Event Detail

UC San Diego's Jazz Initiative presents the piano duo Kris Davis and Craig Taborn.

Kris Davis and Craig Taborn will perform together during an evening of original compositions and improvisations.

Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers “uncommon creative adventure,” according to JazzTimes. Davis made her recording debut as a leader with Lifespan (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003), followed by more for the Fresh Sound label: the quartet discs The Slightest Shift (2006) and Rye Eclipse (2008), as well as the trio set Good Citizen (2010). Her 2011 solo piano album on Clean Feed, Aeriol Piano, appeared on Best of the Year lists in The New York Times, JazzTimes and Artforum. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in jazz piano from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in classical composition from the City College of New York. She currently teaches at the School for Improvised Music.

Craig Taborn is an American pianist, keyboardist and composer who also dabbles in organ and Moog synthesizer. Taborn began playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early age by the freedom expressed in the recordings of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor. While still in school, Taborn toured and recorded with saxophonist James Carter. He went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings while building his reputation as a solo pianist. Taborn has released five albums under his own name and appeared on more than 70 as a sideman.