With the Celebration of American Composers as their theme, the four jazzmen of the Bruce Swaim Quartet shake the Mansion at Strathmore tonight playing classics from the American Songbook and adding a dollop of their own American originals to the mix. “We’ll be covering tunes by Jerome Kern, Oscar Levant, Oscar Hammerstein; people like that,” explained Swaim, the tenor saxophonist of the group recognized as one of the District’s premier jazz quartets. “We’re actually doing our arrangement of a Stevie Wonder tune, “Bird of Beauty.” It makes for a real nice, ‘up’ Latin-like flavor.”
In addition to Swaim, the quartet features Paul Langosch on bass. His credits include working with Tony Bennett for more than 20 years as a permanent member of his trio. Drummer Dominic Smith, with a degree in jazz performance, has worked with the likes of Charlie Byrd, Phil Woods and Buster Williams, among others. Finally, at the piano, Jay Cooley is also an accomplished composer working extensively with the quartet doing many of his original works.
