Rosetta Trio @ 92YTribeca 3/20/13

I was really there for the next band, but I like opportunities to see something new for me.  This was a WGBO Soundcheck show.  So, a DJ came out every now and then to ask the leader some questions and it was all live.

It was a good trio - a string trio if you will.  It was led by the contrabass and also consisted of an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar.  They did a lot from their new CD "Thwirl" coming out soon.  I especially liked the last 2 pieces, which were lively.  The 2nd to last one had the bass player using the bass as percussion at times.

Stephan Crump's Rosetta Trio

Rosetta Trio is a uniquely colorful and hard-grooving all-string chamber jazz ensemble led by Memphis-bred Brooklynite bassist/composer Stephan Crump with guitarists Liberty Ellman and Jamie Fox. Hailed as “a string ensemble for the new century” by All About Jazz, the group formed in 2005 to record an album of pieces written in the aftermath of 9/11. That album, Rosetta, was greeted with inclusion on multiple top ten lists and ecstatic reviews for its narrative depth and outstanding performances. With an ever-deepening rapport from years of touring and recording together in different contexts, in 2010 the trio released its second album, Reclamation (“a low-key marvel”, JazzTimes on Sunnyside Records, including an extended work commissioned by 92nd St. Y and New York Guitar Festival. The freshness of the compositions is matched by the dynamic, intimate synergy of the ensemble (“bareness in emotion”, NPR, which was hailed as “ingenious originals” by The New Yorker and featured in The New York Times weekend Arts section. Rosetta Trio, whose members have for years collaborated with many of the leading lights in the New York creative music scene, has developed into a formidable unit, sensitively and powerfully rendering Crump’s often profound, sometimes playful and always honest music. The trio has just finished its third album, Thwirl, which arrives September 2013 on Sunnyside Records.