The Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU, along with Unity of Charlottesville, welcome
the return of extraordinary bassist Stephan Crump, with his new project Passerine
Bassist and composer Stephan Crump last played a solo bass concert in Charlottesville,
as well as a trio show with his wife, vocalist Jen Chapin. He’s coming back November
19th with his new band called Passerine, for a concert at Unity of Charlottesville at 7:30
pm. This extraordinary new quartet presents a body of work inspired by the various
nestbuilding techniques of birds.
For two decades, Crump recorded and toured as one third of pianist Vijay Iyer’s
acclaimed trio, helping to build that band’s global reputation. Meanwhile, many of his
own ensembles—Rhombal, with Tyshawn Sorey Adam O’Farrill; Secret Keeper, with
Mary Halvorson; Rosetta Trio, with Liberty Ellman—prize versatility and voicings in a
manner that more traditional configurations often do not. His Borderlands Trio, with
pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson brings this same mentality to a more
familiar setting.
Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a first call drummer,
percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of
artists on many scenes since the early 2000s, including Marc Ribot, Nels Cline, Mary
Halvorson and Dave Holland, among others. He has nine records to his name as a
bandleader that feature his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of
Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and
Haiti for the last decade.
David Leon is a Cuban-American saxophonist, woodwinds player, composer, and
improviser living in Brooklyn, New York. Denver born trumpeter/composer Kenny
Warren has been living in Brooklyn since 2006. He has released over a dozen records
of his own music which reach across genre, but always center on some element of
improvisation.
Tickets to see Stephan Crump’s Passerine are available online at CJS.ticketbud.com.
General Admission is $30; $25 for paid supporters of the CJS. Call 434-249-6191 for
more information.