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Stephan Crump

Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated bassist/composer Stephan Crump has lived in Brooklyn since 1994. An active bandleader and composer, he has released ten critically-acclaimed albums in addition to numerous film scoring contributions. As bassist, known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, his focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many of the leading lights of his generation.

Shunning barriers of genre, Crump has performed and recorded with a diverse range of musicians, from Portishead's Dave McDonald, The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, to Patti Austin, Jim Campilongo, Jorma Kaukonen, Lucy Kaplansky, Big Ass Truck, Sonny Fortune, and late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland. Currently, he can be heard as a long-standing member of Vijay Iyer Trio and Sextet, Jen Chapin Band, Ches Smith Trio, Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Liberty Ellman Sextet, Secret Keeper (with Mary Halvorson), his own Rosetta Trio, as well as groups with Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, Eric McPherson, Mat Maneri, and Okkyung Lee.

Stephan comes from a family of architects, sculptors, painters, storytellers, musicians, civic leaders, and craftsmen. He was raised in music and the arts by his Parisian mother, an amateur pianist, and his Memphian father, an architect, painter, and jazz drummer.  After six years of classical piano study and two years with the alto saxophone, he got his first bass guitar at age thirteen and spent his high school years playing in rock and funk bands around Memphis. During the summers, he worked in the studio of his uncle, Stephen, a wood sculptor.

Crump received his Bachelor of Music degree from Amherst College, where he studied under Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlin and was awarded the Sundquist Prize for performance and composition. It was at Amherst that he began his acoustic bass journey, with a focus on classical training that culminated in a year of study in Paris with Gary Karr-protégé Patrick Hardouineau. His jazz studies at Amherst included work with Max Roach, Frank Foster, and Ray Drummond.

Crump launched his solo performance career as an invited artist at the 2009 International Society of Bassists conference and has since released several recordings documenting his duo collaborations with alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, pianist James Carney, and guitarist Mary Halvorson.  His all-string Rosetta Trio, with Jamie Fox and Liberty Ellman, is working toward their fourth album, while and his Rhombal quartet, with Tyshawn Sorey, Ellery Eskelin, and Adam O’Farrill, recently released its eponymous debut.

Stephan is an enthusiastic endorser of Velvet strings, Aguilar bass amplifiers, AMT acoustic bass microphones, and David Gage Czech Ease travel bass.

Gear

Stephan is an enthusiastic endorser of Velvet strings, Reverend basses, AMT acoustic bass microphones, Aguilar bass amplifiers and David Gage's Czech Ease travel bass.


Tags

4
Album Review

Joel Harrison &. Anthony Pirog: The Great Mirage

Read "The Great Mirage" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


The gritty, jammy sonics of the leadoff title track quickly convince the listener that avant guitarists Joel Harrison and Anthony Pirog are hellbent on getting it all out of their systems on The Great Mirage. Bassist Stephan Crump, who lays down his acoustic bass and goes electric, and daredevil drummer Allison Miller, who has absolutely no problem going from zero-to-eternity and cymbal splash to pure bash, sign on and hell breaks loose: witness the obstinate, speed-rock take on ...

8
Album Review

Cory Smythe: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Read "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" reviewed by John Sharpe


The startling molten sounds which open pianist Cory Smythe's Smoke Gets In Your Eyes signal that this will be no ordinary journey. On the first four cuts he draws on a stellar 11-strong squad which matches leading cutting edge figures such as saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, trumpeter Peter Evans and cellist Tomeka Reid, with colleagues from the International Contemporary Ensemble, hailed as America's foremost new-music group by The New Yorker, such as violinist Josh Modney and sadly deceased saxophonist Ryan Muncy, ...

2
Album Review

Stephan Crump: Rocket Love

Read "Rocket Love" reviewed by Troy Dostert


One of the most versatile bassists of his generation, Stephan Crump has proven repeatedly that he can do pretty much anything on his instrument. He can lock down some ferocious grooves with Vijay Iyer as a part of the pianist's trio on Accelerando (ACT, 2012) and Break Stuff (ECM, 2015). But he's no stranger to free improvisation either, most notably as a member of the supremely empathetic Borderlands Trio with Kris Davis and Eric McPherson; their double-CD release, Wandersphere (Intakt) ...

8
Album Review

Borderlands Trio: Wandersphere

Read "Wandersphere" reviewed by John Sharpe


Like a billionaire with money to burn, the Borderlands Trio frequently launch into space, and hit the jackpot in doing so. On this double disc set, the threesome—comprising bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson—luxuriate in the wide open vistas of four expansive improvisations of between nineteen and forty-two minutes. The decision to play and present entire pieces rather than excerpts, as they did on some of the shorter numbers on their debut Asteroidea (Intakt, 2017), pays ...

4
Radio & Podcasts

Borderlands Trio, Amir ElSaffar & Michael Attias

Read "Borderlands Trio, Amir ElSaffar & Michael Attias" reviewed by Maurice Hogue


This episode is packed with music from several new releases. Stephan Crump's Borderlands Trio leads things off with a track from Wandersphere's set of riveting extended songs. Then come tunes from William Parker, a pair of bands from Poland—Kwasny Desczc and saxophonist Michal Bak's Quartetto, Canadian bassist Nick Adema, Chilean saxophonist now living in France—Diego Manuschevich, bassist André Carvalho, and saxophonist Michael Attias with a killer group from Buenos Aires. Lots of other great stuff as well. Enjoy!

7
Album Review

Stephan Crump: Wandersphere

Read "Wandersphere" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Let's play a game. Call it “Is it improvised or composed?" Today's contestants are the Borderlands Trio, comprised of bassist Stephan Crump, pianist Kris Davis, and drummer Eric McPherson. Their release Wandersphere, recorded in December, 2020, consists of four tracks on two CDs. Four lengthy tracks, the shortest nearly twenty minutes and the longest at forty-one minutes plus. The game is, of course, rigged because listeners of the trio's previous release Asteroidea (Intakt, 2017) will know all the music is ...

6
Album Review

Borderlands Trio: Stephan Crump / Kris Davis / Eric McPherson: Wandersphere

Read "Wandersphere" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan


It begins so quietly, whispering out of silence like a ghost. The creaking door of Stephan Crump's arco bass, the hiss of Eric McPherson's brushes, the parsimonious delicacy of Kris Davis' piano notes. This is what opens Disc one of this two CD outing by the Borderlands Trio. The tune's following half hour's worth of improvisational expressionism--an exercise in filling the vacuum with free flowing musical ideas--gathers momentum, like an incoming storm, or maybe a colony of microscopic organisms reaching ...

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95

Radio

The Jazz Session #181: Stephan Crump

The Jazz Session #181: Stephan Crump

Source: Michael Ricci


155

Recording

Stephan Crump - Reclamation (Sunnyside)

Stephan Crump - Reclamation (Sunnyside)

Source: Master of a Small House

Echoing the ancient cross-textual applications of its namesake, Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio is something of a departure in contemporary jazz: A string ensemble that translates the chamber connotations of its instrumentation into a strong rhythmic versatility more endemic to American folk forms. Crump leads the group from a position of quiet authority on double bass. Guitarists Liberty Ellman and David Fox assume equal footing at the flanks, the first fretting acoustic strings while the second picks electric. Their first outing ...

"ingenious originals" —The New Yorker

"contained soulfulness" —Downbeat

"a low-key marvel" —JazzTimes

"a title to be savored" —The Village Voice

"bareness in emotion" —NPR

"Strong narrative sense, an unfettered conception of melody, and the confidence to elevate improvisations to a new level of empathy...speaks softly persuasive volumes" —Carlo Wolff, JazzTimes

"Someone's got to be the Holy Spirit, representing your faith that this jazz will breathe...It's the bassist, of course, cutting through with big, wise, rounded notes." —Ben Ratliff, NY Times

"Crump's bass playing and especially his soloing should be something to marvel at for anyone who appreciates finely crafted, artistic jazz musicianship" —Michael Nastos, All Music Guide

Photos

Concerts

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

The Great Mirage

ASG Recordings
2023

buy

Rocket Love

Papillon Sounds
2022

buy

Smoke Gets In Your...

Pyroclastic Records
2022

buy

Wandersphere

Intakt Records
2021

buy

Last Desert

Pi Recordings
2020

buy

InWhatStrumentals

Pi Recordings
2020

buy

Combustion 1

From: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
By Stephan Crump

Videos

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