The Kitchen Concert

The Kitchen Concert
Live album by Marilyn Crispell
Released	1991
Recorded	February 2, 3 & 4, 1989
Venue	The Kitchen, New York City
Genre	Jazz
Length	50:11
Label	Leo
Producer	Leo Feigin
Marilyn Crispell chronology
Live in San Francisco (1990) The Kitchen Concert (1991) Overlapping Hands: Eight Segments (1991)

The Kitchen Concert is an album by American jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell, which was recorded live at The Kitchen, New York City in 1989 and released on the English Leo label. ^[1]

Background

The primary inspirations on the album include the blues, African drumming and the music of Lennie Tristano. The pieces were commissioned by the New York arts organisation Roulette as part of their tenth birthday celebrations. Crispell, bassist Mark Dresser and drummer Gerry Hemingway played together many times in the Anthony Braxton quartet, but this was their debut performance as a trio. ^[2]

The title of the composition "What of it I Refuse Awakes the Wide-Eyed Stone" is from a line in the poem "The Sleeping Rocks" by Nathaniel Mackey, published in the 1985 collection Eroding Witness. ^[3] The score was published in a special issue of Callaloo dedicated to Mackey. ^[4]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	[6]

The Penguin Guide to Jazz states "This marks a slight but significant change of direction. In place of free or structured improvisation, The Kitchen Concert documents a first, rather tentative, confrontation with written forms of her own." ^[6]

Track listing

All compositions by Marilyn Crispell

1. "Solstice" – 4:44
2. "What of it I Refuse Awakes the Wide-Eyed Stone" – 7:42
3. "Alchemy" – 8:05
4. "Ahmadu/Sierra Leone" – 8:23
5. "Night Light Beach I" – 5:06
6. "For L.T." – 15:58

Personnel

• Marilyn Crispell – piano
• Mark Dresser - bass
• Gerry Hemingway - drums

References

1. Marilyn Crispell Sessionography by Rick Lopez
2. Original Liner Notes by Graham Lock
3. Mackey, Nathaniel (1986). Eroding Witness. University of Illinois Press.
4. Crispell, Marilyn (Spring 2000). "What of It I Refuse Awakes the Wide-Eyed Stone". Callaloo. 23 (2): 606–607.
5. "Marilyn Crispell: The Kitchen Concert". AllMusic. Retrieved March 7, 2022.
6. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (1994). The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (2nd ed.). London: Penguin. p. 301. ISBN   0140179496.