Marilyn Crispell
Crispell in music is (Speaking Portraits Vol. I)
Background information
Born	(1947-03-30)March 30, 1947 (age 78) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Genres	Jazz,classical
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instrument	Piano
Years active	1977–present
Labels	Leo,Black Saint,Music & Arts,ECM
Website	www.marilyncrispell.com

Marilyn Crispell (born March 30, 1947) is an Americanjazz 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."^[1]Jon Pareles ofThe 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."^[2] In addition to her own extensive work as a soloist or bandleader, Crispell is known as a longtime member of saxophonistAnthony Braxton's quartet in the 1980s and '90s.^[3]

Crispell was born inPhiladelphia and, at the age of ten, moved toBaltimore, where she attendedWestern High School.^[4][5] She studied classical piano at thePeabody 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.^[4] She later attended theNew England Conservatory of Music, where she studied piano and composition, graduating in 1968.^[6][1][7] Crispell was not interested in jazz until 1975, when, while living onCape Cod, she heardJohn Coltrane'sA 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."^[7]

Crispell soon returned toBoston, where she studied jazz privately withCharlie Banacos for two years. According to Crispell, "I had to, like, really go from scratch. I had to do everything in twelve keys. I had to write out seven solos in every key on every piece. I had to listen to tons of stuff and transcribe it to be able to hear and understand what was happening, you know, within the confines of these time cycles and chord changes. How were people using the chords and the notes and the chords and the scales? Where did they go outside of them?"^[8]

While in Boston, she met saxophonistCharlie Mariano, who suggested she consider attending sessions at theCreative Music Studio inWoodstock, NY, founded byKarl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, andOrnette Coleman.^[4] In 1977, she visited the studio for a summer, and came into contact with musicians such asCecil Taylor,Don Cherry,Roscoe Mitchell,Wadada Leo Smith,Anthony Davis, andOliver Lake.^[7] Regarding her first encounter with Taylor, she recalled: "I remember the day I first met Cecil Taylor... He was playing pool, and there was a piano behind the pool room. So I sat at the piano and gave him an impromptu concert, hoping he'd listen. When I was finished he kissed my hand, and said, 'This lady can play!' I'm still flattered to hear my name mentioned in the same breath."^[9] (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."^[10][7][5]) Regarding her time at theCreative Music Studio, she stated: "It was and is a unique place in the world for the kind of music that we do... If it had taken place in New York City I don't think the feeling would have been the same. Here you were living and eating and hanging out with the guiding artists in this country motel setting. People would be up all night making bonfires and playing outside on the lawn with musicians from all over the world. It was a very important human experience and I met many of the people I ended up playing with."^[7] Upon completion of the session, Crispell quickly moved to Woodstock and has resided there ever since.^[4][11]

While at theCreative Music Studio, Crispell also metAnthony 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."^[9] She was soon invited to join Braxton's Creative Music Orchestra and his quartet, of which she was a member from 1983 to 1995, and which also featured bassistMark Dresser, and drummerGerry Hemingway.^[6] During this time, she made roughly a dozen recordings with Braxton, and also began releasing recordings under her own name. Regarding her tenure with the group, she stated: "[I]t was like a family. Playing with Anthony really taught me a lot about space, the use of space and silence and breath, and the use of composition in improvisation... Just being inside his compositions taught me a lot about composition... What really impressed me is that he was composing in a way that was very similar to contemporary classical musicians but with a lot more freedom, allowing interpretation.".^[4] Since then, silence and space have become known as a central part of her recordings. As she noted in an interview with PostGenre, Marilyn noted, "[W]hen I first started playing creative music, I don’t think I left much of any silence in my performances. I was focused heavily on playing into the energy and showing what I could do. That kind of thinking is very far away from my mindset now."^[12]

During the late 1970s and 1980s, she also worked and recorded withReggie Workman,Roscoe Mitchell,Wadada Leo Smith, theBarry Guy New Orchestra, the EuropeanQuartet Noir (withUrs Leimgruber,Fritz Hauser, andJoëlle Léandre), andBabatunde Olatunji. In 1981 she performed at theWoodstock Jazz Festival, held in celebration of the tenth anniversary of theCreative Music Studio.

In the early 1990s, her style began to evolve further when she visitedStockholm, where she heard a Swedish group that included bassistAnders 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."^[6] "Some of this kind of beauty and Nordic sound and tenderness opened up something in me that I had really kept hidden because I was trying to be really strong all the time. Even when I played romantic things I played them with a lot of energy. So suddenly this other sound entered into my consciousness and it resonated with something in me that I had not allowed to be expressed."^[4] She soon performed and recorded with Jormin and hisBortom Quintet. In 1996, she recordedNothing Ever Was, Anyway: Music of Annette Peacock withGary Peacock,Paul Motian, andAnnette Peacock, her first album forECM. Regarding her ECM recordings, she stated: "A lot of the stuff I have been doing with ECM is more about an inner intensity rather than an outer one. I feel there is a connection between the two states - wild energy and extreme introversion - two sides of the same coin. I do both and feel like there is an organic connection between them - an integration between them. With the ECM recordings, I like the idea of playing things so slowly that you are almost suspended in time."^[10]

Crispell has continued to perform and record extensively as a soloist and leader of her own groups, as well as with theEvan Parker Trio, an all-female trio led by Denmark'sLotte Anker,Tisziji Munoz,Ivo Perelman,Scott Fields, the Copenhagen Art Ensemble,Trio Tapestry with saxophonistJoe Lovano and drummer Carmen Castaldi, Trio 3 (Reggie Workman,Oliver Lake,Andrew Cyrille), theDave Douglas Trio,Tyshawn Sorey, and many other musicians. She has also performed and recorded music by contemporary composers such asJohn Cage,Pauline Oliveros,Robert Cogan,Pozzi Escot, Manfred Niehaus, andAnthony Davis (including his operaX, The Life and Times of Malcolm X with theNew York City Opera).

She has taught improvisation workshops and given lecture/demonstrations across the world and has collaborated with poets, dancers, filmmakers, and videographers. She has been the recipient of aGuggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition (2005–2006),^[13] aMary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust composition commission (1988–1989), and threeNew 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 theNew England Conservatory, and in 2004, was named as being one of their 100 most outstanding alumni of the past 100 years.^[14] She is the author of the instructional DVD "A pianist's guide to free improvisation: keys to unlocking your creativity" (2002, Homespun Video).^[15][16]

In 2000, Crispell appeared in the French filmWomen in Jazz by Gilles Corre.^[17] In 2005–2006, she performed and recorded with the NOW Orchestra inVancouver, and was co-director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute and a faculty member at theBanff Centre International Workshop in Jazz.^[6] She also created and directed a multi media production entitledCy Twombly Dreamhouse, with choreography by Savia Berger.^[18] In 2017, she collaborated with Jo Ganter, visual artist, andRaymond MacDonald, saxophonist, both fromScotland, onDrawing Sound, an exhibition of graphic scores at the Kleinert/James Gallery, Woodstock, NY.^[19]

At the 2025 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert in Kennedy Center, Washington DC, Marilyn was awarded a NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship, America’s highest honor in jazz.^[20]

withLotte Anker andMarilyn Mazur

• Poetic Justice (Dacapo, 2001)

with Clint Bahr

• Puzzlebox (Moonjune, 2022)

withThurman Barker

• The Way I Hear It (Uptee Productions, 1998)

withAnthony Braxton

• Composition 98 (hatART, 1981)
• Six Compositions (Quartet) 1984 (Black Saint, 1985)
• Quartet (London) 1985 (Leo, 1985 [1988])
• Prag 1984 (Quartet Performance) (Sound Aspects, 1984 [1990])
• Quartet (Birmingham) 1985 (Leo, 1985 [1991])
• Willisau (Quartet) 1991 (hatART, 1991)
• Quartet (Coventry) 1985 (Leo, 1985 [1993])
• (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 [1995])
• Quartet (Santa Cruz) 1993 (hatART, 1993 [1997])
• 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)

withAndrea Centazzo

• Stolen Moment (Ictus, 2020)

with Agustí Fernández

• River Tiger Fire (Fundacja Słuchaj!, 2015)

withScott Fields

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

withJohn Geggie and Nick Fraser

• Geggie Project (Ambiances Magnétiques, 2008)

with The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra andEvan Parker

• Parallel Moments Unbroken (FMR, 2018)

withBarry Guy

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

withBarry Guy London Jazz Composer's Orchestra

• Three Pieces for Orchestra (Intakt, 1997)
• Double Trouble Two (Intakt, 1998)

withBarry Guy New Orchestra

• Inscape–Tableaux (Intakt, 2001)

withGuy-Gustafsson-Strid Trio

• Gryffgryffgryffs: The 1996 Radio Sweden Concert (live) (Music & Arts, 1997)

withBarry Guy andPaul Lytton

• Odyssey (Intakt, 2001)
• Ithaca (Intakt, 2004)
• Phases of the Night (Intakt, 2008)
• Deep Memory (Intakt, 2016)

withFrancois Houle

• Any Terrain Tumultuous (Red Toucan, 1995)

withAnders Jormin

• In Winds, In Light (ECM, 2004)

withHenry Kaiser

• Eternity Blue (Shanachie, 1995)

withSteve Lacy

• Five Facings (FMP, 1996)

withJoelle 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)

withUrs Leimgruber,Joelle Leandre andFritz Hauser

• Quartet Noir (Victo, 1999)
• Quartet Noir Lugano (Victo, 2005)

withJoe Lovano

• Trio Tapestry (ECM, 2019)
• Garden of Expression (ECM, 2021)
• Our Daily Bread (ECM, 2023)

withRaymond MacDonald

• Parallel Moments (Babel, 2014)
• Songs Along the Way (Babel, 2018)

with Raymond MacDonald andPierre Alexandre Tremblay

• Two Duos : Three Trios (Bruce's Fingers, 2016)

with TheRoscoe Mitchell Creative Orchestra

• Sketches from Bamboo (Moers, 1979)

withMichael Moore andGerry Hemingway

• MGM Trio (Ramboy, 1996)

withTisziji 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)

withLarry Ochs

• The Secret Magritte (Black Saint, 1996)

withParker-Guy-Lytton Trio

• Natives and Aliens (Leo, 1997)
• After Appleby (Leo, 2000)

withIvo 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 andVincent Courtois

• Shifting Grace (CAM Jazz, 2006)

withGunhild Seim andDavid Rothenberg

• Grenseland (Drollehala, 2018)

withGunhild Seim & Time Jungle

• Elephant Wings (Drollehala, 2012)

withWadada Leo Smith

• Budding of a Rose (Moers, 1979)

withReggie Workman

• Synthesis (Leo, 1986)
• Images (Music & Arts, 1990)
• Altered Spaces (Leo, 1993)

with Bobby Zankel

• Human Flowers (CIMP, 1996)

performing works ofJohn Cage

• Works for Piano, Toy Piano & Prepared Piano, Vol. III (Wergo, 1991)

performing works ofRobert Cogan,Pozzi Escot and Manfred Niehaus

• Stellar Pulsations / Three Composers (Leo, 1994)

• "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

• Crispell, Marilyn. 2000. "Elements of Improvisation: For Cecil Taylor and Anthony Braxton." InArcana: Musicians on Music, ed. John Zorn, 190–192. New York: Granary Books/Hips Road.

• Official website
• short film portrait on Marilyn Crispell
• Marilyn Crispell Interview at allaboutjazz.com
• Finding aid to the Marilyn Crispell collection at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
• Lopez, Rick."The Marilyn Crispell Sessionography". RetrievedDecember 13, 2007.

• 1947 births
• Living people
• Avant-garde jazz musicians
• Avant-garde jazz pianists
• American jazz pianists
• American women composers
• American jazz composers
• Jazz musicians from Philadelphia
• American women jazz pianists
• New England Conservatory alumni
• ECM Records artists
• Cadence Jazz Records artists
• 20th-century American pianists
• 20th-century American women pianists
• 21st-century American pianists
• 21st-century American women pianists
• Leo Records artists
• Music & Arts artists
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• NEA Jazz Masters

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