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Jazz Articles about Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem
by Paul Reynolds
Marilyn Crispell The National Jazz Museum in Harlem New York, NY April 16, 2026 What a time this is for Marilyn Crispell. Now 79, the stalwart of avant-garde piano was honored as a 2025 National Endowment of Arts Jazz Master and received a Jazz Legacies Fellowship from the Jazz Foundation of America this February. And her artistry is more than intact--it's evolving and diversifying, as her solo concert in New York last week ...
Continue ReadingMarilyn Crispell / Anders Jormin: Memento
by Mike Jurkovic
Even with her most youthful and combustible studies into our common language--1988's solo watermark Labyrinths (Victor); with Paul Motian and Reggie Workman, Live In Zurich (Leo, 1989); to the mature, questing, and timeless Amaryllis (Blue Note, 2001) with Motian and Gary Peacock; and the trio muscle of Dreamstruck (Not Two, 2018) alongside bassist Joe Fonda and drummer Harvey Sorgen--a quiet, abiding awe of human potential has always and forever held the center of Marilyn Crispell's heart, and thus, her music. ...
Continue ReadingMarilyn Crispell, Anders Jormin: Memento
by Neil Duggan
US pianist Marilyn Crispell and Swedish bassist Anders Jormin filter their decades of musical experience and improvisational instinct into Memento, their debut duo recording. Combining original compositions with four freely created pieces, the album focuses on the universal themes of memory and loss. Crispell, recently honored with a 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master award, first met Jormin at a Stockholm festival in 1992. It left a lasting mark on her musical thinking. “When I heard ...
Continue ReadingAnthony Braxton: Quartet (England) 1985
by Mike Jurkovic
Though Leo Records has previously documented Quartet (London) 1985 (1988); Quartet (Birmingham) 1985 (1991); and Quartet (Coventry) 1985 (1993), Burning Ambulance Music is proud to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the tour with this set of previously unreleased recordings from Liverpool, Sheffield, Leicester, Bristol, Southampton, Leeds, and Huddersfield. Set to be digitally released exclusively on Bandcamp on what would have been Braxton's 80th birthday, (June 4, 2025), Quartet England (1985) is an unhinged glory from start to finish.
Continue ReadingMarilyn Crispell: Fearless, Deeply Sensitive and Shaping the Moment
by Dean Nardi
As Marilyn Crispell talked about her multitude of recent recordings, either solo or with this trio or that quartet, she mentioned needing to pack her bags before going out on tour. She has lived in Woodstock, New York since 1977 and is comfortable there. “When I'm at home, not out recording, I look out in the morning and very much like being in this place," she explained. But when the opportunity came knocking at her door, she accepted because, “I ...
Continue ReadingMarilyn Crispell, Thommy Andersson, Michala Østergaard-Nielsen: The Cave
by Mike Jurkovic
A temporal fragility warmly embraces as the The Cave opens with the title cut. And since a vast portion of the world's troubled population holds a childhood fear of caves and the potential human criteria that bound rowdy from them, things could get tricky. But they do not. Marilyn Crispell, in what could be another defining moment in a lifetime of bold defining moments, holds those anxieties at bay, and does so throughout this stunning testament. “My Spirit ...
Continue ReadingMarilyn Crispell/Harvey Sorgen, The Young Mothers & B.B. King
by Maurice Hogue
If you haven't heard the piano trio, Dreamstruck (Marilyn Crispell, Joe Fonda & Harvey Sorgen), put them on your must-listen list. Highly original and free wheeling playing make their two releases much appreciated. Crispell and Sorgen decided to continue making magic as a duo on the new Forest, now available, and it's one of the feature albums in this playlist. There's a preview of an up-coming release by bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten's Young Mothers, as well as debuts from another ...
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