Kris Davis is a really fascinating pianist who’s been on the New York music scene for almost 20 years. She’s made a number of excellent albums as a leader and as a solo artist, and is also a member of groups like Paradoxical Frog with Ingrid Laubrock and Tyshawn Sorey, and Anti-House with Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, John Hébert and Tom Rainey. I saw that group perform at the Vision Festival at Roulette in Brooklyn back in 2012, and they’ve got three albums which are all worth your time. She also recently joined a group formed by cornet player Rob Mazurek, with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Chad Taylor, for his Desert Encrypts festival in Marfa, Texas, and they’ve released a live recording, Desert Encrypts Vol. 1.

In this conversation, we talk about Kris Davis’s music, her label Pyroclastic, which is where her new album Diatom Ribbons is coming out and also where Chris Lightcap, who was on the last podcast, is releasing his Superbigmouth album, both next week. We also talk about composing, and arranging, and her work at Berklee College of Music, where she’s just joined the faculty.

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Music heard in this episode:

Kris Davis, “Diatom Ribbons” (Diatom Ribbons)

Rob Mazurek, “Encrypt II Spiral” (Desert Encrypts Vol. 1)

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