SWP Records

28/06/2024

After the release of the SACD SWP 069 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies' by Michael Baird (a SACD comprises 96kHz/24bit audio, 44.1kHz/16bit, and 5.1. surround sound), we were soon approached by the Spiritual Arts Foundation with the request if Michael Baird would write a piece in their magazine, introducing himself and also explaining his 'spirituality'. We managed to get him to do so - here 'tis!

I am a drummer, composer, producer, field recordist, writer, photographer, and documentary film maker. I was born in what was then the British Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia, since 1964 the Republic of Zambia. Ohhh I had a carefree childhood, looked after by my African nanny who took me down the....

18/06/2024

Nice review of SWP 071 'Danceables' in JazzFlits:
"The music that the Brit born in Zambia makes, approaches the phenomenon rhythm from very many sides, and danceability is just one of them. He also deals in bizarre, but at the same time memorable melodies...The album as a whole sounds like you have a film in your head, with a large variety of moods, from distinctly cheerful to confusing and obscure. Recommended to anyone wanting to organise a weird party."

15/06/2024

One of 19 tracks on the double-cd SWP 071 'Danceables', every one tumbling with rhythm! A total of 108 minutes 30 seconds of music, also downloadable - to add to your library/playlist.....

from the album Danceables

10/05/2024

Nice review in WrittenInMusic:
"With 'Danceables' drummer and composer Michael Baird has released an exceptionally rhythmical double album. In fact every track is rhythmically different...as is every region in Africa. Pan-African.....jazzy.....light and floating."

Drummer en componist Michael Baird heeft met Danceables een bijzonder ritmisch dubbel album afgeleverd met ritmes uit Zambia, Senegal, Congo en Rwanda. Het is een compilatie van tracks, opgenomen van 1987 tot en met 2022. Michael Baird is geboren in Zambia maar woont al lang in Nederland en Afrika l...

06/05/2024

Recensie MixedWorldMusic:
Voor de cds https://www.swp-records.com/music/071/danceables en
https://swprecords.bandcamp.com/album/danceables voor downloads én de cds

06/05/2024

Nice review of SWP 071 'Danceables' in MixedWorldMusic:

"Danceables delivers what it promises and more. The music breathes Africa, but without constantly labouring the point. The secret to that is to be found in the authentic traditional rhythms that Baird mastered during his many trips in mainly the southern part of the continent, moreover it's where he was born (in today’s Zambia). Baird LIVES Africa. It gives his playing an extra dimension which can’t easily be imitated.
The dance fans amongst the readers will in particular be interested that it all swings like mad, but the more demanding listener will also be well satisfied. Indeed, the clever instrumentation ensures layering and abstraction in the music, something that can also be attributed to the impressive list of guests."
Click on the link for the original (Dutch) review.....
Go to https://www.swp-records.com/music/071/danceables and/or https://swprecords.bandcamp.com/album/danceables to buy the album physically and digitally, and to listen.....

MixedWorldMusic.com

03/05/2024

Today 3rd May is the official release (both physical and digital) of the double-cd SWP 071 'Danceables by Michael Baird and friends.....
Moreover Bandcamp Friday has started 5 minutes ago - from between 09.00 hours CET today and Saturday 09.00 hours CET you can order the new physical & digital release the double-cd SWP 071 'Danceables', by Michael Baird and friends! 108'30" of original groovy music! So for the physical 2-cd album and for downloads go to https://swprecords.bandcamp.com/album/danceables and/or for the physcial 2-cd album https://www.swp-records.com/music/071/danceables .
Put on yer dancin' shoes!

01/05/2024

1. The Bandcamp Listening Party is this evening! Or whatever time zone you are in - it starts at 20.00 hours CET. You can listen to the whole album for free, with no chase-up & or secret police surveillance, and you can interrupt your dancing to chat with Michael Baird throughout the 108'30" of very danceable music! Via https://swprecords.bandcamp.com/merch/danceables-listening-party .....
2. The release of the double-cd SWP 071 'Danceables' by Michael Baird and friends is on May 3rd - yes this coming Friday! Also happens to be a Bandcamp Friday, so please do any purchasing (physical or digital) between 09.00 hours CET Friday morning and 09.00 hours CET Saturday morning, as Bandcamp then waives their 15% commission.........And the friends with contributions on this compilation album of the most danceable Michael Baird tracks from between 1987 and 2022 are: David Tronzo (USA), Hans Hasebos (NL), Mark Lotz (D), Kofi Ayivor (GHA), Ousmane Seye (SEN), Russell 'Konkie' Halmeyer (CUR), Jeroen van Vliet (NL), Sophie de Vries (NL), Nusch Baird (NL), Yvonne 'Niobe' Cornelius (D), Michael Moore (USA), Vitold Rek (PL), Michel Massot (B), Arnold 'Broer' van den Bogaart (NL)!

30/04/2024

1. The release of the double-cd SWP 071 'Danceables' by Michael Baird and friends is on May 3rd - yes this coming Friday! Also happens to be a Bandcamp Friday, so please doing any purchasing between 09.00 hours Friday morning and 09.00 hours CET Saturday morning, as Bandcamp then waives their 15% commission.....
2. There will be a Bandcamp Listening Party on Wednesday May 1st starting at 20.00 hours CET: you can listen to the whole album for free, with no chase-up & or secret police surveillance, and chat with Michael Baird throughout the 108'30" of very danceable music! Via the SWP Records Bandcamp.com page.......And the friends with contributions on this compilation album of the most danceable Michael Baird tracks from between 1987 and 2022 are: David Tronzo (USA), Hans Hasebos (NL), Mark Lotz (D), Kofi Ayivor (GHA), Ousmane Seye (SEN), Russell 'Konkie' Halmeyer (CUR), Jeroen van Vliet (NL), Sophie de Vries (NL), Nusch Baird (NL), Yvonne 'Niobe' Cornelius (D), Michael Moore (USA), Vitold Rek (PL), Michel Massot (B), Arnold 'Broer' van den Bogaart (NL)!

28/04/2024

Coming Wednesday May 1st, at 20.00 CET the listening party of the complete double-cd album SWP 071 'Danceables' by Michael Baird and friends! Michael Baird will be 'in the chat' to answer any questions.
The official release is on May 3rd, which also happens to be a Bandcamp Friday - so please wait until then (09.00 Friday May 3rd until 09.00 May 4th CET) before purchasing the physical album and/or the digital album. Enjoy!

Listening Party from Michael Baird.

05/04/2024

Yes, release on May 3rd! The long-awaited double-cd SWP 071 'Danceables' - a compilation of the most danceable tracks by Michael Baird and friends from over years (from 1987 to 2022). 108 minutes 30 seconds of groovy music!

With guests David Tronzo (USA), Hans Hasebos (NL), Mark Lotz (D), Kofi Ayivor (GHA), Ousmane Seye (SEN), Russell 'Konkie' Halmeyer (CUR), Jeroen van Vliet (NL), Sophie de Vries (NL), Nusch Baird (NL), Yvonne 'Niobe' Cornelius (D), Michael Moore (USA), Vitold Rek (PL), Michel Massot (B), Arnold 'Broer' van den Bogaart (NL).

27/03/2024

Go to the link - and read all about it!

< Back New release double-CD 'Danceables' coming up The most danceable tracks by Michael Baird from 1987-2022 Release date May 1st! Zambia-born drummer/composer/producer Michael Baird was an ‘Afro-futurist’ way before the World-Music Scene and the Hipper than Hip ever came up with that name! Thi...

19/01/2024

Check it out - celestial music thundering down upon us from the highest church tower in the Low Countries!

1 track album

18/01/2024

New release: maxi-single cd SWP 070 'Dom Tower Bells'!
Physical cd vailable via the SWP Records website, physical and digital via the SWP Records Bandcamp page.....for only €5.20

The Utrecht Dom Tower Bells are among the finest in Europe. Now finally a recording that captures the build-up and power of this music! All 14 bells are rung together only twice a year. This sequence is 14’56” in length. Yes this is a 'field recording' made in the centre of an old city! Both as a longtime resident of the old city centre of Utrecht and as a musician/composer, Michael Baird loved the sound of the Dom bells when they were all rung together every August. And as an internationally renowned field-recordist of music out in the African bush, for many years on such ringing occasions he wandered about the centre of town searching for the (probably) best spot from which to record this celestial music thundering down upon us from a high tower. No easy task, such a recording, also with over 300 people present in the cathedral square! The recording, made in 2018, was then mastered by a top sound-designer from the film world, ensuring that each bell is perfectly audible. This recording does justice to the beautiful bells of the Dom Tower of Utrecht, rung with dedication by the Utrechts Klokkenluiders Gilde.

04/01/2024

The famous Joe Harriott Quintet, London 1960! Track 6 on the cd SWP 037 'The Late Great Phil Seamen' - an album of highlights of his playing from between 1953 and 1971. Expertly and lovingly remastered. Yes indeed Phil Seamen, arguably the greatest jazz drummer Europe has ever produced!
Buy physical cds and lps via the SWP Records website using Mastercard/Visacard, PayPal, and (within the eurozone) IDEAL, or digital downloads as well as the physical albums via our Bandcamp page using PayPal.....

from the album The Late Great Phil Seamen

29/12/2023

SWP Records wishes each and every one of you a wonderful 2024!!! 😎

Track 7 'Drifting Sequence', from the SACD SWP 069 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies', by Michael Baird, released last month. Thousands on a raft, drifting to where the current takes us - some drown, others go mad, and there are those who close their eyes and see dreamscapes for comfort. We are all small dots in eternity.
By the way, this album with high-end 96kHz/32bit audio, multichannel surround sound, and normal cd quality 44.1kHz/16bit audio can be played on all cd-players and every dvd-player. Know someone in need of introspection? Buy this album for him/her, a great gift!

from the album Resonance Vibration Frequencies

24/12/2023

'Kutomboka Dance', recorded at the court of the paramount chief of the Luba people - the Mulopwe - at Kalundwe, Congo, in 1973 by Jos Gansemans. Mulopwe is the central figure leading the dance, which is the enthronement dance of the mulopwe and it expresses power, strength, invincibility and is why it is performed at the beginning of the investiture ceremony. The court musicians play 2 madimba xylophones, a nkumvi slit-drum, and a ditumba skin drum. What a fabulous 5/4 rhythm, with the xylophones at times weaving in and out playing 6 and 4 against it. The way the drummers distribute the beat is so full of air, that it has that special qulaity of being deep and yet light-footed at the same time.
Cd SWP 043 'African Gems', lp SWP 044 'African Gems'.....for sale both physically and digitally at ridiculously low proces for the amount of richness of culture that you get!

from the album African Gems

23/12/2023

The Ngoma Roots Band, recorded on the banks of the Zambezi by Michael Baird in 2002. Four young guys all born in Livingstone, but with parents from different cultural backgrounds (Lozi/Nkoya, Nsenga, Tokoleya, Luvale), making them a Pan-Zambian group. That's right, they didn't care to copy some hip-hop s**t from America - they created their own roots-based music! Featuring the drumming of Moses Mayanga on the mukabele hour-shaped drum from North-Western Province with built-in buzzer - he lets the rhythm breathe so beautifully!
To be found on the cd SWP 019 'Zambia Roadside' - 15 glorious tracks of honest music.....makes a great gift...you can also download individual tracks...
(2 more tracks by the Ngoma Roots Band on the cd SWP 042 'Zambia Roadside 2')

from the album Zambia Roadside

21/12/2023

Another track from our latest release SWP 069 the SACD 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies' which, by the way, can be played on all cd-players and every dvd-player. Know someone in need of introspection? Buy this album for him/her!
By Michael Baird, please note this piece prominently includes a nyungayunga lamellophone ( = thumb-piano) from Zimbabwe, so that one has to say that the instrument is being moved forward by being placed in such a different musical setting! But he also plays it in the manner of lamellophones north of the Zambezi, namely placing an external resonator underneath the hardwood plank of the instrument, thereby getting 'wah-wah' and 'phaser' effects when lifting it up and down above the resonator. This is something not done traditionally with nyungayunga - but it gives the musician the possibilty to create so many more shadings to the sound. And there is so much beauty in the pure sound of so many African instruments - here in combination with instruments from Indonesia, Japan, and India.

from the album Resonance Vibration Frequencies

20/12/2023

How did this legendary track come about?! Recorded by Hugh Tracey in 1950, to be found on the cd SWP 030 'Kenyan Songs and Strings'.....
The name ‘Chemirocha’ comes from the American country singer Jimmy Rogers. In British colonial Africa in the 40s and 50s country & western music was very popular and someone in the Sotik district (where this was recorded) had a gramophone player and evidently some Jimmy Rogers records. The local Kipsigis people were charmed by his jodelling. Tracey first recorded this song played by some boys, who afterwards admitted it was in fact a song by the girls - who were too shy to perform it. However Tracey found the girls and managed to convince them to overcome their shyness, and this recording was made. The young girl Chemutoi Ketienya and her friends had made up this song about a mystical singer, a wandering minstrel called Chemirocha. From Hugh Tracey’s field notes: Chemirocha became a demi-god, a sort of Pan-like figure with the feet of an antelope, half beast, half man, and in their song the girls urge him to do the leaping dance familiar to all Kipsigis so energetically, that he will jump clear out of his clothes.
SWP 030 'Kenyan Songs and Strings' - a whole album of gems, a great gift.....

from the album Kenyan Songs and Strings

19/12/2023

Playful trance, silimba dance - by Pelekelo Mufalo, from Sithole in Zambia's Western Province, recorded by Michael Baird in 2018. Way out across the sandy plains southwest of Kalabo, the young man has a Thelonious Monk quality! The title 'Saba Silumbu' means 'beware of the ghost', a gentle reminder that you have to take the spirits into account.
On 'Kangombio Silimba Jazz' - one of the 4 cds plus 48-page booklet in SWP 058 'Music from Barotseland'.....

from the album Kangombio Silimba Jazz

18/12/2023

Alfred Chiyembele, one of the last kangombio lamellophone players - in 2018 we drove deep into the bush in Lukulu district, in Zambia's Western Province, looking for him. From Mungamba village, born on 1932, he kicks up a storm here! Accompanied by a younger friend playing stick percussion (see the two of them in the photo), listen to Chiyembele's freedom of timing against the rhythmic figure - this is deep knowledge!
On 'Kangombio Silimba Jazz' - one of the 4 cds plus 48-page booklet in SWP 058 'Music from Barotseland'.....

from the album Kangombio Silimba Jazz

17/12/2023

The Royal Entenga Drum Emsemble at the court of the Kabaka, king of the Ganda people. 6 drummers play the 15 drums, the top 12 of which are tuned in the Ganda pentatonic scale, plus 2 low drums and 1 bass drum even lower. They start out on the edges of the drums, then each play their own part, and at 48 seconds into the track the magical moment is there - the song, now complete, lifts you off your feet!
This composition was by the royal harpist Temusewo Mukasa (on the 8-string ennanga harp). At the Ganda court all music played was composed by the royal harpist, be it by the Royal Abalere Flute Ensemble, the Royal Amadinda Xylophone Ensemble, or this Royal Entenga Drum Ensemble. Check out the whole album SWP 008 'Royal Court Music from Uganda - timeless classical music from East Africa! For only 9 euros.....a great gift.

from the album Royal Court Music From Uganda

15/12/2023

Or this one?! Dance music performed by Mbuti pygmies on the flutes of the Nande people, near Gombari, Congo. To be found of the magnificent lp SWP 046 'Congo Traditional'.....and cd SWP 009 'On The Edge of the Ituri Forest'.
Makes a great gift.....

from the album Congo Traditional 1952 & 1957 (lp)

14/12/2023

And how about this one?! Music for the dead, by Babembe people from Mouyondzi village, Congo Brazzaville. The whole album is magical.....cd and lp...

from the album African Gems

13/12/2023

Season of gifts! Beautiful music, great warm sound, cheap prices, just listen to the track 'Kasaï Neighbours' - make someone happy with the album 'Thumbs on the Outside'!
(digital or physical)

from the album Thumbs on the Outside

12/12/2023

For example - 'Second Encounter'! From the SACD 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies' which, by the way, can be played on all cd-players and every dvd-player. By Michael Baird.....
Know someone in need of introspection? Buy this album for him/her!

from the album Resonance Vibration Frequencies

11/12/2023

How about a purely digital gift? Yeah give someone a download track, t'will get their Xmas toes tapping - and dead cheap too!

track by Michael Baird

08/12/2023

Ten out of ten rating from Poland! For our latest release 'Resonance Vibration Fequencies' in the audiophile magazine 'High Fidelity':

Urodzony w Zambii, mieszkający w Utrechcie perkusista, producent i kompozytor, prezentuje swoją najnowszą płytę. Dostępna ona będzie na krążku SACD oraz w plikach – wielokanałowych 32 bity, 96 kHz oraz stereo 16/44,1. Jak czytamy w materiałach prasowych, na nowej płycie Michael Baird o...

04/12/2023

From the first review of our new album SWP 069 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies' in JazzFlits:
"A new album by percussionist Michael Baird is always a surprise. Likewise this 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies', a title that sounds like a scientific treatise. But the music on this cd is not in the least scientific or dry, as Baird is a far too intuitive musician for that. ...A wondrous interplay of overtones that in many of the tracks leads to a hypnotic effect. Whatever you want to call it, the music on 'Resonance Vibration Frequencies' fascinates, if you are prepared to sit down quietly and listen."

This hybrid stereo multichannel SACD, with high-end audio (96kHz/32bit), multichannel surround sound, and normal cd quality 44.1kHz/16bit audio, can be played on every cd-player and all dvd-players. Order it via https://www.swp-records.com/music/069/resonance-vibration-frequencies or via https://swprecords.bandcamp.com/album/resonance-vibration-frequencies-3