Events

Live from Harlem – JFA Presents: Marilyn Crispell

Thursday, April 16 @ 2:00 pm
National Jazz Museum in Harlem

Of the many pianists to make a mark in avant-garde jazz during the past 50 years, few have had as profound an impact as Marilyn Crispell. Born in Philadelphia, Crispell grew up in Baltimore, and studied classical piano at the Peabody Institute. Continuing her education at New England Conservatory, where she took in both avant-garde and baroque styles, she later experienced a key epiphany when she came across John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme. Soon after, a visit to the Creative Music Studio, the musical hub founded in Woodstock in 1971 by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso and Ornette Coleman, introduced her to key later collaborators including Anthony Braxton. From the early ‘80s through the early ‘90s, she was an integral member of Braxton’s quartet, one of the most celebrated bands of the era, and also worked extensively in a band led by the eminent bassist Reggie Workman, an experience that she has cited as profoundly influential on her own music. Crispell’s vast discography as a leader includes high-energy free jazz and spacious, lyrical trio collaborations. In recent years, she has forged alliances with younger artists such as Tyshawn Sorey and Angelica Sanchez and worked steadily with Joe Lovano in the enchanting Trio Tapestry. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2005, was named an NEA Jazz Master in 2025, and was recently announced as a recipient of the 2026 Jazz Legacies Fellowship. Please join us for this special solo concert. 

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Presented in partnership with the Jazz Foundation of America, supported in part by an award from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

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