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Craig Taborn
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, CRAIG TABORN has been performing piano and electronic music in the jazz, improvisational, and creative music scene for over twenty five years. He has experience composing for and performing in a wide variety of situations including jazz, new music, electronic, rock, noise and avant garde contexts.
Taborn has played and recorded with many luminaries in the fields of jazz, improvised, new music and electronic music including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Lester Bowie, Dave Holland, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Evan Parker, Steve Coleman, David Torn, Chris Potter, William Parker, Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, Nicole Mitchell, Susie Ibarra, Ikue Mori, Carl Craig, Dave Douglas, Meat Beat Manifesto, Dan Weiss, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver, and Rudresh Manhathappa.
Taborn is currently occupied creating and performing music for solo piano performance (Avenging Angel), piano trio (Craig Taborn Trio), an electronic project (Junk Magic), the Daylight Ghosts Quartet, a piano/drums/electronics duo with Dave King (Heroic Enthusiasts) and a new trio with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith as well as piano duo collaborations with Vijay Iyer (The Transitory Poems), Kris Davis (Octopus) and Cory Smythe. He is also a member of the instrumental electronic art-pop group Golden Valley is Now and performs frequently on solo electronics.
His conceptual work 60 x Sixty is now available worldwide, for free at 60xSixty.com
Craig lives in Brooklyn.
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Craig Taborn e Borderlands Trio a Roma
by Giuseppe Segala
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 ...
read moreChris Potter: Got The Keys To The Kingdom: Live At The Village Vanguard
by Ian Patterson
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 ...
read moreRob Mazurek Exploding Star Orchestra: Lightning Dreamers
by Mark Corroto
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 ...
read moreChris Potter: Got The Keys To The Kingdom (Live At The Village Vanguard)
by Chris May
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 ...
read moreJazzMI 2022 - VII Edizione
by Paolo Peviani
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, ...
read moreChes Smith: Interpret It Well
by Mike Jurkovic
A short list of the fellow travelers who New York drummer, vibraphonist & percussionist Ches Smith has journeyed alongside—Tim Berne, Kris Davis, John Zorn, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, David Torn—should give a hint to the many places he went with his latest experiment Interpret It Well. On this second go round with pianist & keyboardist Craig Taborn and violist Mat Maneri—their first was 2016's still vibrating, The Bell (ECM)—Smith deputizes the ubiquitous musings of guitarist Bill Frisell. Then, ...
read moreChes Smith: Interpret It Well
by Karl Ackermann
Ches Smith's extraordinary Path of Seven Colors (Pyroclastic Records, 2021) was a breakout recording that placed the drummer/composer at the top of many year-end lists. His sophomore outing on Kris Davis' label bears little similarity to his Pyroclastic debut beyond the artist's knack for discovering unexplored terrain. Interpret It Well reunites the trio of pianist Craig Taborn, violist Mat Maneri, and Smith (The Bell (ECM, 2016)) and adds guitarist Bill Frisell. With these master improvisers in place, Smith ...
read moreJazz this week: Bill Charlap, Kris Davis & Craig Taborn, Jason Marsalis, and more
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
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
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Michael Ricci
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 This Week: Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn, Joey Defrancesco Trio, Matt Wilson's Christmas Tree-O, and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
As 2014 marches inexorably toward its conclusion, it's shaping up to be another busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis. This week's noteworthy performances include a visit from one of the top jazz organists in the business; the long-awaited return of a major jazz innovator, in duo with one of today's most in-demand keyboardists; plus a whole lot of holiday-themed jazz, and more. Let's go to the highlights.... Tonight, organist Joey DeFrancesco and his trio return to ...
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New Music Circle 2014-15 Season to Include Roscoe Mitchell and Craig Taborn, Tim Berne, Thumbscrew, and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
New Music Circle has announced their 2014-15 season, with seven concerts featuring what looks to be an intriguing mix of edgy jazz and improvised music, electronics, and contemporary composition. The schedule kicks off with a concert by Thumbscrew, featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, on Friday, September 12 at Joe's Cafe, the “house concert" venue at 6014 Kingsbury Ave in the Central West End. All NYC-based, Thumbscrew's members first worked together as the rhythm section ...
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Jazz Face: Craig Taborn, Jazz's "Avenging Angel"
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JazzINK by Andrea Canter
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)
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Something Else!
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)
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Something Else!
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)
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Music and More by Tim Niland
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"
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ECM Records
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
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JazzINK by Andrea Canter
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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Devin Gray
drums
Roman Stolyar
piano
Freysteinn Gíslason
bass, acoustic
Alex Koo
piano
Julius Windisch
piano
Grzegorz Tarwid
piano
Kuba Wójcik
guitarPhotos
Music
Interpret It Well
From: Interpret It WellBy Craig Taborn
Dream and Guess
From: Compass ConfusionBy Craig Taborn
Light Made Lighter
From: Light Made LighterBy Craig Taborn
Mystero
From: Junk MagicBy Craig Taborn
Videos
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Craig Taborn
Location: New York City
Instrument: Piano
Born: February 20, 1970
