Walker Art Center presents
Kris Davis’s Diatom Ribbons and Davis/Taborn Duo
Thursday, March 9, 2023
8:00 pm
McGuire Theater
Octopus
KRIS DAVIS and CRAIG TABORN, pianos
[Pause]
DIATOM RIBBONS
KRIS DAVIS, piano
TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON, drums
DJ VAL JEANTY, DJ, turntable, electronics
TREVOR DUNN, bass
Compositions for both performances will be announced from the stage.
Tonight’s concert runs approximately 90 minutes.
ABOUT OCTOPUS
An oceangoing organism with one brain and eight independent neuron-bearing limbs is the perfect image to invoke for a rather intense collection of piano duets. (Jazz Times)
Kris Davis and Craig Taborn first played together on a single track of Davis’ acclaimed 2016 release Duopoly. Shortly after, the like-minded pianists embarked on a 12 day U.S. tour, recording each performance. Their 2017 release, Octopus, documents a number of performances from that tour and features compositions by Carla Bley, Sun Ra, Davis, and Taborn.
ABOUT DIATOM RIBBONS
In 2019, Kris Davis’ Diatom Ribbons was named jazz album of the year by both the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Featuring Grammy award-winning drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, Haitian turntablist Val Jeanty, guitarist Julian Lage, and bassist Trevor Dunn, Davis draws from the musical worlds of free improvisation, spoken word, electronica, mainstream jazz, R&B and rock. The quintet will release a double-album on September 1, 2023, entitled Live at the Village Vanguard featuring compositions by Davis, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Geri Allen, and Wayne Shorter.
About the Artists
KRIS DAVIS is a Grammy award-winning pianist and composer described by the New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz on a given night.” Davis has released 23 recordings as a leader or co-leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, and Esperanza Spalding. She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021. Davis is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and the founder of Pyroclastic Records. Davis is a Steinway Artist.
NEA Jazz Master and four-time Grammy award-winning drummer, producer, and educator, TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON started her professional career in Massachusetts at 10 years old. After studying under a full scholarship at Berklee College of Music, Carrington worked as an in-demand musician in New York City, and later moved to Los Angeles, where she gained recognition on late night TV as the house drummer for both the Arsenio Hall Show and Quincy Jones’ VIBE TV show, hosted by Sinbad. To date, Ms. Carrington has performed on over 100 recordings and has been a role model and advocate for young women and men internationally through her teaching and touring careers. She has toured or recorded with luminary artists such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, Woody Shaw, Clark Terry, Diana Krall, Cassandra Wilson, Dianne Reeves, James Moody, Yellowjackets, Esperanza Spalding, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, and Nancy Wilson. Carrington is the founder and Artistic Director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, which recruits, teaches, mentors, and advocates for musicians seeking to study jazz with racial justice and gender justice as guiding principles.
VAL JEANTY, also known as Val-Inc, is a Haitian electronic music composer, drummer/turntablist, and professor at Berklee College of Music. Jeanty is a pioneer of the electronic music sub-genre called Afro-Electronica (also called “Vodou-Electro”), incorporating Haitian folkloric culture with digital instrumentations. She uses technology to lead listeners into her dream-like expressionism of Afro-Electronica Soundscapes. Jeanty’s performances include The Whitney Museum, The Museum of Modern Art and internationally at The Venice Biennale, Saalfelden in Austria and Haus der Kulturen in Berlin. She is the recipient of various grants including the Van Lier Fellow in 2018, the New York State Council of the Arts/ New Music USA grant in 2019 and the Toulmin Fellowship in 2022.
TREVOR DUNN has lived in Brooklyn, NY since 2000 and can be heard on over 150 recordings including original film music Four Films (Tzadik), his rock band MadLove (Ipecac), and a collection of chamber music Nocturnes (Tzadik) featuring a string quartet and solo piano pieces. He co-founded the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle and has released as albums as a leader on Tzadik and Pyroclastic Records. He can be heard with John Zorn, Endangered Blood, Nels Cline Singers, Tomahawk, Dan Weiss, and The Melvins with whom in 2012 he toured all 50 States in 50 days.
Born in Minneapolis, CRAIG TABORN has been performing piano and electronic music in the jazz, improvisational, and creative music scene for over 25 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. His conceptual work 60 x Sixty is now available worldwide, for free at 60xSixty.com. Craig lives in Brooklyn.
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