Marilyn Crispell / Anders Jormin: Memento

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. Her piano as an interpreter of spirit and emotion; a translator of that which exists only within ourselves.

So Crispell (a Creative Music Studio alumni and 2025 NEA Jazz Master) teams up with Sweden's most benevolent bassist, Anders Jormin (Bobo Stenson, Charles Lloyd, Tomasz Stańko) at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI in July 2025, within the ever present gaze of Manfred Eicher and Memento becomes a lasting thing of beauty available to anyone willing to let go the wheel that keeps us spinning madly and listen. Listen intently, because the underlying beauty of creations like the pianist's "The Beach at Newquay," the warmth of her memories of Gary Peacock, "Dragonfly," (surely one of her most satisfying ventures), and the majesty inherent in the duo's opening co-composition "For the Children," is that it is our beauty too. That is the magic of "Contemplation in D." That is the alchemy of Crispell's shimmering  "Memento" and the sparse, otherworldliness of "Embracing the Otherness," wherein silence plays its part, making the duo a trio for three-and-a-half exquisite minutes.

Time is of the essence. And with Memento Crispell and Jormin bequeath us that most valuable thing we take for granted: time. Time to contemplate and correct. To wonder and heal. To extract from ourselves those things we've buried either because of inconvenience, persona, politics, or culture. Lay those things aside and warm by the soft fire that holds Memento aloft.