One of the world's greatest improvising pianists appears here this month. GRAHAM REID reports.
When pianist Marilyn Crispell heard John Coltrane's spiritual and emotionally swirling A Love Supreme, she determined she wanted to play like the great saxophonist and translate that intensity to piano.
Then she heard pianist Cecil Taylor, whose style is often described as abstract expression on keyboards, and redefined her parameters.
For Crispell, born in Philadelphia in 1947, improvising on piano has been a lifelong pursuit of the elusive muse. She has recorded with some of the finest jazz and classical improvisers, among them saxophonist Anthony Braxton, drummer Paul Motian and reed player Evan Parker.
She has also recorded several critically acclaimed and intensely passionate solo albums.
Crispell is one of the musicians on the Urban Taniwha 2000 Tour which has concerts in Hamilton (Sunday October 15), Rotorua (October 17) and in the concert chamber of the Auckland Town Hall (October 18).
The 16-piece touring band includes strings and percussion players, and the music performed has been written by Wellington-based experimental composer Jeff Henderson and Richard Nunns, who plays traditional Maori instruments.
First performed last year, the music for Urban Taniwha has been reworked for this North Island tour and allows audiences to hear the exceptional vocal style of Waimihi Hotere, and of course the exciting playing of Crispell, who was described by Britain's The Wire as "simply one of the finest improvising pianists in the world today."
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