Kris Davis – Diatom Ribbons

Seven years ago, in March 2017 shortly after the Elbphilharmonie opened, she was one of a number of contributors you could experience in John Zorn’s »Bagatelles Marathon« in the Grand Hall. Now, Kris Davis is opening the »Jazz Piano« series of our 2024/25 season with the core ensemble of her project Diatom Ribbons.

This quite sensational band offers a lot of scope for elements that seem difficult to combine with each other: raw punk energy and polyphonic rock sounds reminiscent of Frank Zappa, shimmering textures of free jazz and straight-ahead swing, echoes of 20th century classical music and avant-garde electronics. Davis and her band weave all this and even more in real time to an exciting, steady flow of improvisational freedom.

Terri Lyne Carrington, who with esperanza spalding and Ravi Coltrane took part in the tribute concert »The Symphonic Music of Wayne Shorter« in the Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall in November 2023, is the quartet’s brilliant drummer. Val Jeanty contributes a significant spoken-word element over a compact arsenal of live electronics and continually delivers startling sounds. Trevor Dunn, most recently in a trio with Brian Marsella as a guest pianist in the »Jazz Piano« series, anchors the flights of fancy of his colleagues with his boundless energy and imagination on the bass.