For those not aware, pianist Kris Davis, has made her mark internationally as a master improviser, composer, bandleader and highly sought-after sideperson. Davis won a Grammy in 2023 for Best Jazz Instrumental album on Terri Lyne Carrington’s album New Standards, and she was voted 2022 and 2020 Pianist of the Year in The Downbeat critics poll. She also won a Doris Duke Artist Award in 2021.

On her brand new album Diatom Ribbons Live At The Village Vanguard, her concept, first heard on the eponymous release Diatom Ribbons (Pyroclastic, 2019), is now brought forth over two CDs taken from 12 sets over six nights at the famed Greenwich Village nightclub.

“This album, which throws a wrench in the traditional jazz quartet format by adding a DJ and electronics, stands as a testament to the forward-thinking nature of the Vanguard and its willingness to embrace some of the new elements that are coming into the music. I like the idea of not allowing the group to feel too comfortable,” Davis explains.

“So I intentionally chose Julian, who I’d played with in a duo setting many times and whose playing I admire. This new configuration challenged us to find a band sound while playing this new music, and I like that process of discovery.”

1. Alice in The Congo
2. Nine Hats
3. The Dancer
4. VW
5. Dolores, Take 1
6. Bird Suite, Part 1: Kingfisher
7. Endless Columns
8. Bird Suite, Part 2: Bird Call Blues
9. Bird Suite, Part 3: Parasitic Hunter
10. Brainfeel
11. Dolores, Take 2

This innovative repertoire opens on their swirling/twirling rendition of Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Alice In The Congo and hypnotically-charged Nine Hats, and then comes the veritably shimmering beauty of Geri Allen’s The Dancer, the soulful VW (featuring samples of Sun Ra speaking of other dimensions), and then comes the gently fervent skidaddle of Dolores, Take 1.

The three part Bird Suite - separated by the solvent nature woven within Endless Columns - presents in Part 1: Kingfisher as a rocked out tribute to Charlie Parker, with Part 2: Bird Call Blues, which features bird samples over classic bebop, with Part 3: Parasitic Hunter finding Stockhausen speaking on intuitive music with fragments of Parker’s music and, quite possibly, if you listen closely enough, John Williams’ Jaws theme, the album rounding out on the languishing Brainfeel and the playfully joyful Dolores, Take 2.

Musicians:
Kris Davis - piano, prepared piano, arturia microfreak synthesizer
Terri Lyne Carrington - drums
Val Jeanty - turntables and electronics
Julian Lage - electric guitar
Trevor Dunn - electric bass and double bass

Official Purchase Link

www.krisdavis.net

Kris Davis @ Instagram