Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid, Ches Smith
Biographie Craig Taborn, Tomeka Reid, Ches Smith
Craig Taborn
was made MacArthur fellow 2025, an honour he received for being “a rare artist of unusual depth and originality, who enhances musical collaborations and composition through his expansive exploration of sound, technique, and instrumentation” – in the foundation’s own words.
Since Craig’s debut for the label with Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory group on 1997’s Nine To Get Ready, the pianist-composer’s ECM output has gone from strength to strength. His solo-debut Avenging Angel was received with widespread acclaim, The Guardian’s John Fordham writing that “his musicality and his attention to detail is hypnotic... as is his remarkable sense of compositional narrative within a completely improvised performance”.
Besides continued collaborative efforts with Roscoe Mitchell as well as his contributions to the groups of Chris Potter, Michael Formanek, a duo recording with Vijay Iyer and more, Craig has since released his 2013 trio recording Chants (with Thomas Morgan and Gerald Cleaver), the 2017 quartet date Daylight Ghosts (with Chris Lightcap, Chris Speed and Dave King) and the solo live album Shadow Plays, recorded at Vienna’s Wiener Konzerthaus and released in 2021. “It’s an ethereal tour de force,” BBC Music Magazine raved of the latter, calling it “sonic poetry in its purest form.” He also appears on 2024’s Relations, an album of duo recordings between Norwegian drummer Thomas Strønen and a variety of musical partners.
Craig and Ches Smith have crossed paths on ECM before, most notably on their joint trio venture with Mat Maneri on 2016’s The Bell, but also as part of Tim Berne’s Snake Oil on the 2019 album Sun of Goldfinger. They’ve each collaborated with Tomeka Reid in various previous constellations, though this marks the cellist’s ECM-debut.
Tomeka Reid
Cellist and composer Tomeka Reid, hailed as a “New Jazz Power Source” by the New York Times, has become a leading figure in Chicago’s jazz and improvised music scene. Known for her distinctive melodic style and strong groove, Reid has played in numerous influential ensembles, collaborating with prominent musicians such as Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, and Nicole Mitchell. After moving to Chicago in 2000, she honed her craft through extensive improvisational work, earning a doctorate in music from the University of Illinois in 2017. Reid’s debut album, Tomeka Reid Quartet (2015), showcased her improvisational skill and compositional talent, while her 2019 album Old New was praised for its bold, lyrical approach. In addition to leading the string trio Hear in Now, she co-founded the Chicago Jazz String Summit and is currently a professor at Mills College.
Ches Smith
Originally from Sacramento, California, Ches Smith is a drummer, percussionist, and composer based in New York. He has collaborated with a host of artists on many scenes since the early 2000s, including Marc Ribot, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Darius Jones, David Torn, John Tchicai, Nels Cline, Mary Halvorson, Trevor Dunn, Terry Riley, Kris Davis, Dave Holland, Secret Chiefs 3, Xiu Xiu, Good for Cows, Theory of Ruin, and Mr. Bungle, among others.
He has nine records to his name as a bandleader that feature his writing and ensemble curation, and is a devout student of Haitian Vodou drums, performing in religious and folkloric contexts in New York and Haiti for the last decade.
