex Cline that featured saxophonists Sewelson and Kuhn alongside cornetist Dan Clucas and bassist Scott Walton.
In 2019 Sewelson, Parker, and tenor Kaelen Ghandhi joined drummer Kevin Murray for the freely improvised Live at the Bushwick Series. The following year the baritone saxophonist helped assemble the DUX Orchestra with Mats Gustafsson, Ibarra, Connell, and Hofstra, resulting in the improvised album Duck Walks Dog (With Mixed Results) on Lithuania’s NoBusiness Records. Sewelson also issued the follow-up quartet recording, the globally celebrated More Music for a Free World. December 2021 brought the release of Smooth Free Jazz, the debut album by the quartet of the same name, again featuring lap steel guitarist Mike Neer, bassist Hofstra, and drummer Bernice “Boom Boom” Brooks.
Albums
Singles
