Marilyn Crispell

Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an American jazz pianist and composer. Scott Yanow described her as "a powerful player... who has her own way of using space... She is near the top of her field." Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote: "Hearing Marilyn Crispell play solo piano is like monitoring an active volcano... She is one of a very few pianists who rise to the challenge of free jazz." In addition to her own extensive work as a soloist or bandleader, Crispell is known as a longtime member of saxophonist Anthony Braxton's quartet in the 1980s and '90s.

Biography Crispell was born in Philadelphia and, at the age of ten, moved to Baltimore, where she attended Western High School. She studied classical piano at the Peabody Conservatory beginning at age seven, and also began improvising at an early age, thanks to a teacher who required all her students to improvise regardless of their skill level. Crispell was not interested in jazz until 1975, when, while living on Cape Cod, she heard John Coltrane's A Love Supreme for the first time. She recalls: "The emotional and spiritual quality of it overpowered me... I can honestly say it's possibly the most overpowering experience I've ever had in my life. That one night of listening to A Love Supreme over and over and over just completely changed my life."

While in Boston, she met saxophonist Charlie Mariano, who suggested she consider attending sessions at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY, founded by Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, and Ornette Coleman. (During this time, people frequently referred to her as "the female Cecil Taylor" due to her fiery approach to the piano and her tendency to play "lots of notes, all of the time. Continuously, without much of a break."

While at the Creative Music Studio, Crispell also met Anthony Braxton, who invited her to sit in with his group. She recalls: "At our first gig Anthony placed a beer in my hand and said, 'Relax, don't play so many notes.' I was playing like a thousand notes a minute, and he was the first person to make me think of space and breath and phrasing, as opposed to a constant barrage."

During the late 1970s and 1980s, she also worked and recorded with Reggie Workman, Roscoe Mitchell, Wadada Leo Smith, the Barry Guy New Orchestra, the European Quartet Noir (with Urs Leimgruber, Fritz Hauser, and Joëlle Léandre), and Babatunde Olatunji. In 1981 she performed at the Woodstock Jazz Festival, held in celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Creative Music Studio.

In the early 1990s, her style began to evolve further when she visited Stockholm, where she heard a Swedish group that included bassist Anders Jormin. She recalls: "It just touched a nerve in me... it unlocked the door to the lyrical things that I would have liked to be doing and wasn't doing." a Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission (1988–1989), and three New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship grants (1988–1989, 1994-1995 and 2006–2007). In 1996, Crispell was presented with an Outstanding Alumni Award by the New England Conservatory, and in 2004, was named as being one of their 100 most outstanding alumni of the past 100 years. She is the author of the instructional DVD "A pianist's guide to free improvisation: keys to unlocking your creativity" (2002, Homespun Video).

In 2000, Crispell appeared in the French film Women in Jazz by Gilles Corre. In 2005–2006, she performed and recorded with the NOW Orchestra in Vancouver, and was co-director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a faculty member at the Banff Centre International Workshop in Jazz. In 2017, she collaborated with Jo Ganter, visual artist, and Raymond MacDonald, saxophonist, both from Scotland, on Drawing Sound, an exhibition of graphic scores at the Kleinert/James Gallery, Woodstock, NY.

Crispell was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, America’s highest honor in jazz, in 2025. Discography

As leader/co-leader

Compilations

As side musician

with Lotte Anker and Marilyn Mazur Poetic Justice (Dacapo, 2001)

with Clint Bahr Puzzlebox (Moonjune, 2022)

with Thurman Barker The Way I Hear It (Uptee Productions, 1998)

with Anthony Braxton Composition 98 (hatART, 1981) Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984 (Black Saint, 1985) Quartet (London) 1985 (Leo, 1985 ) Prag 1984 (Quartet Performance) (Sound Aspects, 1984 ) Quartet (Birmingham) 1985 (Leo, 1985 ) Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (hatART, 1991) Quartet (Coventry) 1985 (Leo, 1985 ) (Victoriaville) 1992 (Victo, 1993) Twelve Compositions: Recorded Live in July 1993 at Yoshi's in Oakland California (Music & Arts, 1994) Creative Orchestra (Köln) 1978 (hatART, 1978 ) Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 (hatART, 1993 ) The Coventry Concert (Bootleg / Unauthorized, 2006) Orchestra (Paris) 1978 (Bootleg / Unauthorized, 2011) Quartet (New York) 1993 - Set 1 (Bootleg / Unauthorized, 2011) Quartet (New York) 1993 - Set 2 (Bootleg / Unauthorized, 2011) The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note (C.A.M. Jazz, 2011) Quartet (Karlsruhe) 1983 (live, archival) (New Braxton House, 2012) Quartet (Mulhouse) 1983 (live, archival) (New Braxton House, 2012) CMS Archive Selections, Volume 2 (Planet Arts, 2015)

with Andrea Centazzo Stolen Moment (Ictus, 2020)

with Agustí Fernández River Tiger Fire (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2015)

with Scott Fields 48 Motives, January 11, 1996 (Cadence, 1996) Five Frozen Eggs (Music & Arts, 1997) Stephen Dembski – Sonotropism (Music & Arts, 1997)

with John Geggie and Nick Fraser Geggie Project (Ambiances Magnétiques, 2008)

with The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra and Evan Parker Parallel Moments Unbroken (FMR, 2018)

with Barry Guy Blue Horizon. Barry Guy@70 [Live At The Ad Libitum Festival 2017] (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2018)

with Barry Guy London Jazz Composer's Orchestra Three Pieces for Orchestra (Intakt, 1997) Double Trouble Two (Intakt, 1998)

with Barry Guy New Orchestra Inscape–Tableaux (Intakt, 2001)

with Guy-Gustafsson-Strid Trio Gryffgryffgryffs: The 1996 Radio Sweden Concert (live) (Music & Arts, 1997)

with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton Odyssey (Intakt, 2001) Ithaca (Intakt, 2004) Phases of the Night (Intakt, 2008) Deep Memory (Intakt, 2016)

with Francois Houle Any Terrain Tumultuous (Red Toucan, 1995)

with Anders Jormin In Winds, In Light (ECM, 2004)

with Henry Kaiser Eternity Blue (Shanachie, 1995)

with Steve Lacy Five Facings (FMP, 1996)

with Joelle Leandre Joëlle Léandre Project (Leo, 2000) Stone Quartet: DMG @ The Stone Volume 1: December 22, 2006 (DMG/ARC, 2008) Stone Quartet: Live at Vision Festival (Ayler, 2011)

with Urs Leimgruber, Joelle Leandre and Fritz Hauser Quartet Noir (Victo, 1999) Quartet Noir Lugano (Victo, 2005)

with Joe Lovano Trio Tapestry (ECM, 2019) Garden of Expression (ECM, 2021) Our Daily Bread (ECM, 2023)

with Raymond MacDonald Parallel Moments (Babel, 2014) Songs Along the Way (Babel, 2018)

with Raymond MacDonald and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay Two Duos : Three Trios (Bruce's Fingers, 2016)

with The Roscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra Sketches from Bamboo (Moers, 1979)

with Michael Moore and Gerry Hemingway MGM Trio (Ramboy, 1996)

with Tisziji Munoz Auspicious Healing! (Anami, 2000) Breaking the Wheel of Life and Death (Anami, 2000) Heart to Heart (Anami, 2013) Beautiful Empty Fullness (Anami, 2014) The Paradox of Independence (Anami, 2014)

with NOW Orchestra Pola (Victo, 2005)

with Larry Ochs The Secret Magritte (Black Saint, 1996)

with Parker-Guy-Lytton Trio Natives and Aliens (Leo, 1997) After Appleby (Leo, 2000)

with Ivo Perelman En Adir (Music & Arts, 1997) Sound Hierarchy (Music & Arts, 1997) Brass and Ivory Tales (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2021)

with Nelly Pouget Le Voir (Minuit 5 Regards, 1998)

with Michele Rabbia and Vincent Courtois Shifting Grace (CAM Jazz, 2006)

with Gunhild Seim and David Rothenberg Grenseland (Drollehala, 2018)

with Gunhild Seim & Time Jungle Elephant Wings (Drollehala, 2012)

with Wadada Leo Smith Budding of a Rose (Moers, 1979)

with Reggie Workman Synthesis (Leo, 1986) Images (Music & Arts, 1990) Altered Spaces (Leo, 1993)

with Bobby Zankel Human Flowers (CIMP, 1996)

performing works of John Cage Works for Piano, Toy Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. III (Wergo, 1991)

performing works of Robert Cogan, Pozzi Escot and Manfred Niehaus Stellar Pulsations / Three Composers (Leo, 1994)

Filmography "Rising Tones Cross" (1985) dir. Ebba Jahn Femmes du Jazz / Women in Jazz (2000) by Gilles Corre The Songpoet (2019) by Paul Lamont Motian in Motion (2020) by Michael Patrick Kelly ECM50 | 2000 - Marilyn Crispell (episode in a series of 51 short films on ECM, 2020) by IJ.Biermann