Stephan Crump - Solo at Sharp Nine Gallery

Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated, Echo Award-winning bassist/composer Stephan Crump is an active bandleader with fifteen critically-acclaimed album releases and numerous film scoring contributions. Stephan’s solo performance, which explores his unique musical language through an expansive range of sonorities on the acoustic bass, is a culmination of decades of work as a bassist, composer, and improviser. From his home studio in Brooklyn, Crump released monthly solo recordings from 2020 into 2021 for a fan-supported series via his Bandcamp page. The solo album, Rocket Love, is curated from this body of work. ...

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Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated, Echo Award-winning bassist/composer Stephan Crump is an active bandleader with fifteen critically-acclaimed album releases and numerous film scoring contributions. Stephan’s solo performance, which explores his unique musical language through an expansive range of sonorities on the acoustic bass, is a culmination of decades of work as a bassist, composer, and improviser. From his home studio in Brooklyn, Crump released monthly solo recordings from 2020 into 2021 for a fan-supported series via his Bandcamp page. The solo album, Rocket Love, is curated from this body of work.

Known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, Crump's focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many of the leading lights of his generation, most notably Vijay Iyer, in whose trio and sextet he played a dynamic, founding role. Stephan can also be heard as long-standing member of Jen Chapin Trio, Ches Smith Trio, Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Liberty Ellman Sextet, Secret Keeper (duo with Mary Halvorson), his own Rosetta Trio (with Jamie Fox, Liberty Ellman), his Rhombal quartet (with Ellery Eskelin, Adam O’Farrill, Tyshawn Sorey), Borderlands Trio (with Kris Davis, Eric McPherson) as well as his trio with Ingrid Laubrock and Cory Smythe.

Crump’s physical and emotional connection to the bass is abundant through the new sextet Slow Water, which explores ecology and environment through composition and group communication.
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“I am tempted to call Rocket Love my favorite solo bass recording of all time. At a minimum, it is the most varied and fun.” - PopMatters

“Crump plays the bass with an effortless balance of molten flow and forceful power. For a listener, the result is another kind of healthy tension: between dynamic uncertainty and deep reassurance.” - The New York Times


“a visionary artist who can convey profound themes through the medium of sound” - All About Jazz

“strikingly fresh and unobvious compositions…an impressive and original voice” - The Wire

“categories cease to matter” - JazzTimes

“astonishingly beautiful playing” - London Jazz News

“Crump’s music is original” - Downbeat

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