Ingrid Laubrock True Improviser, Serious Composer

After 20 years on the London scene, where she collaborated with brazilian singer Mônica Vasconcelos and was a member of the F-Ire Collective, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock moved to New York in 2009.

Since settling into the Columbia Heights section of Brooklyn, Laubrock has been making an impact on the scene centered around cutting-edge Brooklyn venues like The Owl Music Parlor, Lun Atico and Roulette, as well as John Zorn's Manhattan performance space, The Stone.

"Moving to New York was an important step," said Laubrock, who topped the category Rising Star-Tenor Saxophone in this year's Critics Poll. "There are so many amazing musi- cians here, and especially as a composer, I feel I can pretty much write anything and find open- minded and great musicians to realize it." Laubrock, who studied in London in 1992 with ex-Jazz Messenger Jean Toussaint and in the States during the summer of 1998 with Dave Liebman, described herself as a reluctant composer. "I didn't start until I was 27 or 28 years old," explained the native of Stadtlohn, Germany. "In retrospect, I think that I was nervous about the finality of putting something down on paper and saying, 'This is me. Then the bug bit and I realized that, like with everything else, you only get better by doing it."

Her composing skills blossomed in New York through her groups Paradoxical Trio (pianist Kris Davis, drummer Tyshawn Sorey), Anti-
House (Davis, guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist John Hébert, drummer Tom Rainey) and the Ingrid Laubrock Octet (Halvorson, Rainey, pianist Liam Noble, bassist Drew Gress, cellist Ben Davis, accordionist Ted Reichman, trumpeter Tom Arthurs).

"As I was new in New York and it takes time to become part of a scene, I suddenly had more time than I ever had before as an adult," she recalled of her early years in the Big Apple. "That gave me headspace to think about what I did and what I did not want to do. Composing filled those periods."

In addition to Davis, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, bassist Stephan Crump (who appears with her and pianist Cory Smythe on the 2017 Intact release Planktonic Finales) and her house-band, Rainey (whom she married in 2010), the saxophonist considers Halvorson to be an essential musical ally."Mary is one of the first musicians I played with in New York, and I am very grateful for that connection, not only as a musician but also as my friend," Laubrock said. "I had heard of her when living in London, but first listened to her play live with [drummer] Tomas Fujiwara's The Hook Up at Barbès in Brooklyn. I was immediately impressed by her unique way of playing. Her compositions are just as true, personal and
creative as her playing. Also, Mary introduced me to Anthony Braxton, who has been the most life-changing musician I have met. So, I owe
her big-time for that." [Laubrock was part of Braxton's Diamond Curtain Wall ensemble and his Falling River Music Quartet.]

Rainey and Laubrock-who met in the U.K. at the 2004 Cheltenham Jazz Festival-have an ongoing duo that highlights their conversational exchanges in a purely improvised setting. Their third duet recording, Buoyancy, was released in 2016 on the Relative Pitch label.

"Ingrid is rare in the sense that she is a true improviser, as well as a serious composer," Rainey said, "meaning she doesn't just write music that is a vehicle for her to solo over. For Anti-House, she brings a unique compositional perspective, as well as her prowess as an improviser. And for my trio and Sleepthief [their trio with pianist Noble],
she brings a personal sound and spontaneity that is completely her own. Our duo is where we can meet and distill everything else we're involved in musically to a very direct improvisational place."

Next up for Laubrock is Pieces For Orchestra With Soloists, an Intakt album slated for release in November. Pieces includes two commissioned works: Vogelfrei, which was premiered in 2014 at Roulette by Braxton's Tri-Centric Orchestra, and Contemporary Chaos Practices, which was premiered at the 2017 Moers Festival by the Cologne-based EOS Chamber Orchestra.

"[Because] the project involves 47 musicians, I count myself lucky to have been able to docu- ment both works," she said.

Stephan Crump: Good Vibrations

Originally from Memphis, Stephan Crump has been a Brooklyn resident since 1994. Crump’s abiding interest in creative improvised music has found him collaborating with many of his generation’s luminaries. Eschewing genre conventions, Crump has performed and recorded with a wide range of musicians, from Patti Austin and The Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano, to Jim Campilongo and the late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland. Currently, he can be heard as a long-standing member of Vijay Iyer’s Trio and Sextet, Rez Abbasi’s Acoustic Quartet, and Liberty Ellman’s Sextet, among others. His own ensembles include the duo project Secret Keeper (with Mary Halvorson), the all-string Rosetta Trio (with guitarists Ellman and Jamie Fox), and Rhombal, a piano-less quartet that features Ellery Eskelin, Adam O’Farrill, and Tyshawn Sorey.

Crump hails from an artistic family, and was raised in music by his Parisian mother, an amateur pianist, and his Memphis-bred father, an architect, painter, and jazz drummer. Crump, who initially studied classical piano and alto saxophone, took up the bass guitar at age 13, spending his formative years playing in rock and funk bands around Memphis. Crump received his Bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, where he studied classical contrabass technique under award-winning composer Lewis Spratlin; his collegiate jazz studies included work with Ray Drummond, Frank Foster, and Max Roach. Since embarking on a career in music, the bassist, composer, and bandleader has recorded almost a dozen sessions under his own name, along with numerous film scoring commissions.

This interview was conducted in the winter of 2017, concurrent with the release of two new albums from Intakt Records: Asteroidea, a piano trio effort featuring Kris Davis and Eric McPherson; and Planktonic Finales, the first recording by the collective of Crump, Ingrid Laubrock, and Cory Smythe.

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Troy Collins: Some biographical information might be beneficial for readers unfamiliar with your background. Your mother and father were both involved in the arts. How did that influence your becoming a musician?

Stephan Crump: My mother, who is from Paris, plays piano, and my father is an architect and painter but also an avid jazz fan and amateur drummer. I grew up in Memphis in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and while there was a lot of music in the house, there was also a lot of live music around town. And creativity, in general. I was exposed to a lot of visual art as well. My uncle, Stephen Crump, who was my childhood hero, is a wood sculptor. From my late teens into early college years, I got to work for him during the summers. His attention to detail, including painstakingly working, sanding, and finishing the wood until it’s almost like skin, as well as his playful, graceful sense of form, had a huge impact on me. In my earlier years, I also got to spend time in the backyard on weekends with my dad as he worked on large-format abstract paintings, as well as “help” him make models of his architecture projects. Also, my grandmother owned and ran a great used bookstore, Burke’s Books, and I spent a good amount of time with her there and at home. Not only did she instill in all of us a love of literature, but she was an excellent storyteller, and I remember being in her lap on the rocking chair, putting in my request for a scary story. She would weave a thrilling tale every time.

Reflecting on all this, now, from so many years later, I believe the sense of storytelling and casting the spell, along with an emphasis on sculpture and form, is as relevant to what I try to do as is all the music I’ve loved ... or almost!

Speaking of love, my first love was Stevie Wonder. Along with Stevie, my father was constantly spinning Monk, Trane, Miles, MJQ, Phineas Newborn, Jr., and other greats, and his system was just on the other side of my bedroom wall, so I was rocked to sleep by, say, Percy Heath more often than not. I always heard and wanted the bass, but my mother had me start with classical piano lessons when I was about 6 years old. It wasn’t until seventh grade that I got my first electric bass, which was a maple-glo Rickenbacker 4001, similar to those played by two of my heroes, Geddy Lee of Rush and Chris Squire of Yes. At that time, I also began a couple of years of alto saxophone in the concert band at the public school I attended. Let me pause, here, and register how thankful I am that there was a music program in the Memphis City Schools.

TC: Can you elaborate on what you feel the public-school music program offered that you don’t think you would have gained on your own, say, taking private lessons and/or playing with friends?

SC: Well, I was taking private piano lessons up until this point, in seventh grade, when I finally got my first bass, and also started with the alto. I switched to private lessons on the bass for a time, but soon moved to just learning off records and watching people, live. My olde...

A freely-improvised meeting of exceptional depth and subtlety, with few headlong rushes but lots of close listening and sympathetic dialogue. Saxophonist Laubrock's dusky tenor and fleet soprano are essential, but equally so are the patient, nuanced contributions of pianist Smythe and bassist Crump, both of whom develop the music with meticulous attention to detail and a complete willingness to surrender themselves to the group's collective sound. A captivating listen, and one that tends to reveal its charms more fully with each encounter.

https://www.allaboutjazz.com/troy-dosterts-best-releases-of-2017-by-troy-dostert

Formerly London-based, Ingrid Laubrock has subsequently established a name for herself over her eight years on Brooklyn's leftfield jazz and improv scene and has recorded prolifically with the likes of Mary Halvorson, Tom Rainey and Ralph Alessi to name a few, and more recently with Craig Taborn for last year's excellent Serpentines CD on Intakt. This recording sees her collaborate with a new set of improvisers: the Vijay lyer trio sideman Stephan Crump on double-bass and New Music- influenced improvising pianist Cory Smythe. You can see why Laubrock was motivated to pursue this line-up following a couple of impromptu rehearsals. The free- flowing energy between the three participators is highly tangible. There's a melody-driven aspect connected to the impressionistic and abstract collective ethos forming the narrative of these pieces. Containing both intense drama and conversational intimacy, it's a very listenable recording that draws from a diverse vocabulary.

This is a very nice, mostly quiet, except for "Sunlight", introspective record. I really enjoyed it. Most of the tempos are slow so the musicians get to both dig in to the pieces and also leave lots of space, a combination I like a lot.

The interplay between all three is great. Maybe because of the slower tempi, they all have time to really listen to what the others are playing.

Laubrock shows off some great chops. On "Sinew" I heard some very Dolphy like phrases, and elsewhere she gets the 80s post Coltrane phrasing down. But mostly she is herself.

Smythe provides lots of big chords as well as delicate accompaniment and Crump provides rock solid support. He really comes through with some exceptional playing on "Forest" and great arco work "Throat."

The CD ends with a very open piece. Laubrock really gets lyrical here, with excellent playing from Crump and Smythe.

A really enjoyable record.