Stephan Crump's Rhombal at Philadelphia Art Alliance

Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to present bassist Stephan Crump with his new quartet Rhombal, convened around a body of work composed for Crump’s late brother.

Though he’s played regular with Vijay Iyer’s trio and quartet as well as guitarist Rez Abbasi’s Acoustic Quartet and drummer Ches Smith’s trio, among others, Crump has focused on more intimate, less traditional projects as a leader for the last 15 years. The tragic events of 9/11 led him to form his all-string Rosetta Trio, while his other recordings have all been duos, whether with Mary Halvorson or Steve Lehman. Rhombal was inspired by another tragedy, the loss of Crump’s older brother Patrick, who lost his battle with a rare sarcoma in May 2014. Despite its origins, Crump says that the quartet “is not about sadness [but is instead] a commemoration of a death well-confronted [and] of a spiritual evolution.”...

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Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to present bassist Stephan Crump with his new quartet Rhombal, convened around a body of work composed for Crump’s late brother.

Though he’s played regular with Vijay Iyer’s trio and quartet as well as guitarist Rez Abbasi’s Acoustic Quartet and drummer Ches Smith’s trio, among others, Crump has focused on more intimate, less traditional projects as a leader for the last 15 years. The tragic events of 9/11 led him to form his all-string Rosetta Trio, while his other recordings have all been duos, whether with Mary Halvorson or Steve Lehman. Rhombal was inspired by another tragedy, the loss of Crump’s older brother Patrick, who lost his battle with a rare sarcoma in May 2014. Despite its origins, Crump says that the quartet “is not about sadness [but is instead] a commemoration of a death well-confronted [and] of a spiritual evolution.”

“As a bassist and composer,” writes the New York Times, “Mr. Crump avoids obvious routes but never manages to lose his way.”

Born in Memphis but based in Brooklyn since 1994, Crump is a bassist known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, while his focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many of the leading lights of his generation. Shunning barriers of genre, Crump has performed and recorded with a diverse range of musicians from Portishead’s Dave McDonald and The Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano to Patti Austin, Jim Campilongo, Jorma Kaukonen, Lucy Kaplansky, Big Ass Truck, Sonny Fortune, and late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland. Currently, he can be heard as a long-standing member of the Vijay Iyer Trio and Sextet, Jen Chapin Band, Ches Smith Trio, Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Liberty Ellman Sextet, Secret Keeper (with Mary Halvorson) and his own Rosetta Trio, as well as groups with Kris Davis, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, Eric McPherson, Mat Maneri, and Okkyung Lee.

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