Marilyn Crispell / Damon Smith / Jason Stein / Adam Shead
© Mike Borella / Avant Music News
By its very nature any time a working ensemble, even one fully devoted to improvised music, is joined by another musician its modus operandi can’t help by change. While no performance the trio of Chicago bass clarinetist, drummer Adam Shead, and St. Louis bassist Damon Smith has ever been quite the same, since forming in 2021 the trio had forged a tight bond and developed a highly effective approach informed by fundamental elements of jazz tradition and a fiery desire to create anew with every gathering.
On the other hand, the art of improvisation has always thrived upon new input, novel challenges, and changing circumstances. Long an admirer of legendary pianist Marilyn Crispell—the singular musician who’s worked with Anthony Braxton, Joe Lovano, and Fred Anderson, among countless others, without every surrendering her instantly recognizable voice—Damon Smith later learned they shared an abiding an interest in visual artist Cy Twombly, and discussions of how his work applied to their own aesthetic ideas led the pair to discuss how a collaboration inspired by such ideas might look. That discussion led Smith to invite the pianist to join forces with Chicago bandmates.
It's a sterling multi-generational project that uses instant communication to bridge experiences. Crispell has always worked with a wide array of collaborators, regularly embracing partnerships with musicians decades younger than her. Like Crispell, the members of the trio have their unique influences and sweet spots, but the act of spontaneous creation bridges any such differences.
In June of 2023 the musicians gathered for a studio session along with performances in Madison, Wisconsin, and subsequently, in Chicago, where the group recorded Live at the Hungry Brain. While spi-raling horn, the studio session releases in 2024 leaned toward shorter excursions built around a small array of gambits and ideas, the remarkable live performances captured two long-form pieces where the ensemble had the space and time to spread out and dig in. Despite having forged its own internal language, each part of the equation operates with openness, adjusting and expanding its respective sound worlds. The interactions spin in multiple directions, leading the trio to occasionally veer a bit closer to the deeply lyric post-Coltrane wanderlust Crispell thrives within, unspooling gorgeously dynamic streams of tender melody in “A Borderless Event A,” even with Shead stoking tension with his jagged brushwork. Later in the same piece the music is given fierce propulsion, with Smith and Shead generating churning, kinetic energy. In some ways it’s Stein that binds everything together, his endlessly fluid playing retaining an equanimity through serenity and chaos.
https://www.balancepointacoustics.com/damon-smith/
https://www.jasonsteinmusic.com/
https://www.adamsheadmusic.com/
On the other hand, the art of improvisation has always thrived upon new input, novel challenges, and changing circumstances. Long an admirer of legendary pianist Marilyn Crispell—the singular musician who’s worked with Anthony Braxton, Joe Lovano, and Fred Anderson, among countless others, without every surrendering her instantly recognizable voice—Damon Smith later learned they shared an abiding an interest in visual artist Cy Twombly, and discussions of how his work applied to their own aesthetic ideas led the pair to discuss how a collaboration inspired by such ideas might look. That discussion led Smith to invite the pianist to join forces with Chicago bandmates.
It's a sterling multi-generational project that uses instant communication to bridge experiences. Crispell has always worked with a wide array of collaborators, regularly embracing partnerships with musicians decades younger than her. Like Crispell, the members of the trio have their unique influences and sweet spots, but the act of spontaneous creation bridges any such differences.
In June of 2023 the musicians gathered for a studio session along with performances in Madison, Wisconsin, and subsequently, in Chicago, where the group recorded Live at the Hungry Brain. While spi-raling horn, the studio session releases in 2024 leaned toward shorter excursions built around a small array of gambits and ideas, the remarkable live performances captured two long-form pieces where the ensemble had the space and time to spread out and dig in. Despite having forged its own internal language, each part of the equation operates with openness, adjusting and expanding its respective sound worlds. The interactions spin in multiple directions, leading the trio to occasionally veer a bit closer to the deeply lyric post-Coltrane wanderlust Crispell thrives within, unspooling gorgeously dynamic streams of tender melody in “A Borderless Event A,” even with Shead stoking tension with his jagged brushwork. Later in the same piece the music is given fierce propulsion, with Smith and Shead generating churning, kinetic energy. In some ways it’s Stein that binds everything together, his endlessly fluid playing retaining an equanimity through serenity and chaos.
RELEASES
LINKS
https://www.marilyncrispell.com/https://www.balancepointacoustics.com/damon-smith/
https://www.jasonsteinmusic.com/
https://www.adamsheadmusic.com/
