'Over the last couple of 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.' — The New York Times
Kris Davis, piano
Robert Hurst, bass
Jonathan Blake, drums
Personnel other than Kris Davis subject to change.
There’s a good reason Times critic Nate Chinen prescribed following Kris Davis’s live sets.
Davis has built her career on a commitment to group improvisation that is remarkable even within the context of jazz.
A Grammy-winning pianist and composer, Davis has twenty-four recordings as a bandleader or co-leader to her credit. She’s collaborated with such artists as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey, and Esperanza Spalding. She’s a dedicated music educator, which is why she’s been tapped to work with students in the UMass Department of Music and Dance as this year’s Billy Taylor Jazz Artist in Residence. And her recorded material has won critical accolades and awards. But it’s when she’s on stage leading live collaborations between great musicians that Davis is at her best.
That remarkable commitment to creating live will be on full display when Davis and her trio take the stage in Bowker Auditorium. Davis expects their set will draw from the trio’s 2024 release Run the Gauntlet (Pyroclastic). Prepare for an evening of jazz at its most exploratory and magical.