“THINK OF BORDERLANDS TRIO AS AN ALL-STAR TEAM OF SHOULD-BE JAZZ LUMINARIES” - The New York Times
This is a collective trio with two of my favorite artists. Our first album, Asteroidea, our second, Wandersphere, as well as our third, Rewilder, are available on the Intakt label and here at my Store. Here’s the NYT review of our album release concerts from December 2017 at Jazz Gallery in NYC. Stay tuned on the Shows page for upcoming concert dates.
Wandering Lines
BORDERLANDS TRIO The Jazz Gallery, Dec. 8
Think of Borderlands Trio as an all-star team of should-be jazz luminaries. The group looks and feels like a standard jazz trio, but the air it breathes is a little different. That much is apparent on “Asteroidea,” its engrossing debut album of free improvisations, released in October. Stephan Crump, the bassist, is the collective’s de facto leader, though the pianist Kris Davis and the drummer Eric McPherson play equally important roles. On the first evening of a two-night run at the Jazz Gallery, they played a series of long immersions, guided by Mr. McPherson’s steadily locomotive drumming and the oozing agility of Mr. Crump’s bass. At one point, Mr. McPherson, using brushes, carried the trio into a big, circular groove — something evoking passage and duration. Mr. Crump found his way into a minor pattern that climbed high before falling hard on the root note; Ms. Davis played the role of disrupter, hammering one broken-glass chord in double and triple and quadruple hits. The whole thing had the illusion of a pattern or a stream, but it resisted symmetry: If they were tracing some borderline, it was running through wild and uncharted terrain. – Giovanni Russonello
Borderlands Trio
ERIC MCPHERSON · drums
KRIS DAVIS · piano
STEPHAN CRUMP · acoustic bass
“Rewilder is one of the most engaging albums of free improvisation one is likely to encounter”
Free Jazz Blog
“Borderlands is a classic piano trio that can travel for days without circling back or getting lost”
The New York City Jazz Record
“freely improvised music of the highest caliber, with three of the greatest players in contemporary post-bop eschewing any given language, brushing away any rules”
Nowhere Street
“fearless interplay”
JazzTrail
“the listening is almost palpable”
The New York City Jazz Record
“one of the more important jazz releases of the 21st Century“
The New York City Jazz Record
“some of the finest improvising across all genres one will hear“
The New York City Jazz Journal
“unified sonic architecture”
Point of Departure
“inevitable logic”
Point of Departure
“sweeping elegance”
JazzTrail
every note is a surprise, and every note seems inevitable
AllAboutJazz ****
“an extraordinarily egoless ensemble, Zen-focused on collective creation”
AllAboutJazz ****
“a kind of hive-mind sound machine”
Rolling Stone
“The whole thing had the illusion of a pattern or a stream, but it resisted symmetry: If they were tracing some borderline, it was running through wild and uncharted terrain”
The New York Times
“engrossing”
The New York Times
“Think of Borderlands Trio as an all-star team of should-be jazz luminaries”
The New York Times
“Best of 2017″
El País
“there’s always something unexpected going on”
Stereogum
“he offers solid foundations that morph and dilate with an almost imperceptible fluidity”
The New York Times
“empathetic but continually evolving interplay”
NYC Jazz Record
“spontaneous logic”
AllAboutJazz
“a willingness to venture into the unknown is at the heart of the music”
AllAboutJazz
“Borderlands is an authentic tour de force”
Jazz Convention
“the extraordinary accomplishment here is the trio’s ability to fashion clear, logical, and convincing song forms from naught”
AllAboutJazz
ALBUMS
Are you a writer/promoter? Check out the press/tech page for further information and downloadable materials.