The Kris Davis Trio featuring Robert Hurst and Johnathan Blake – Run The Gauntlet
In the 20 years since pianist composer Kris Davis released her debut album Lifespan, she has been the lead/co-lead on more than 30 albums, and has featured in the credits of well over 100 more. Davis has now put a trio together for the first time in 10 years, enlisting bassist Robert Hurst (Wynton Marsalis; Charles Lloyd, Diana Krall) and drummer Johnathan Blake (Kenny Barron, Donny McCaslin; Bill Frisell).
Her latest album, Run The Gauntlet, on her progressive Pyroclastic label, is dedicated to six women pianists: Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Sylvie Courvoisier and Renee Rosnes (Hurst actually featured on the 1989 Rosnes album Face To Face). As Davis explains in the sleeve notes: “These trailblazing women were beacons of possibility during different stages of my development, showing me that a career in music – whether as a woman, an immigrant, a parent, or a fan of avant-garde music – was attainable.”
Fittingly, Davis’ own attributes will undoubtedly influence generations to come, both as one of the present-day jazz greats, and in her role as Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. She laudably shares a similar passion with her longtime musical collaborator Terri Lyne Carrington, in pro-actively supporting and nurturing new artists, especially women musicians and composers.
Davis’ first trio album 2014’s Waiting For You To Grow, was written during pregnancy (hence the title). With perfect continuity, the centrepiece of this new album is a suite similarly inspired by her son, over a decade further on. It begins with angular solo piano on First Steps; a Hurst bass-driven Little Footsteps and finishes with the melodic and wonderfully solid Heavy-Footed.
The opening 14-minute title track incorporates intricate interplay between the musicians, culminating in some heavy Blake drumming, made all the more impactive by piano stabs from Davis, reminiscent of Holst’s ‘Mars’.
There are mellower moments here too, with Blake’s Beauty Beneath The Rubble slowing the pace – the trio enhancing the beautiful melody with subtlety and lightness. Plenty of fabulous Davis and Hurst improvised solos over Blake’s swinging drums then permeate the next track Knotweed, before the piece descends into a chaotic finish, befitting of its subject matter!
The album is interspersed with three palate-cleansing interludes, including the closing piece Subtones, all utilising treated piano, bowed bass and sparse percussion.
The New York Times awarded Davis’ ensemble album Diatom Ribbons the 2019 Jazz Album of the Year and its follow up 2023’s Live at the Village Vanguard consolidated her position as a major force on the world stage. Her integral involvement in Terri Lyne Carrington’s 2023 Grammy winning New Standards Vol 1 was further recognition of Davis’ stature, and Run The Gauntlet is likely to extend that well-deserved acknowledgement further.
John Ferguson (Instagram @johnferg01) co-promotes live music at SoundCellar in Poole (www.soundcellar.org )
Run The Gauntlet is released on Pyroclastic Records today 27 Sept 2024
