Born in Detroit in 1970, Craig Taborn first earned international notice as a member of saxophonist James Carter’s ensembles. In the late ’90s, he played regularly with Roscoe Mitchell, along with leading his own groups; and by the next decade, the keyboardist was heard often in Tim Berne’s bands and subsequently with Chris Potter and Dave Holland, among others. Taborn first appeared on ECM as a member of Mitchell’s ensembles for the albums Nine to Get Ready, Composition / Improvisation 1, 2 & 3, and Far Side. He has also appeared on David Torn’s Prezens, Evan Parker’s Boustrophedon and Ches Smith’s The Bell, as well as Michael Formanek’s Small Places and The Rub and Spare Change.
In 2011, Taborn made his debut as a leader on ECM with an album of solo piano, Avenging Angel. A review in The New York Times called the album “a brilliant and unpredictable study informed by contemporary classical music as well as several currents of improvisation.
It’s a sit-up-and-take-notice statement.” Two years later came the pianist’s next ECM release: Chants, a trio disc with bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerald Cleaver. That album’s music was described in DownBeat as being without “borders, or ordinary structures, or typical narrative flow. The songs are positively shimmering, immaculately detailed, prismatic and very improvisational… They flutter and spiral, bend and float, and constantly surprise.”