Steve Moore

Steve Moore (aka Stebmo) is a multi-instrumentalist hailing from Seattle, WA. Known as a pianist, with a love for wurlitzers, casiotones and bells, he is also a trombonist and composer. As a studio musician and sideman, he has a resume that reads like a cult top-10 list with artists as diverse as songwriter Sufjan Stevens, jazz hero Bill Frisell and black metal mavericks sunnO))).

Moore’s formative years were spent playing jazz and free improvisation in the pacific northwest and briefly in New York City. A rich scene, it allowed collaboration and study with some of jazz’s modern masters including Julian Priester, Steve Turre, Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz. Eventually, he met and recorded with producer Tucker Martine in 1997 – this meeting had a profound impact on the direction of Moore’s music and career. Together they have collaborated in the ambient collective Mount Analog and on dozens of albums ranging from the far-left twang of Jim White to classic Seattle rockers Mudhoney.

Since 2001, he has performed regularly as part of Laura Veirs’ band Saltbreakers playing keyboards, trombone, singing and occasionally playing bass. Together they have toured the world many times over and recorded four albums, three of which are released on Nonesuch Records. 

As a composer, Moore first began to make a name for himself as a member of Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet. A chance run-in with the saxophone veteran prompted Moore's return to improvised music. What followed was the Ropeadope Records release Skerik’s Syncopated Taint Septet in the fall of 2003. The band toured heavily and recorded in LA with Grammy winning engineer Husky Huskolds, releasing the album, Husky (Hyena Records), a dark, masterful take on funk and jazz.

In the fall of 2005, for the recording of their album Hex, Moore joined the legendary Seattle band Earth at the behest of producer Randall Dunn. In its first studio album in nine years, Dylan Carlson’s Earth had begun to explore a new sound — cleaner guitar tones and more open, pastoral compositions. Moore’s trombone and keyboard played a crucial role on the album as well as the tours that were to follow. This sound has evolved over the course of three albums together, reaching a psychedelic pinnacle on 2008’s The Bee Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull, which also featured Bill Frisell. Southern Lord label-mates sunnO))) asked Moore to join the band for the recording of their collaborative album Altar, with Japanese band Boris, in 2006. 

Steve Moore’s self-titled debut album STEBMO (2009) was a breath of much needed fresh air into the jazz pantheon. Produced by long time collaborator Tucker Martine, the album is alive with a fresh compositional outlook and the spark created in a one day session with an all star rhythm section - drummer Matt Chamberlain and bassist Todd Sickafoose, trusted musical sidekick for Ani DiFranco, Jenny Scheinman and many others.