The Squid's Ear Magazine


Borderlands Trio (Stephan Crump / Kris Davis / Eric McPherson): Asteroidea (Intakt)

The New York collective trio of bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson focuses on starfish (asteroida), which can regenerate lost sections of itself, as this band creates highly focused group compositions that use melodic elements as rhythm and vice versa, recontextualizing and transforming their confident and masterful playing.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Stephan Crump-acoustic bass

Kris Davis-piano

Eric McPherson-drums


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UPC: 7640120192952

Label: Intakt
Catalog ID: ITK295.2
Squidco Product Code: 24996

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2017
Country: Switzerland
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at The Samurai Hotel, in Queens, New York, on December 18th, 2016, by David Stoller.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Borderlands Trio, the collective effort of bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson, has luck on its side. Less than a year old, its chemistry is unusually deep. And while I don't often use the term, it's also a band that boasts a bit of magic. The album title Asteroida is the Latin term for starfish - a creature that can regenerate parts of itself whenever need be. That idea resonates with Crump because of the trio's ability to steadily develop new landscapes, and the Stephan Crump reminds that the word starfish conjures notions of both the ocean and outer space. 'Gravity, magnetism, constellations, nature. With this band, we're always expanding and contracting, recontextualizing what's around us and heading for the instantly inevitable.' Ultimately Asteroidea is a treatise on immediacy and a deep dive into the spectrum of responses made by any one gesture. Pay close attention. Its grooves are always morphing, its drama boasts moments of whimsy, and its creators are just getting started."-Jim Macnie, liner notes



"I'll venture a guess that the listing of the names on Borderlands Trio's cover is arranged in alphabetic order, Crump, Davis, then McPherson. That is because nothing in the performance reveals a leader, nor a dominant signature. For adventurous listeners, isn't that exactly what we want from our improvisors?

Let's stick with just Borderlands Trio. Asteroidea is a collective effort with each of the musicians credited for all of the music, and all of the music is improvised. The extraordinary accomplishment here is the trio's ability to fashion clear, logical, and convincing song forms from naught. That certainly is attributable to the caliber of musicians heard here. Bassist Stephan Crump is the pulse behind Vijay Iyer's Sextet and Trio and he leads his own Rosetta Trio and Rhombal quartet. Pianist Kris Davis is much in demand, performing with Eric Revis, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, leading a trio, and releasing the impressive Duopoly (Pyroclastic Records, 2016) a series of duos with eight musicians includingCraig Taborn, Bill Frisell, and Tim Berne. Drummer Eric McPherson is the motor that has made Fred Hersch's trio with John Hébert run since 2010.

Asteroidea opens with the nearly 30-minute "Borderlands," a piece that has more gears than an 18-wheeler. Davis' rhythmic opening precipitates a cascade of impulses. Her piano, which she utilizes often prepared with objects and tape, can be percussive or song-like. Then again, so can Crump's bass and McPherson's drums. Timekeeping is passed between the players, as is melody and direction. The much shorter (2:06) "Carnaval Hill" is more in the free jazz piano tradition with walking bass, energy drums, and garrulous piano. The trio might have utilized this as a reference point for pieces like "Flockwork." This piece features Davis' prepared piano morphing into a mechanical clock, the punchy "Body Waves" with Crump knocking on the wood of his bass, and McPherson handling melody, before all switches again into stark beauty. The sly grooves of "Polliwogs" are the background for popping piano notes and the the trio's eventual quieting march."-Mark Corroto, All About Jazz


Get additional information at All About Jazz

Artist Biographies

"Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated bassist/composer Stephan Crump has lived in Brooklyn since 1994. An active bandleader and composer, he has released ten critically-acclaimed albums in addition to numerous film scoring contributions. As bassist, known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, his focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many of the leading lights of his generation.

Shunning barriers of genre, Crump has performed and recorded with a diverse range of musicians, from Portishead's Dave McDonald, The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, to Patti Austin, Jim Campilongo, Jorma Kaukonen, Lucy Kaplansky, Big Ass Truck, Sonny Fortune, and late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland. Currently, he can be heard as a long-standing member of Vijay Iyer Trio and Sextet, Jen Chapin Band, Ches Smith Trio, Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Liberty Ellman Sextet, Secret Keeper (with Mary Halvorson), his own Rosetta Trio, as well as groups with Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, Eric McPherson, Mat Maneri, and Okkyung Lee.

Stephan comes from a family of architects, sculptors, painters, storytellers, musicians, civic leaders, and craftsmen. He was raised in music and the arts by his Parisian mother, an amateur pianist, and his Memphian father, an architect, painter, and jazz drummer. After six years of classical piano study and two years with the alto saxophone, he got his first bass guitar at age thirteen and spent his high school years playing in rock and funk bands around Memphis. During the summers, he worked in the studio of his uncle, Stephen, a wood sculptor.

Crump received his Bachelor of Music degree from Amherst College, where he studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlin and was awarded the Sundquist Prize for performance and composition. It was at Amherst that he began his acoustic bass journey, with a focus on classical training that culminated in a year of study in Paris with Gary Karr-protégé Patrick Hardouineau. His jazz studies at Amherst included work with Max Roach, Frank Foster, and Ray Drummond.

Crump launched his solo performance career as an invited artist at the 2009 International Society of Bassists conference and has since released several recordings documenting his duo collaborations with alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, pianist James Carney, and guitarist Mary Halvorson. His all-string Rosetta Trio, with Jamie Fox and Liberty Ellman, is working toward their fourth album, while and his Rhombal quartet, with Tyshawn Sorey, Ellery Eskelin, and Adam O'Farrill, recently released its eponymous debut.

Stephan is an enthusiastic endorser of Velvet strings, Aguilar bass amplifiers, AMT acoustic bass microphones, and David Gage Czech Ease travel bass."

-Stephan Crump Website (http://stephancrump.com/about/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers "uncommon creative adventure," according to JazzTimes. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-residing Davis was dubbed one of the music's top up-and-comers in a 2012 New York Times article titled "New Pilots at the Keyboard," with the newspaper saying: "Over the past couple years in New York, one method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis." Reviewing one of the series of striking albums Davis has released over the past half-decade, the Chicago Sun-Times lauded the "sense of kaleidoscopic possibilities" in her playing and compositions.

Long favored by her peers and jazz fans in the know, Davis has earned high praise from no less than star pianist and MacArthur "Genius" Grant honoree Jason Moran, who included her in his Best of 2012 piece in Art Forum, writing: "A freethinking, gifted pianist on the scene, Davis lives in each note that she plays. Her range is impeccable; she tackles prepared piano, minimalism and jazz standards, all under one umbrella. I consider her an honorary descendant of Cecil Taylor and a welcome addition to the fold."

The newest album from Davis as a leader is Capricorn Climber (Clean Feed, 2013), with the pianist joined by kindred spirits Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Mat Maneri (viola), Trevor Dunn (double-bass) and Tom Rainey (drums). Davis made her debut on record as a leader with Lifespan (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003), followed by three progressively inventive and acclaimed albums for the Fresh Sound label: the quartet discs The Slightest Shift (2006) and Rye Eclipse (2008), then the trio set Good Citizen (2010). Davis's 2011 solo piano album on Clean Feed, Aeriol Piano, appeared on Best of the Year lists in The New York Times, JazzTimes and Art Forum. Davis wrote the extraordinary arrangements for saxophonist-composer Tony Malaby's nonet project Novela, with the album Novela released by Clean Feed in 2011 and appearing on Best of the Year lists in DownBeat and JazzTimes. The pianist is also part of the collaborative Paradoxical Frog with Laubrock and drummer Tyshawn Sorey; their eponymous 2011 album on Clean Feed was included on Best of the Year lists by National Public Radio, The New York Times and All About Jazz.

In addition to her work as a leader, Davis has performed with such top figures as Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, John Hollenbeck, Michael Formanek and Mary Halvorson. Davis started playing piano at age 6, studying classical music through the Royal Conservatory in Canada and formulating her desire for a life in music by playing in the school jazz band at age 12. She earned a bachelor's degree in Jazz Piano from the University of Toronto and attended the Banff Centre for the Arts jazz program in 1997 and 2000. The pianist received a Canada Council grant to relocate to New York and study composition with Jim McNeely, then another to study extended piano techniques with Benoit Delbecq in Paris. She holds a master's in Classical Composition from the City College of New York, and she teaches at the School for Improvised Music.

The Jazz Gallery has given Davis a commissioning residency to write for her trio with Rainey and John Hébert to take place in May 2013, and the Shifting Foundation awarded her a grant to compose and record a large-ensemble project. About her art, JazzTimes has declared: "Davis draws you in so effortlessly that the brilliance of what she's doing doesn't hit you until the piece has slipped past." "

-Kris Davis Website (http://krisdavis.net/bio/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"A native of NYC, Eric McPherson came to prominence apprenticing with legendary saxophonist and educator, Jackie Mclean, and innovative pianist and composer Andrew Hill. Those foundational experiences cultivated Eric into one of the leading drummers in contemporary creative music. Eric continues the legacy of the musical giants who came before him. As well as performing and teaching internationally with an array of today's leading contemporary creative musicians, Eric teaches privately and at the University of Hartford's, Jackie Mclean institute."

-Smalls Live (https://www.smallslive.com/artists/222-eric-mcpherson/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Borderlands 26:32

2. Carnaval Hill 2:06

3. Flockwork 7:52

4. Ochre 3:41

5. Body Waves 6:32

6. From Pollywogs 6:00

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings
Intakt
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Piano Trio (Piano Bass Drums)

Search for other titles on the label:
Intakt.


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