| Shadow Plays | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | October 8, 2021 | |||
| Recorded | March 2, 2020 | |||
| Venue | Konzerthaus, Vienna | |||
| Genre | Jazz, free improvisation | |||
| Length | 1:16:21 | |||
| Label | ECM 2693 | |||
| Producer | Manfred Eicher | |||
| Craig Taborn chronology | ||||
| ||||
Shadow Plays is a live solo piano album by Craig Taborn recorded at the Konzerthaus, Vienna, on March 2, 2020, and released on ECM in October the following year.
Taborn's previous solo piano album, Avenging Angel , was recorded in 2010. [1] [2] Since then, he had performed and recorded in a diverse range of bands and styles. [1] [3]
The album was recorded at the Mozart-Saal of the Konzerthaus, Vienna, on March 2, 2020; the concert was billed as Avenging Angel II. [4] [5] All seven of the solo piano pieces were improvised. [3] The album was produced by Manfred Eicher. [4]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| All About Jazz |   [6] |
| AllMusic |  [1] |
| DownBeat | [7] |
| Financial Times | [3] |
| Jazzwise | [8] |
| Tom Hull | B+ [9] |
Shadow Plays was released by ECM Records on 8 October 2021. [10]
The AllMusic reviewer concluded: "Where Avenging Angel opened our ears to Taborn's consummate abilities to compose and organize simultaneously without surrendering his creativity, Shadow Plays extends that by offering a profound sense of intimacy with instrument and audience. It delivers fantastical groups of ideas that flow without undue force or ego to become something that is at once wondrous and revelatory." [1]
The reviewer for the Financial Times wrote that the album features Taborn "delivering spontaneous masterworks with a majestic sense of form and captures his robust touch and uncanny sense of space in pristine sound". [3]
All compositions by Craig Taborn
Lyle David Mays was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awards.
Tim Berne is an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and record label owner. His primary instruments are the alto and baritone saxophones.
Chris Potter is an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.
Craig Marvin Taborn is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music.
Michael Formanek is an American jazz bassist born in San Francisco, California, United States, and associated with the jazz scene in New York.
Far Side is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell and the Note Factory recorded at the Stadtsaal in Burghausen, Germany on March 17, 2007, and released on ECM in 2010.
Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell recorded in Germany in September 2004 and released on ECM in 2007.
Avenging Angel is a solo piano album by American jazz pianist and composer Craig Taborn recorded in July 2010 and released on the ECM label.
Ken Stubbs is an English jazz musician, alto saxophonist and composer.
Chants is an album by the Craig Taborn Trio recorded in New York in June 2012 and released on ECM April the following year. The trio features Taborn on piano with rhythm section Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver.
Play Blue: Oslo Concert is a live solo album by pianist Paul Bley recorded at the Oslo Jazzfestival in August 2008 and released on ECM in March 2014.
Triptych is the debut album by a free improvisation trio consisting of Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker and two American musicians: pianist Craig Taborn and drummer Gerald Cleaver. The trio had its inception in 2003, when a European tour came up and Marilyn Crispell, Anker and Cleaver's regular partner, was unable to participate. The album was released on the English Leo label.
Prism is a studio album by English jazz bassist Dave Holland. The record was released via the Dare2 label on September 2, 2013. This album is a milestone of Dave Holland's career as a leader—the forty year anniversary of his debut, free jazz album Conference of the Birds released in 1973. Prism contains nine original compositions written by bandmembers.
Junk Magic is an album by Craig Taborn, with Aaron Stewart, Mat Maneri (viola), and Dave King (drums). It was released in 2004 by Thirsty Ear Recordings.
Daylight Ghosts is an album by Craig Taborn, with Chris Speed, Chris Lightcap, and Dave King. It was released by ECM Records in 2017.
Ljubljana is an album by saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and pianist Craig Taborn. It was recorded in concert in 2015 and released two years later by Clean Feed Records.
Imaginary Cities is a studio album by the Chris Potter Underground Orchestra recorded in December 2013 and released on ECM in January 2015, Potter's second album for the label. The ensembles features the return of his "Underground Quartet"—consisting rhythm section Craig Taborn, Adam Rogers, and Nate Smith—alongside vibraphonist Steve Nelson, bassist Scott Colley, bass guitarist Fima Ephron, and a string quartet.
Uncharted Territories is a two-disc studio album by English jazz bassist Dave Holland together with saxophonist Evan Parker, percussionist Ches Smith, and pianist Craig Taborn. The album was released on May 11, 2018 via Holland's own Dare2 Records label.
La Fenice is a live solo album by Keith Jarrett recorded at the Teatro La Fenice in Italy on July 19, 2006 and released on ECM 12 years later, in October 2018. According to ECM, its release was "timely" as the 62nd International Festival of Contemporary Music of the 'Biennale di Venezia' honoured Keith Jarrett with its Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
The Transitory Poems is a live album by pianists Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn recorded at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest on March 12, 2018 and released on ECM a year later.