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, including Brian Settles on saxophone, Federico Gonzalez Peña on piano, and ¡FIASCO! band mates Nelson Dougherty on guitar and Keith Butler, Jr. on drums. United around Arnold’s songs, Sea Change creates a lush, yet flexible contemporary jazz sound all their own.

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Sea Change has released two acclaimed albums of original compositions, with the most recent, Until Now, having been voted Capitalbop’s #2 DC Jazz Album of 2023. Sea Change has been featured in venues such as the 2024 DC Jazz Festival, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Gaithersburg Arts Barn, the Bop Stop at the Music Settlement, Maryland Hall, and An Die Musik, with a new album currently in the works for 2026.

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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 performed by Arnold, Settles, Dougherty, and Butler, Jr., as well as Sarah Marie Hughes on soprano saxophone, Simone Baron on accordion, and Aleks Izotov on piano.