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Kris Davis
Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers “uncommon creative adventure,” according to JazzTimes. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-residing Davis was dubbed one of the music’s top up-and-comers in a 2012 New York Times article titled “New Pilots at the Keyboard,” with the newspaper saying: “Over the past couple years in New York, one method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis.” Reviewing one of the series of striking albums Davis has released over the past half-decade, the Chicago Sun-Times lauded the “sense of kaleidoscopic possibilities” in her playing and compositions.
Long favored by her peers and jazz fans in the know, Davis has earned high praise from no less than star pianist and MacArthur “Genius” Grant honoree Jason Moran, who included her in his Best of 2012 piece in Art Forum, writing: “A freethinking, gifted pianist on the scene, Davis lives in each note that she plays. Her range is impeccable; she tackles prepared piano, minimalism and jazz standards, all under one umbrella. I consider her an honorary descendant of Cecil Taylor and a welcome addition to the fold.”
The newest album from Davis as a leader is Capricorn Climber (Clean Feed, 2013), with the pianist joined by kindred spirits Ingrid Laubrock (tenor saxophone), Mat Maneri (viola), Trevor Dunn (double-bass) and Tom Rainey (drums). Davis made her debut on record as a leader with Lifespan (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003), followed by three progressively inventive and acclaimed albums for the Fresh Sound label: the quartet discs The Slightest Shift (2006) and Rye Eclipse (2008), then the trio set Good Citizen (2010). Davis’s 2011 solo piano album on Clean Feed, Aeriol Piano, appeared on Best of the Year lists in The New York Times, JazzTimes and Art Forum. Davis wrote the extraordinary arrangements for saxophonist-composer Tony Malaby’s nonet project Novela, with the album Novela released by Clean Feed in 2011 and appearing on Best of the Year lists in DownBeat and JazzTimes. The pianist is also part of the collaborative Paradoxical Frog with Laubrock and drummer Tyshawn Sorey; their eponymous 2011 album on Clean Feed was included on Best of the Year lists by National Public Radio, The New York Times and All About Jazz.
In addition to her work as a leader, Davis has performed with such top figures as Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, John Hollenbeck, Michael Formanek and Mary Halvorson. Davis started playing piano at age 6, studying classical music through the Royal Conservatory in Canada and formulating her desire for a life in music by playing in the school jazz band at age 12. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Piano from the University of Toronto and attended the Banff Centre for the Arts jazz program in 1997 and 2000. The pianist received a Canada Council grant to relocate to New York and study composition with Jim McNeely, then another to study extended piano techniques with Benoit Delbecq in Paris. She holds a master’s in Classical Composition from the City College of New York, and she teaches at the School for Improvised Music.
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Kris Davis: The Solastalgia Suite
by Mike Jurkovic
Pianist/composer/raconteur Kris Davis dazzles again with The Solastalgia Suite, her headfirst dive into third stream composition. Echoing Ravel's harmonic conversations and guided by the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who describes his concept of solastalgia as a form of homesickness while we are still at home, Davis and Poland's revered Lutosławski Quartet, named for twentieth-century Polish composer Witold Lutosławski, sear into the slicing opener, “Interlude," with a furor only those generations threatened with death by storm front understand. But ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet: The Solastalgia Suite
by Alberto Bazzurro
La pianista e compositrice canadese--ma ormai newyorchese d'adozione--Kris Davis, fra le personalità più interessanti affermatesi nel jazz di questa prima fetta di terzo millennio, va qui oltre quanto da lei fatto finora, almeno concettualmente, visto che si abbina a uno degi quartetti d'archi a sua volta più illustri di questi stessi anni per attraversare una propria suite in otto movimenti dalle movenze (perdonate il gioco di parole) squisitamente “contemporanee" (un tempo si sarebbe parlato, non a torto, di third stream) ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet: The Solastalgia Suite
by Glenn Astarita
Kris Davis, the Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-based pianist and composer, stands as one of contemporary jazz’ most visionary figures. A master improviser and bandleader, she has earned multiple DownBeat Critics Poll Pianist of the Year honors, received a Doris Duke Artist Award and co-led the 2023 Grammy-winning album New Standards Vol. 1 (Candid, 2023) for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. These accolades merely confirm what her body of work has long suggested: Davis operates well ahead of the curve.Known for her ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis and the Lutoslawski Quartet: The Solastalgia Suite
by Don Phipps
Kris Davis's The Solastalgia Suite is a towering achievement. Straddling the diverse worlds of modern classical and jazz idioms, Davis, already a notable heavyweight on the jazz scene, has moved to another level, the emergence of a kind of beyond jazz. Here, teamed with the Lutoslawski Quartet--Roksana Kwasnikowska (1st violin), Marcin Markowicz (2nd violin), Artur Rozmysłowicz (viola), and Maciej Młodawski (cello)--Davis brings her skills as a composer and pianist to eight tracks of challenging, sublime, chaotic but controlled beauty and ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis Trio al Torrione di Ferrara
by Libero Farnè
Kris Davis Trio Jazz Club Il Torrione Ferrara in Jazz Ferrara 10 maggio 2025 Con il concerto del Kris Davis Trio, in cui la pianista canadese viene affiancata da Robert Hurst al contrabbasso e Johnathan Blake alla batteria, si è chiusa la sempre ricca stagione 2024-25 del Torrione Jazz Club. Era questa la prima apparizione in assoluto della Davis a Ferrara; irrinunciabile quindi l'occasione di ascoltare dal vivo questa formazione, il cui disco, Run ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis: Run the Gauntlet
by John Sharpe
While Kris Davis hews close to the hallowed piano trio format on Run The Gauntlet, her first return to the set-up since Waiting For You To Grow (Clean Feed, 2014), she inevitably gives it a few intriguing twists. By recruiting bassist Robert Hurst, alumni of Tony Williams, Steve Coleman and Wynton and Branford Marsalis, and drummer Johnathan Blake, a Blue Note leader also to be heard with Kenny Barron, Ravi Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, she ensures a driving beat which ...
Continue ReadingKris Davis and Younee: Keys To The Eighty-Eights
by Doug Collette
The role of pianist has been crucial to the evolution of jazz throughout its history. To that end, Art Tatum, McCoy Tyner and Bill Evans have achieved iconic status over the decades and, in more recent years, Brad Mehldau and Fred Hersch have laid the groundwork for their own ascents to similarly hallowed positions, Meanwhile Diana Krall has achieved no little popular success and perhaps not coincidentally, during this same contemporaneous period, other skilled distaff musicians including Renee Rosnes, Tania ...
Continue ReadingSmoke Jazz Club Announces September Schedule Featuring Kris Davis Tribute To Women Pianists, Joe Farnsworth Album Release, And More
Source:
AMT Public Relations
Hailed as the “#1 Jazz Club in New York City (SecretNYC),” SMOKE Jazz Club today announced its concert schedule for September 2025. The month begins by celebrating the release of Joe Farnsworth’s latest album The Big Room (SMOKE Sessions Records) with “one of the best bands recording today” (WJTU Radio): Sarah Hanahan, Emmet Cohen, Joel Ross, Yasushi Nakamura, and Jeremy Pelt. Making her SMOKE debut as a bandleader is pianist Kris Davis—who was recently named the Pianist of the Year ...
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Celebrate ‘Jazz In Canada’ With Two Free Virtual Concerts April 29-30
Source:
All About Jazz
On April 29-30, 2021 at 8PM EDT, audiences are invited to experience the vitality of Canadian Jazz artists’ Kris Davis and FYEAR, co-presented by the National Arts Centre and Canada Council for the Arts, at Germany's jazzahead! These concerts will be streamed online from the National Arts Centre’s Facebook page and simultaneously streamed by 18* Canadian jazz festivals on their Facebook pages. As part of an innovative international partnership, the performances will also be streamed by Germany’s jazzahead! and International ...
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Jazzahead! And International Jazz Day Announce Co-operation
Source:
All About Jazz
Two of the leading international organisations in jazz, the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz and jazzahead!, the world’s largest jazz trade fair, are jointly announcing a new co-operation in honor of UNESCO International Jazz Day 2021. jazzahead! this year takes place under the motto “Close Together From Afar" and will run from Thursday 29 April to Sunday 2 May 2021. The two organisations plan to mark International Jazz Day together on Friday 30 April. “With this cooperation we want to ...
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Jazz this week: Bill Charlap, Kris Davis & Craig Taborn, Jason Marsalis, and more
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
It's a busy week for jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with several noteworthy touring performers in town, including three top-flight pianists, two of whom will be performing together as a duo. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, September 28 Pianist Bill Charlap returns with his trio for the first of two nights at Jazz at the Bistro. Charlap was here most recently in February 2014 with saxophonist Houston Person at the Bistro, but this time, the focus is ...
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Jazz This Week: Sachal Vasandani, Galactic, Kris Davis Quintet, Jan Shapiro, Bucky Pizzarelli and Denise Thimes, and More
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
It's a jam-packed week of jazz and creative music in St. Louis, with local debuts from two noteworthy touring musicians, the return of some familiar favorites, homecoming gigs for three local expats, and lots more. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, singer Sachal Vasandani will make his St. Louis debut, beginning a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. Along with Gregory Porter, whom the Bistro presented for the first time in January, Vasandani is one of the most talked-about ...
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STLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Introducing Kris Davis
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's get acquainted with pianist Kris Davis, who will be making her St. Louis debut as a leader in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Saturday, February 16 at 560 Music Center. Davis will be touring in support of her most recent CD, Capricorn Climber, which was released late last year on Clean Feed Records. It features her performing with two of her most frequent collaborators, saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and drummer Tom Rainey, along with violist ...
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Kris Davis - Aeriol Piano (Clean Feed, 2011)
Source:
Music and More by Tim Niland
The profile of pianist and composer Kris Davis has been rapidly rising in the jazz world. Recently the recipient of a glowing write-up in the New York Times and the leader or co-leader of several renowned groups, this is her first solo piano album. Davis has a fascinating and unique piano style which incorporates the entire keyboard and even the interior of the piano, making the most of her available possibilites. This album begins with a fascinating reconstruction of the ...
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Stephen Gauci/ Kris Davis/ Michael Bisio - SKM (Clean Feed)
Source:
Master of a Small House
Operating under the ostensible leadership of saxophonist Stephen Gauci, but still very much an ensemble affair, versatility factors prominently on this straightforward trio set. Gauci and bassist Michael Bisio are well-established colleagues, their associations formed in the last decade on a number of projects for CIMP. Canadian pianist Kris Davis moves in similar circles having worked with New York notables like Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey. Their rapport manifests right away, stressing spontaneity rather than any predictable path with their ...
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Firehouse 12 to Present the Kris Davis Quartet May 25th
Source:
Improvised Communications
On Friday, May 25th, New Haven's Firehouse 12 will present New York-based pianist/composer Kris Davis and her acclaimed five year-old ensemble, the Kris Davis Quartet. The group, which features saxophonist Tony Malaby, bassist Eivind Opsvik and drummer Jeff Davis, will be playing music from Ms. Davis' second and most recent CD, The Slightest Shift (Fresh Sound New Talent).
“The adjective that comes to mind again and again listening to pianist and composer Kris Davis' quartet recording The Slightest Shift is ...
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Bruno Raberg
bass, acoustic
Devin Gray
drums
John Yarling
drums
Kjetil Jerve
piano
Aretha Tillotson
bass, acoustic
Raúl Molina
drumsPhotos
Music
An Invitation to Disappear
From: The Solastalgia SuiteBy Kris Davis
O.C.T (Oda to the Crazy Times)
From: Reflection Of Another SelfBy Kris Davis
Subtones
From: Run the GauntletBy Kris Davis
The Girls In Their Dresses
From: Parallel LivesBy Kris Davis
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