Stephen Arnold bassist & composer

biography

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"Stephen Arnold is already known as one of the most versatile bassists and side musicians on the D.C. jazz scene. His debut album as a bandleader, Sea Change, with his band of the same name, proves that he may be one of the city’s most imaginative composers too."

- Jackson Sinnenberg, Capitalbop

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Sea Change was formed in February 2018 in Washington, D.C., when bassist Stephen Arnold was asked to lead a band at the Göethe-Institut’s Jazz in the Basement series. Since then, Sea Change has been Arnold’s primary outlet for his original compositions, which draw from his love of jazz, folk, rock, and soul. For his band, Arnold assembled a group of frequent associates and strikingly original voices: Sarah Marie Hughes (Lee Konitz, Janel Leppin’s Ensemble Volcanic Ash) on saxophones, Federico Gonzalez Peña (Meshell Ndegeocello, Marcus Miller) on piano, and ¡FIASCO! band mates Nelson Dougherty on guitar and Keith Butler, Jr. on drums. United around Arnold’s songs, Stephen Arnold & Sea Change create a lush, yet flexible contemporary jazz sound all their own.

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The band is due to release its second album on October 14th 2023. Until Now is a nine-song suite that documents the end of the pandemic and beginning of the romantic relationship between longtime friends and collaborators Arnold and Hughes. With their instruments, they play the lead roles in an operatic story of love, crisis, and hope, deftly supported on the journey by the sensitive and dynamic ensemble.

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Their 2020 debut album Sea Change was a finalist for jazz album of the year at the WAMMIE Awards and the #4 jazz album of 2020 by local jazz blog Capitalbop. The album features twelve original songs performances by Arnold, Hughes, Dougherty, and Butler, Jr., as well as Brian Settles on tenor saxophone, Simone Baron on accordion, and Aleks Izotov on piano.