Kris Davis & Craig Taborn – Octopus – Kevin Le Gendre

Piano duos have been around for a while but recent iterations – Kaja Drachsler-Eve Risser: Craig Taborn-Vijay Iyer; Kris Davis-Benoit Delbecq – have served as a reminder of the richness of the format. As for Davis and Taborn, They exploit the full orchestral possibilities of the two instruments all the while keeping firmly but flexibly within the time-honoured tradition of percussive playing. Taking a leaf from the Cecil Taylor copybook, the expected roles of lower and upper register are often >> Read more…

Village Voice – Kris Davis and Craig Taborn – Michael J. Agovino

Piano Madness: Kris Davis and Craig Taborn in Freewheeling Dialogue by MICHAEL J. AGOVINO The Village Voice PETER_GANNUSHKIN   In jazz, the duo is perhaps the most underappreciated, and least commercially viable, of any combo setting. Consider all the classic trios, quartets, quintets, and sextets throughout the music’s history. Even septets, octets, and nonets get more love. Big bands, too. Solo performances, especially from pianists—for whom it’s right of passage—can be memorable events, and enhance a career. (See Keith Jarrett.) And although >> Read more…

The New York City Jazz Record – Octopus – John Sharpe

Pianist Kris Davis’ 2015 self-released Duopoly CD/DVD set paired her with eight first-time partners and generated several ongoing collaborations. But while Davis has also toured with pianist Angelica Sanchez and drummer Billy Drummond as a consequence, it is the chemistry with fellow pianist Craig Taborn that has resulted in the first issued documentation of these extended encounters. It’s an eye-catching combination as both are among the most in-demand practitioners on the scene. Selected from three different fall 2016 concerts, the >> Read more…

The Wire – Octopus – Phil Freeman

Kris Davis & Graig Taborn Octopus Pyroclastic CD/DL In 2016, pianist Kris Davis recorded Duopoly, a collection of duets with eight colleagues: reeds players Tim Berne and Don Byron, guitarists Bill Frisell and Julian Lage, drummers Billy Drummond and Marcus Gilmore, and fellow pianists Angelica Sanchez and Craig Taborn. Each pairing recorded one composition and one free piece. Subsequently, Davis and Taborn undertook a US tour of 12 cities and composed new music for the occasion. The gigs were recorded, >> Read more…

The New York Times – Love In Outer Space – Giovanni Russonello

Ms. Davis and Mr. Taborn are two pianists with an ear for stark clarity and unflinching abstraction. Each is the kind of player whose presence is reason enough to go see a gig: They can hold an entire band together, then throw its bone structure apart with a flick of the wrist. On Friday they released “Octopus,”a collection of duets recorded on tour in 2016. The pair ventures often into free improvisations: playfully dyspeptic, scattered, opaque. But on “Love in Outer >> Read more…