interview: Stephan Crump (bassist for Vijay Iyer)
Tune into The Free Jazz BBQ as Dr. Sushi interviews Stephan Crump, who is playing at the Jazz Gallery on Center Street this Saturday night, touring on a new release.
Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated bassist/composer Stephan Crump is a rising light on the New York music scene. Shunning barriers of genre, he has performed and recorded in the US and across the globe with a diverse list of artists — from late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland to Portishead’s Dave McDonald, Patti Austin, The Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart, Sonny Fortune, Greg Osby, Kenny Werner, The Mahavishnu Project and Bobby Previte, among others.
As a longtime collaborator with adventurous jazz composers (since 1999 with Vijay Iyer) as well as guitar wizard Jim Campilongo and radiant singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, he has become known for the elegance and purposeful groove of his acoustic and electric bass playing, and for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity with magnetic pull on audiences.
As a composer, Crump is emerging as a singular voice, one who “avoids obvious routes but manages never to lose his way” (The New York Times).