Pianist Kris Davis' new year's resolution for 2019 was, she says, "the same as everyone's: go to the gym. But I've kept at it." It's a modest resolution given the year she had: a new record that could well prove to be worthy of the signifier "career defining", if not "pivotal"; a new job at Berklee College of Music aimed, in part, at redefining gender norms in jazz; and a new nonprofit to support the record label she launched in 2016.

It was a stellar year for an artist who-at least since her leader debut, the boldly titled Lifespan, issued on Fresh Sound-New Talent in 2004-has proven herself to be a thoughtful composer and a performer just as capable of simple sentiment as she is intellectual musculature. It was also a year of making good on the serious statement of intent (of a sort) she made in 2016 with Duopoly, a CD/DVD set of duets with such major players as Tim Berne, Don Byron, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage and Angelica Sanchez and the first release on her Pyroclastic imprint. She followed that with a memorable set of duets with fellow pianist Craig Taborn in 2018 and then the remarkable Diatom Ribbons, which topped last year's critic Best-Of lists. "I was surprised people loved the record so much," she said of her most recent record, chatting in a West Village café the afternoon of a tribute to pianist Geri Allen at Bethany Baptist Church in Newark. "You never know when you put something out. I'm just interested to see where this will go, all the success around the album."

The modest pianist is careful, though, about counting her chickens, even the ones that have hatched already. She learned that lesson in 2011, after being named "one of four young pianists on the rise in the jazz scene" by The New York Times. "I was like, oh wow, stuff's gonna happen now," she laughed. "And then, nothing happened. But seeds are planted."
Davis arrived in New York City in 2001, having met some figures on the New York scene (Sanchez, trumpeter Dave Ballou and saxophonist Tony Malaby) at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity's International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music, which she attended in 1997 and again in 2000. Born in Calgary, about an hour's drive from Banff, Davis started piano at 6 and joined her school's jazz band at 13. Her instructor saw something in her and introduced her to some of the contemporary greats, notably Herbie Hancock-era Miles Davis records. Those early lessons of playing the repertoire while transcribing Hancock solos may have been an early lesson in traversing styles and communities. Early classical schooling later led her to creating variations on a work by György Ligeti and writing a piece for Luciano Berio, two major figures of 20th Century European composition. An
upbringing in mainstream jazz gave her a focus and musicality apparent in her improvisations. Likewise, working with different communities of musicians in New York led to the cross-pollinated
hybrids of Diatom Ribbons. The album is built around a trio with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington (who has booked time in the bands of Hancock, Stan Getz and Wayne Shorter, to name a few) and turntablist Val Jeanty (Tracie Morris, Wallace Roney), both of whom
also played with the late Allen. Added to that core unit are players from Davis' downtown stream, including Malaby, guitarists Nels Cline and Marc Ribot, bassist Trevor Dunn and Ches Smith, heard exclusively on vibraphone. Ensuring eclecticism, the album also includes a dedication to Cecil Taylor and a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks read by bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding. Part of the experiment, she said, was to bring her more recent associates in the Allen stream and her older, downtown improv partners into the same circle. "I was becoming part of this community of musicians, friends," she said. "I wanted to bring these two groups of people together and I felt like I had to write something that brought those sensibilities together."

Diatom Ribbons was a year in the making, between assembling the musicians, researching, writing and listening. Youssou N'Dour and Olivier Messiaen were on heavy rotation while she was conceiving the album, as was the free jazz funk of Ornette Coleman. Asked if the unusual mix was a project or a new pursuit, Davis called it a "new direction" and is imagining composing an album for the trio of Carrington, Jeanty and herself next.

Carrington played another part in Davis' big year. The drummer holds the Zildjian Chair in Performance at Berklee's Global Jazz Institute in Boston. She was also, not incidentally, the first woman to win a Grammy for Jazz Instrumental Album with her 2013 album Money Jungle: Provocative in Blue, in which she reworked the legendary Duke Ellington/Charles Mingus/Max Roach session for octet. In 2018, Carrington founded Berklee's Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice with the mission of raising awareness of gender disparities within jazz performance and inspiring and developing young musicians through education and mentorship. In ...

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.

****

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 older brother, Patrick, played guita...