Run the Gauntlet Kris Davis Trio

• 1 Run the Gauntlet 13:58
• 2 Softly, As You Wake 03:23
• 3 First Steps 02:47
• 4 Little Footsteps 05:12
• 5 Heavy-footed 05:59
• 6 Beauty Beneath the Rubble 04:12
• 7 Beauty Beneath the Rubble Meditation 04:48
• 8 Knotweed 08:09
• 9 Coda Queen 04:37
• 10 Dream State 04:54
• 11 Subtones 05:03
• Total Runtime 01:03:02

Info for Run the Gauntlet

Pianist, composer, improviser, and label owner Kris Davis has been forging her own distinctive path in the creative jazz scene, earning widespread acclaim. In Run the Gauntlet, Davis returns to the piano trio format for the first time in a decade, teaming up with seasoned bassist Robert Hurst and sensitive drummer Johnathan Blake. The album pays tribute to six extraordinary women pianists who have profoundly shaped her sound and influenced her musical direction: Geri Allen, Marilyn Crispell, Angelica Sanchez, Carla Bley, Renee Rosnes, and Sylvie Courvoisier.

Straddling the line between post-bop and avant-garde jazz, the title track, “Run the Gauntlet”, opens with a palpable tension, featuring odd-metered ostinatos that weave in and out over the rhythmic turmoil of bass and drums. The piece gradually finds a groove, with dynamic shifts and tempo changes, as the trio delivers head-spinning improvisations. Blake's drumming intensifies the conclusion by erecting a massive wall of snare, cymbals, and toms. “Knotweed” hints at prog-rock in its initial moments before slipping into Monk/Coltrane territory in its firmly outlined head. The trio swings with humor and grace, pushing the piece into a frenetic avant-garde finale.

Davis rarely delves deeply into jazz tradition, but when she does, the result is forward-leaning music sculpted with charm and spontaneous creativity. Her prepared piano takes on world music influences in “Softly, As You Wake” and the freely improvised “Subtones”, both of which feature deep, resonant arco bass and gamelan-like rhythmic pulsations. The latter piece evolves into a freewheeling, groovy atmosphere, bearing a resemblance to the meditative version of Blake’s “Beauty Beneath the Rubble”, while its original version takes on the form of a tranquil rubato hymn, gently brushed to a shimmering finish.

Davis also composed a three-part composition inspired by her son’s growth. “First Steps” is a solo piano piece that balances passion and detachment, offering pulse, motion, and freedom. “Little Footsteps” brings a snappy polyrhythmic feel that, borrowing from funk, also draws from electronic and modern creative jazz, with Hurst’s dancing bass lines blurring the boundaries between these genres. “Heavy-Footed” centers around a riff set within a 10-beat cycle that occasionally slows, striking a balance between jagged and smooth edges. Each note played emerges beveled.

"The trio is clearly having fun in Run the Gauntlet, a mature, boundary-pushing record made by adventurous instrumentalists whose rapport is no less than wonderful." (jazztrail.net)

Kris Davis, piano, prepared piano
Robert Hurst, double bass
Johnathan Blake, drums

Recorded on January 14, 2024 at Brooklyn Recording
Recorded by Andy Taub
Mixed by Ben Greenberg
Mastered by Scott Hull

Kris Davis
is a Grammy award-winning pianist and composer described by The New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz [in New York] on a given night.” Davis has released 24 recordings as a leader or co-leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey and Esperanza Spalding. She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021. In 2019, Kris Davis’ “Diatom Ribbons” was named jazz album of the year by both the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll.

The album draws from the musical worlds of free improvisation, spoken word, electronica, mainstream jazz, R&B and rock. In September 2023, Davis released ‘Diatom Ribbons – Live at the Village Vanguard’ featuring Grammy winner and NEA Jazz Master Terri Lyne Carrington on drums, Julian Lage on guitar, Val Jeanty on turntables and electronics, and Trevor Dunn on bass. Davis is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice and the founder of Pyroclastic Records. Davis is a Steinway Artist.

This album contains no booklet.