Marilyn Crispell

Artist ∙ Jazz

A highly inventive pianist known for her extensive work in avant-garde jazz, Marilyn Crispell emerged as an adventurous soloist and composer on the free scene in the early '80s. Influenced by John Coltrane and Cecil Taylor, she gained acclaim as a member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet during the 1980s and '90s, and with artists like Reggie Workman, Barry Guy, and Roscoe Mitchell. She has also led her own ambitious dates, like 1982's Spirit Music with Billy Bang, 1990's Circles with Oliver Lake and Gerry Hemingway, and 2013's Azure, a duo recording with longtime associate Gary Peacock. Since the '70s, Crispell has retained an ongoing association with the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, New York, where she performs and leads improvisation workshops. Along with duo albums like 2019's Adornment of Time with Tyshawn Sorey and 2021's Streams with Yuma Uesaka, Crispell records as a member of Joe Lovano's Trio Tapestry.

January 28, 2021 at PST
Garden of Expression
Following up his 2019 ECM debut, Trio Tapestry, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano reunites with two of the finest improvisers in the field on Garden of Expression. Pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi lend their sensitivity and attuned instincts to this set of eight Lovano originals, soaring over expansive, out-of-tempo soundscapes akin to those of the previous album. It’s a language of lyrical melody and open space, with rich, unfolding harmony from the piano and sparse texture and flow from the drums and cymbals—not to mention the gongs that Lovano introduces on “Garden of Expression,” “Treasured Moments,” and the closer, “Zen Like.” Playing a bit of soprano sax and tárogató as well, Lovano covers a spectrum, from the impressionistic modernism of “Night Creatures” to the almost medieval-sounding structures of the title track. “Dream on That” raises the temperature and gets busier, a glimmer of free-jazz energy amid a prevailing calm.
8 Tracks
January 24, 2019 at PST
Trio Tapestry
As significant as Joe Lovano’s appearances on ECM have been, particularly with departed greats Paul Motian and John Abercrombie, it took a number of years for the tenor saxophone master to issue his debut for the venerated label. The result, Trio Tapestry, is strikingly divergent from the New Yorker's swing-intensive Trio Fascination efforts from an earlier period. The sparse and meditative aura he creates with pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi is something to get lost in, though there’s structural integrity in the abstract compositions and an interior dissonance and tension lurking throughout. The acclaimed Crispell, joining Lovano for the first time on record, brings a beautiful clarity of touch but also a propensity to trouble the waters like the free improviser she is. Castaldi, from Lovano’s “Street Band” of years past, has a loose, less-is-more approach but can stir up storms on pieces like “Spirit Lake” and “The Smiling Dog.” On “Mystic,” a dreamlike duet, his mallet textures are like distant thunder, in dialogue with Lovano’s evocative gongs and tarogato (a clarinet-like Hungarian woodwind).
11 Tracks
May 4, 2023 at PDT
Our Daily Bread
8 Tracks
March 18, 2001 at PST
Amaryllis
12 Tracks
April 14, 2008 at PDT
Vignettes
The underrated jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell was a regular member of the Anthony Braxton Quartet for 15 years. Her influences include Cecil Taylor and Paul Bley, but listening to this 2008 solo piano album, it’s hard not to think of Crispell’s classical background — she graduated from the New England Conservatory and didn’t start playing jazz until she was almost 30. Vignettes is a showcase for Crispell’s wonderfully far-ranging improvisations. With its Eastern scales “Gathering Light” evokes a jazzier version of Terry Riley; Keith Jarrett’s work also comes to mind. The mellow track is followed by “Vignette 2,” where the piano’s strings are used to nice effect and the space between notes looms large in a Morton Feldman sort of way. “Vignette 3” is a brief, edgy scramble of agitated notes, while “Vignette 4” opens with dark, thick voicings that give way to captivating upper register plinks. In addition to performing her own pieces, Crispell covers works by two other composers: Arve Hendriksen’s folk-inflected “Stilleweg” and Jayna Nelson’s lyrical “Cuida Tu Espiritu.”
17 Tracks
August 31, 1997 at PDT
Nothing Ever Was, Anyway - Music of Annette Peacock
13 Tracks
June 13, 2013 at PDT
Azure
11 Tracks
December 31, 1991 at PST
(Willisau) 1991 Studio [feat. Anthony Braxton, Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser & Gerry Hemingway]
10 Tracks
October 1, 2020 at PDT
How to Turn the Moon
10 Tracks
June 20, 2019 at PDT
Dreamstruck
10 Tracks
July 9, 1987 at PDT
For Coltrane
7 Tracks
May 13, 2010 at PDT
One Dark Night I Left My Silent House
One Dark Night I Left My Silent House finds two distinctive musicians engaging in a set of hard-to-classify improvisations. Pianist Marilyn Crispell, who played with Anthony Braxton for many years and also performs contemporary classical pieces, has more recently turned to a pared-down approach in her work. Philosopher and clarinetist David Rothenberg’s writing about nature includes Why Birds Sing and Thousand Mile Song, a book about playing music with whales; he also was the editor of the wonderful journal Terra Nova. On much of One Dark Night, Rothenberg plays bass clarinet, an instrument on which he displays an exquisite tone. In addition to acoustic piano, Crispell utilizes a soundboard that was taken out of a baby grand, and percussion. Morton Feldman, free jazz, and the European improv tradition spring to mind listening to this quietly gripping album. There is something pure about the music presented here: a sense of in-the-moment exploration of sound for sound’s sake. The listener is left to soak up the timbre of sensitively struck material, the changing shape of a single woodwind note, and other remarkable nuances.
13 Tracks
May 1, 2016 at PDT
Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 - 2nd Set [feat. Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser & Gerry Hemingway]
2 Tracks
October 14, 2021 at PDT
Streams
6 Tracks
February 29, 2016 at PST
In Motion
10 Tracks
November 8, 2018 at PST
Dream Libretto
12 Tracks
August 31, 2016 at PDT
Deep Memory
7 Tracks
March 29, 2015 at PDT
Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 - 1st Set [feat. Marilyn Crispell, Mark Dresser & Gerry Hemingway]
2 Tracks
October 22, 2001 at PDT
Natives and Aliens
11 Tracks
October 19, 1989 at PDT
Live In San Francisco
10 Tracks
December 8, 2014 at PST
Beautiful Empty Fullness (feat. Marilyn Crispell)
12 Tracks
March 1, 2018 at PST
Grenseland
8 Tracks
April 14, 2015 at PDT
Table of Changes
8 Tracks
December 31, 1988 at PST
The Kitchen Concerts
6 Tracks
December 31, 1998 at PST
Quartet Noir
8 Tracks

Marilyn Crispell

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