Craig Taborn

An award-winning pianist who leads ensembles and contributes as a sideman, Craig Taborn possesses technical command, intellectual curiosity, and broad stylistic range that have drawn him into partnerships with numerous established figures across contemporary jazz. While still a student he made his professional entrance alongside the James Carter Quartet, after which he expanded his palette to embrace synthesizers and organ, thereby attracting an ever-widening circle of collaborators. His singular approach, first documented on the 2011 ECM solo outing Avenging Angel, draws upon the legacies of pianists from Duke Ellington and Cecil Taylor through Thelonious Monk, Ran Blake, and Sun Ra; within this framework he pursues polyrhythmic invention and wide harmonic scope, the latter often conveyed through deliberate restraint, maintaining a focused presence that avoids self-display.

Daylight Ghosts, one of three leader albums he issued in 2017, surveyed his aesthetic range through freely inclined collective improvisations, introspective chamber works, and unhurried quartet soundscapes. Two years afterward he and Vijay Iyer documented a live recital as Transitory Poems for ECM. He joined the Steve Lehman Trio for The People I Love, then in 2020 released Octopus, drawn from a 2016 live duet with pianist Kris Davis. The next year he issued the digital collection 60 x Sixty, comprising sixty one-minute pieces intended for playback in any sequence across a single hour. ECM documented another fully improvised solo recital, Shadow Plays, recorded at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, in March 2020.

In his native Minneapolis Taborn studied piano, composition, and music theory with local university faculty prior to enrolling at the University of Michigan. Before completing his degree he entered the James Carter Quartet and appeared on three of its recordings. Upon receiving a liberal-arts diploma in 1995, DIW issued his first leader effort, The Craig Taborn Trio. He subsequently relocated to New York City, where by the end of the decade he had contributed to two further Carter projects, Roscoe Mitchell’s 1999 ECM album Nine to Get Ready, Detroiter Carl Craig’s techno-jazz endeavor Innerzone Orchestra, and Hugh Ragin’s Afternoon in Harlem. His second release, the 2001 piano-trio date Light Made Lighter, appeared on Thirsty Ear.

Throughout the following decade Taborn emerged as one of New York’s most sought-after musicians. Although his tenure with James Carter concluded, associations with Roscoe Mitchell and Hugh Ragin persisted, and he forged an enduring partnership with Tim Berne. Additional projects included work with Drew Gress, Chris Potter, Dave Douglas, and Mat Maneri on the jazz front, alongside engagements for Bill Laswell and Meat Beat Manifesto. In 2004 he issued Junk Magic on Thirsty Ear, departing from conventional piano-trio format to integrate diverse electronic components; the album has since been viewed as a landmark intersection of jazz and electronica. The late 2000s brought continued activity with Berne across multiple configurations, including those involving David Torn, as well as recordings for David Binney, Eivind Opsvik, and longtime college associate Gerald Cleaver.

In 2007 he recorded with fellow Minnesotans Dave King (of Bad Plus and Happy Apple) and Greg Norton (of Hüsker Dü) under the name Gang Font. Appearances on several ECM sessions toward the decade’s close, alongside David Torn, Roscoe Mitchell, Evan Parker, and Michael Formanek, attracted the attention of Manfred Eicher, resulting in Taborn’s signing to the label. His debut solo-piano album for ECM, Avenging Angel, surfaced in 2011. That same year he formed the trio Farmers by Nature with bassist William Parker and Cleaver, documenting Out of This World’s Distortions for AUM Fidelity. Chants, his second ECM release, followed in April 2013. He subsequently joined saxophonist Chris Potter’s Underground Orchestra for 2015’s Imaginary Cities and appeared the next year on drummer Ches Smith’s The Bell. Also in 2016 Taborn issued Flaga: The Book of Angels, Vol. 27 on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records alongside bassist Christian McBride and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. In 2017 he returned with his third ECM album, the quartet recording Daylight Ghosts, featuring saxophonist Chris Speed, bassist Chris Lightcap, and drummer Dave King.

Taborn and pianist Vijay Iyer had both participated in Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory on the 2002 Pi Recordings release Song for My Sister and continued separate associations with Mitchell thereafter. In 2018 they presented a live improvised concert at Budapest’s Franz Liszt Recital Hall, paying tribute to recently departed influences including Cecil Taylor, Geri Allen, and Muhal Richard Abrams; ECM issued the unedited performance in March 2019 as The Transitory Poems. That August Taborn appeared as featured collaborator with the Steve Lehman Trio, expanded to a quartet, on the Pi Recordings album The People I Love.

Later that autumn Intakt released The Golden Valley Is Now, an electro-acoustic supergroup session uniting Taborn with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King of Bad Plus. Their acquaintance originated in 1982 in their shared hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, marking the first occasion the three had recorded together. Shorter pieces composed by Anderson or King were conceived to form a cohesive whole exceeding its individual parts.

In 2020 Taborn and pianist Kris Davis issued Octopus on Pyroclastic Records, compiled from three live duo concerts given in 2016. In September 2021 he made available the free digital recording 60 x Sixty, a set of sixty one-minute electronic compositions meant to be performed or streamed in any sequence over the span of an hour. In October, ECM released Shadow Plays, documenting a fully improvised solo recital captured live at Vienna’s Konzerthaus.