Craig Taborn
Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms (2023)*, an evening-length piece for flute, clarinet, cello, piano, and electronics
Density 2036: part ix
Premiered May 24, 2023 @ The Kitchen featuring performers Joshua Rubin (clarinets), Susie Ibarra (percussion), Craig Taborn (piano, keyboard, electronics), and Levy Lorenzo (sound design)
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​*Commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University.
Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms for flute, clarinet, cello, piano, and electronics
Density 2036: part ix (2023)
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The title and initial idea for this piece came from a dream of wandering through some kind of forest or garden and encountering foliage/plants that responded to the proximity of my body- awakening, blossoming, and scenting as I drew near and then continuing to grow and change as I moved on. It was a simple and pleasant dream, but as I woke, I could not escape some sense that in our waking human interactions, we work somewhat in this way - awakening and inspiring others in our environment with our proximity and presence. This piece was initiated from the idea of a composition where the performers' interactions condition in a substantive way how the work unfolds.
Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms is a concert-length work for solo flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, and quadrophonic electronics. The performers are positioned in different areas of the performance space. The flute soloist will move physically amongst the other musicians while performing composed and improvised material, initiating various pre-composed duets and ensemble movements, and defining the performance sequence. The ensemble performers will structure the composition and provide the impetus for how the piece unfolds. Improvisation with elements of the composed materials and electronic environments is designed to be interwoven at the soloist's liberty, allowing for many possible sequences/shapes for the piece. The musicians can thus realize each performance within a variety of durations and contexts and also with a variety of ensemble sizes. Ideally, every version will differ while retaining the piece's unique compositional identity.
This piece was made possible by a grant from the Fromm Music Foundation.​
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"...Chase’s willingness to give a composers an entire hour also paid dramatically satisfying dividends in the premiere of the improvising pianist and composer Craig Taborn’s “Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms” at the Kitchen. It was one of the best shows I’ve experienced this season." -Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times
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A recording of Busy Griefs and Endangered Charms was completed in 2023 and will be available soon. In the meantime, here is a short excerpt of the piece:
Born in Minneapolis, Craig Taborn has been performing piano and electronic music in the jazz, improvisational, and creative music scene for over twenty-five years. He has experience composing for and performing in a wide variety of situations, including jazz, new music, electronic, rock, noise, and avant-garde contexts.
He has played and recorded with many luminaries in the fields of jazz, improvised, new music, and electronic music, including Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, Lester Bowie, Dave Holland, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Evan Parker, Steve Coleman, David Torn, Chris Potter, William Parker, Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, Nicole Mitchell, Susie Ibarra, Ikue Mori, Carl Craig, Dave Douglas, Meat Beat Manifesto, Dan Weiss, Chris Lightcap, Gerald Cleaver, and Rudresh Mahanthappa.
He is currently occupied creating and performing music for solo piano performance (Avenging Angel and the newly released Shadow Plays), piano trio (Craig Taborn Trio), an electronic project (Junk Magic), the Daylight Ghosts quartet, a piano/drums/electronics duo with Dave King (Heroic Enthusiasts), and a new trio with Tomeka Reid and Ches Smith; he has also done piano duo collaborations with Vijay Iyer (The Transitory Poems), Kris Davis (Octopus), and Cory Smythe. In addition, he makes music as a member of the instrumental electronic art-pop group Golden Valley Is Now and performs frequently on solo electronics.
