Product Description
-------------------
Craig Taborn makes his distinguished contribution to the great
solo piano tradition at ECM first established by the like of
Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea and Paul Bley with the highly original
AVENGING ANGEL.
From the Artist
---------------
"If the areas of improvisation that I deal with are always
`compositional' in a certain sense, in this case a very focussed
compositional approach is applied, rather than allowing a broader
exploration to yield a result. Throughout this I'm
honing in on specific details. The music is really improvised: I
just start. But having started, I try to relate everything that
happens, like the motivic or rhythmic and textural detail, to the
initial ideas as closely as I can. In terms of my own playing I
try to have things emerge from the musical material itself. And a
lot of that can depend on the instrument, too [in Lugano, a
Steinway D]: the sound of the piano itself and what it is
generating. I'm interested in the history of piano music,
certainly, but I'm not hearing the instrument quite in those
terms. I'm experiencing it also as a pure sound source, very
aware of the tones and the overtones and how the instrument is
ringing. This music is not about `transcending the piano' as much
as it is about working with what is possible within it. "
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About the Artist
----------------
Avenging Angel, a powerful, creative and rigorously
uncompromising album, is the first unaccompanied solo disc in
Craig Taborn's discography as well as the first ECM
issued under his name. The album was recorded in the exceptional
acoustic of the recital room at Lugano's Studio RSI, with Manfred
Eicher producing.
The disc follows several distinguished `sideman' appearances for
ECM, including three Roscoe Mitchell albums - Nine To Get Ready,
Composition / Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 and the recent Far Side
- as well as Michael Formanek's The Rub and Spare Change, Evan
Parker's Boustrophedon and David Torn's Prezens. Taborn (born
1970) has been widely-valued for his resourcefulness as an
improviser, in and out of the jazz tradition, since the early
1990s, when his work with saxophonist James Carter's groups drew
the attention of musicians, press and listeners alike. His own
groups have since explored a range of options, and he's also been
at the forefront of experiments cross referencing jazz and
electronics. In this regard his 2004 album Junk Magic (on the
Thirsty Ear label), has been cited as a pioneering work, and
Craig has repeatedly been voted #1 Rising Star Keyboardist in the
DownBeat Critics Poll.
In the last few years, however, solo piano performance has become
a priority for Craig Taborn. "If the areas of improvisation that
I deal with are always `compositional' in a certain sense, in
this case a very focussed compositional approach is applied,
rather than allowing a broader exploration to yield a result.
Throughout this I'm honing in on specific details. The
music is really improvised: I just start. But having started, I
try to relate everything that happens, like the motivic or
rhythmic and textural detail, to the initial ideas as closely as
I can. In terms of my own playing I try to have things emerge
from the musical material itself. And a lot of that can depend on
the instrument, too [in Lugano, a Steinway D]: the sound of the
piano itself and what it is generating. I'm interested in the
history of piano music, certainly, but I'm not hearing the
instrument quite in those terms. I'm experiencing it also as a
pure sound source, very aware of the tones and the overtones and
how the instrument is ringing. This music is not about
`transcending the piano' as much as it is about working with what
is possible within it. "
Amongst the album's striking characteristics is the way in which
Taborn balances density of sound-events and structural clarity.
"I like transparency and I like the details to be clear. But I
also like layering the sounds: I like a complex palette, multiple
voices, multiple rhythms, but I also want to be able to discern
things, including all the spectral details that come up. "
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