Jul 22, 2026 12:37 PM
In Memoriam: Rodney Holmes, 1966–2026
Drummer Rodney Holmes, a powerful presence behind the kit who emerged as an in-demand player on the New York scene…
The sound of pianist Marilyn Crispell changed following a trip to a festival in Stockholm: “I heard them playing stuff that really, really touched me.”
(Photo: Claire Stefani)The performance is remarkably cohesive, traveling through several distinct phases, neither player ever seeming to catch the other off guard. This might be because Crispell and Sorey both are composers who improvise, and both are deeply in-tune with the creative and philosophical principles of the AACM, the drummer as a student (he wrote his master’s thesis on Mitchell) and the pianist as a peer.
“Tyshawn gives me a lot of space—in a way, a lot more space to introduce things than I’m used to,” she said, admiringly. “Often, someone will just put something down and I’ll react to it, which became a way of operating for me. And so, I suddenly felt that I was not in that kind of comfort zone anymore, that I had a different kind of responsibility for the direction of the music.”
On Wednesday, Crispell and saxophonist Joe Lovano’s Trio Tapestry, a group that made its debut earlier this year, head out on a string of European dates. Somewhere along the way, they’ll duck into the studio and make a second album.
Crispell describes the trio as “sort of a renaissance for me, to be invited to join that group and play his music that’s also challenging; a lot of stuff out of my comfort zone. But it’s all stuff that I can relate to, and I love the challenge.”
Four decades out from her Creative Music Studio days, it seems as if Crispell continues foraging for new sounds. DB
A drummer’s drummer, Rodney Holmes gigged with everyone from Joe Zawinul and Carlos Santana to Steve Kimock and the Brecker Brothers.
Jul 22, 2026 12:37 PM
Drummer Rodney Holmes, a powerful presence behind the kit who emerged as an in-demand player on the New York scene…
Clockwise from top left, Mary Halvorson, Patricia Brennan, Adam O’Farrill, Keith Jarrett’s At the Deer Head Inn: The Complete Recordings, Sheila Jordan and Jaki Byard.
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“There was something about her tone and sound and phrasing — an intimacy, a vulnerability, an honesty,” says Joshua Redman, who produced Cavassa’s record after she toured with his band.
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