Trombonist/Composer Steve Swell Pays Tribute to Jemeel Moondoc with 'For Jemeel: Fire From the Road (2004-2005)'

"Ladies and gentlemen, once again - Fire Into Music." When those words were initially uttered, at a 2004 concert at Houston's El Dorado Ballroom, they simply served as introduction. Opening For Jemeel: Fire From the Road (2004-2005), the stunning and mammoth new album from trombonist/composer Steve Swell and his adventurous quartet Fire Into Music, that brief introduction is transformed into a send-off and an understated eulogy.

As welcome as it is to have this treasure trove of previously unheard music from this masterful quartet, Fire From the Road also serves as a powerful tribute to the band's late saxophonist, Jemeel Moondoc, who passed away in August 2021 from complications of sickle cell anemia. Due out April 7 via Rogue Art, the three-disc set compiles three hours of music captured in 2004 and 2005 at concerts in Houston and Marfa, Texas, and the Guelph Jazz Festival in Ontario, Canada.

"Jemeel had all the qualities that you want in a great improvising musician," praises Swell. "He always went that extra step beyond into a level of musicianship and experience that becomes magical. His playing always managed to find those little areas that I like to call 'between the cracks' - where the intonation gets expanded and the rhythm is a little more askew, and you're drawn through new doorways of sound that alter your perceptions and expectations."

Swell originally formed Fire Into Music - in which the trombonist was joined by Moondoc, legendary bassist William Parker, and master Chicago drummer/percussionist Hamid Drake - for a three and a half week tour in late 2004, followed by a shorter run in the fall of 2005. They reconvened the following year for their sole studio recording, Swimming in a Galaxy of Goodwill and Sorrow, released by Rogue Art in 2007.

A long overdue follow-up was planned for the summer of 2021, as COVID pandemic restrictions were easing. It was postponed for Swell's ultimately successful bout with throat cancer before Moondoc's untimely passing later that summer brought the band to an end. Fortunately a number of performances from Fire Into Music's brief run had been recorded, and Swell selected three standouts featuring compositions by himself and Moondoc along with a pair of extended free improvisations.

There is a wealth of remarkable music from all four artists throughout these captivating hours. The nearly hour-long improvised set from Houston that comprises disc one features a breathtaking ten-minute solo by Parker, a model of diverse textures and unfolding development. It leads into stark, eloquent solo turns by first Swell, then Moondoc, before Drake's thunderous rhythms propel the piece to its explosive finale.

Moondoc's loping, angular composition "Junka Nu" is featured twice, from performances in Marfa and Guelph. The leader provides three compositions: "Space Cowboys," highlighted by Moondoc's sinuous alto buoyed aloft by Parker's robust, charging bassline; the title track from Swimming in a Galaxy of Goodwill and Sorrow, beginning with a four-way conversation spotlighting the bandmates' gifts for listening and complementing each other's unfurling contributions; and the strident groove of "Box Set," previously recorded by Swell's group Slammin' the Infinite and his co-led quartet with Gebhard Ullmann.

Brief as Fire Into Music's existence may have been, its members share histories stretching back decades on the New York City creative music scene. Swell, who had arrived in the city in 1975, was invited to join Moondoc's Jus Grew Orchestra in the late 1980s for its Thursday night residency at the Nuyorican Poets Café. This began a decades-long musical relationship that spanned a number of disparate contexts, including Swell's Soul Travelers quintet with Dave Burrell, Parker and Gerald Cleaver, and several configurations featuring the trumpeter Roy Campbell.

It was also in the Jus Grew Orchestra that Swell was also introduced to Parker, who hails Moondoc as "an unsung natural musician who created his own conservatory that came from inside of himself... [with] a beautiful bluesy sound that genuinely touched upon the deeper parts of Africa." By the time of Fire Into Music's foundation, Parker and Hamid were frequent collaborators as well, evident in the taut rhythmic foundation that underlies even the most turbulent stretches of Fire From the Road.

Though Swell acknowledges the time and concentration necessary to delve fully into the music of Fire From the Road, he says, "I hope people will take the time to listen to it all and get a real appreciation of what Jemeel brought to improvised music. He was so unique in his approach, his imagination and his ability. For me and for everyone who were fortunate enough to play with and to hear him, he always brought the magic."

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