Craig Taborn

Joëlle Léandre: Lifetime Rebel

by Mark Corroto
September 25, 2024

Joëlle Léandre is the definition of a force of nature. She is unstoppable, unforgettable, and full of boundless energy. It is the nature of her force that recordings like Lifetime Rebel attempt to capture. These four CDs--plus an interview and solo performance DVD--capture a moment, but just a moment of her inexhaustible spirit, before she moves on. Recorded in 2023, Léandre was honored with a lifetime achievement award during New York's Vision Festival. The performances captured are by diverse and ...

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville 2024

by Mike Chamberlain
May 27, 2024

Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville Various Venues Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada May 16-19, 2024 The 40th edition of the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, held May 16-19, was marked by the big change of artistic directors from founding director Michel Levasseur to Scott Thomson, former artistic director of the Guelph Jazz Festival. On the other hand, the programming itself stayed true to the history of the festival, with perhaps a stronger ...

Craig Taborn e Borderlands Trio a Roma

by Giuseppe Segala
December 5, 2023

Craig Taborn Solo, Borderlands Trio Casa del Jazz, Parco della Musica Roma 25, 28.11.2023 La fase finale della programmazione d'autunno alla Casa del Jazz di Roma ha offerto l'opportunità dell'ascolto ravvicinato di due tra le personalità al vertice del pianoforte, e della creazione musicale in senso lato, in circolazione oggi. Craig Taborn, a Roma in solo e Kris Davis, con il trio Borderlands, interpretano due orientamenti complementari di un'idea che si colloca nell'universo vasto ...

Chris Potter: Got The Keys To The Kingdom: Live At The Village Vanguard

by Ian Patterson
March 24, 2023

The title references an old gospel song, but for Chris Potter the keys in question could be those to the Village Vanguard. This is the saxophonist's third live recording from jazz's most storied club, not counting those with Paul Motian. For musicians and fans alike, this is hallowed turf. But it's not just about playing at The Village Vanguard. Documenting those dates is key--a rite of passage, to judge by the dozens of revered jazz musicians who have made live ...

Rob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers

by Mark Corroto
March 4, 2023

The similarities between Rob Mazurek's Exploding Star Orchestra and Sun Ra's Arkestra are numerous. Both leaders travel the spaceways via the technologies available in their time, applied through dynamic rhythm and pulse. For Ra, his sound began when he was an apprentice in Fletcher Henderson's band in the 1940s, and Mazurek's 1990s work revolved around Isotope 217 and the various Chicago Underground (and later São Paulo Underground) ensembles. Both bandleaders were composers of their time, nonetheless they always create music ...

Chris Potter: Got The Keys To The Kingdom (Live At The Village Vanguard)

by Chris May
January 26, 2023

There is a lot of heavy ordnance going off during this album. Indeed, the incoming only lets up once, and then briefly, during a performance of Billy Strayhorn's “Blood Count" at the halfway point. For the rest of the sixty-one minutes playing time, the watchword is eruptive. But no PPE is required. The barrage is benign. This is the third album Chris Potter has recorded live at the Vanguard. The attraction is no surprise. Saxophonists, especially those ...

JazzMI 2022 - VII Edizione

by Paolo Peviani
October 14, 2022

JazzMI Milano 29.09-9.10.2022 Fine settembre: cadono tutte le restrizioni anti-Covid che ci hanno accompagnato per oltre due anni, ed inizia il festival JazzMI. Non potevamo immaginare modo migliore per festeggiare il ritorno alla vita normale. Milano che si riscopre, sia pure per solo una decina di giorni, città del jazz! Uno status ultimamente un po' appannato, ma che negli anni '60-'70 le era unanimemente riconosciuto. Di qui passavano tutti i più grandi: John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, ...

Jazz this week: Bill Charlap, Kris Davis & Craig Taborn, Jason Marsalis, and more

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
September 29, 2016

It's a busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several noteworthy touring performers in town, including three top-flight pianists, two of whom will be performing together as a duo. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, September 28 Pianist Bill Charlap returns with his trio for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Charlap was here most recently in February 2014 with saxophonist Houston Person at the Bistro, but this time, the focus is ...
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Ches Smith with Craig Taborn and Mat Maneri release "The Bell" on ECM Records

Source: Michael Ricci
January 8, 2016

Ches Smith: drums, vibraphone, timpani; Craig Taborn: piano; Mat Maneri: viola The Bell features dynamic chamber music compositions written for masterful improvisers. “The best thing I caught all weekend,” said critic Peter Margasak of the 2014 New York Winter Jazzfest, “was a superb trio led by drummer Ches Smith with pianist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri, which expertly infused seductively narcotic writing with a mixture of brooding melody and rich texture.” Since that NY debut, the trio has become ...
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Jazz Face: Craig Taborn, Jazz's "Avenging Angel"

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
November 9, 2011

High on my list for jazz CD of the year is Craig Taborn's long-awaited solo set of improvisations, Avenging Angel. Released midyear on ECM, the recording has drawn praise far and wide, but perhaps nothing father or wider than its inclusion in the recent listing of “cultural artifacts" of the new millennium posted by online magazine Slate. Slate's editors posed the question to their contributors, “Which cultural artifacts since 2000 will speak to future eras? What are the timeless expressions ...
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Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (2011)

Source: Something Else!
August 25, 2011

Finally. After more than four years of noting on this space his key contributions to other people's records, including list-topping performances led by David Torn, Chris Potter and Michael Formanek, we get to talk about a record actually led by one of the very top keyboardists working in downtown New York today. That's because a few months ago, Craig Taborn had issued his first album in seven years. Minneapolis-born Taborn, having first attained notice as James Carter's pianist in the ...
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Craig Taborn - Junk Magic (2004)

Source: Something Else!
August 10, 2011

by Tom Johnson Another slab of envelope-pushing jazz from Craig Taborn, one that relies heavily on the strong improvisatory skills of the band backing his keyboards and piano. The result is a slightly more ambient atmosphere than one would normally associate with Taborn, but it does not come across feeling foreign or forced, possibly due to the presence of violinist Mat Maneri—whose own work seems to specialize in a similar, angular attack on jazz. Often, the music comes across reminiscent ...
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Craig Taborn - Avenging Angel (ECM, 2011)

Source: Music and More by Tim Niland
June 10, 2011

Pianist Craig Taborn has taken his time in becoming a band leader. He has led some interesting electric units, and has apprenticed with seemingly everyone of note from James Carter to Roscoe Mitchell and beyond. This album find him stripped of all of his electronic effects, focusing on solo acoustic piano in an intimate and detailed atmosphere. Texture and dynamics are the key to the success of the album, at times he develops spare motifs using the bass notes of ...
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Craig Taborn "Avenging Angel"

Source: ECM Records
June 7, 2011

Craig Taborn: piano “Avenging Angel" is Craig Taborn's distinguished contribution to the great solo piano tradition at ECM, a powerful, purposeful and rigorous album, which rises to the challenges of the format and transcends them. The disc explores the textural dimensions of sound, builds new structures, uncovers a rugged lyricism. Recorded in the optimal acoustics of the recital room at Lugano's Studio RSI, with Manfred Eicher producing, it's Taborn's first disc under his own name for ECM, following on from ...
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Craig Taborn on Sound and Improvisation

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
June 1, 2011

On June 7, Downbeat Magazine's electronic keyboards “Rising Star" Craig Taborn will celebrate the American release of his first solo piano recording, Avenging Angel, on ECM. Totally acoustic and totally improvised, Avenging Angel may surprise those Taborn followers who are most familiar with his electronic wizardry and dual-keyboard gymnastics with such leaders as Tim Berne, Chris Potter, Michael Formanek, Roscoe Mitchell, and Evan Parker. And similarly, the free nature of the new project might surprise his early-career fans who recall ...
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Keyboardist Craig Taborn Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz
June 15, 2009

There is no place for fear or doubt in pianist Craig Taborn's playing--such states are banished from a mind that seeks to explore the musical possibilities of each moment with maximum freedom. Taborn's improvisational playing is a continual creation where the journey is the thing, and words like beautiful, ugly and mistake have virtually no meaning. True improvisers like Taborn, with the ability to take the leap into the unknown, have always been a fairly rare breed.

From early collaborations ...
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Craig Taborn Holding Jazz Electronica to a Higher Standard

Source: Michael Ricci
January 16, 2009

The commingling of jazz and electronic music has produced a lot of mutant offspring in recent years, much of it marred by a lack of balance or focus.

Craig Taborn, a keyboardist of exploratory temperament, is one of a handful of American musicians bringing steady refinement to the field. Five years ago he released Junk Magic (Thirsty Ear), a smart effort at cross-pollination that now sounds only slightly dated. Since then, working mainly as a featured sideman, he has upgraded ...
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