Vignettes
Studio album by
Marilyn Crispell
Released2007
RecordedApril 2007
GenreAvant-garde jazz
Length68:23
LabelECM
ECM 2027
ProducerManfred Eicher
Marilyn Crispell chronology
Storyteller
(2004)		 Vignettes
(2007)		 One Dark Night I Left My Silent House
(2010)

Vignettes is a solo album by American jazz pianist Marilyn Crispell recorded in April 2007 and released on ECM later that same year.[1]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
All About Jazz #1[3]
All About Jazz #2[4]
All About Jazz #3[5]
The Guardian[6]

Writing for All About Jazz, Martin Gladu stated: "Drawing more on the tone-conscious, rubato balladeering of the Bleyian school rather than the cantankerous approach of Cecil Taylor... Crispell blends to her modernist factory a classical music informed eloquence and patina that is all her own. Mixing melodic free-ballads and spatial improvisations with all-over, gestural pieces, she maintains a high level of creativity in her playing throughout the sixty-minute plus session."[3]

In a separate All About Jazz article, Budd Kopman remarked: "With Vignettes, Crispell continues to make beautiful music with an intensity that is breathtaking. The seventeen tracks sound of a piece, connected by a searching concentration, regardless of whether the individual piece is a free improvisation or one based on a composition... Vignettes is a new high point for Crispell as she continues her musical journey."[4]

Another AAJ writer, John Kelman, stated: "Unerringly beautiful, Vignettes may be Crispell's most accessible recording to date. Still, with its innate lack of compromise, it's another compelling addition to a growing discography from the fearlessly open-minded Crispell that reveals new facets with each successive release."[5]

The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek states, "Vignettes is a remarkable and moving recording—one that is timeless and honest, and communicates directly, literally, and poetically to the listener in a manner that is gentle yet pronounces its emotional weight without hesitation or self-consciousness."[2]

In a review for Elsewhere, Graham Reid remarked: "Crispell stakes a strong claim to being one of the most daring yet considered pianists in improvised music today. Listening music, if you know what I mean."[7]

John Fordham, in an article for The Guardian, wrote: "There are hints of Paul Bley's lyrical precision and Jarrett's song motifs in this private, slow-moving, but exquisitely articulated, dreamscape. The melodies often bloom, Bley-like, in short motifs on to which asides fall and accumulate, and though there are a few jagged, more intense pieces... most of the episodes are meditative."[6]

In a review for Point of Departure, Stuart Broomer called the music "work of stunning economy and an emotional translucence in which keyboard touch reaches rare levels of communication," and wrote: "Crispell's intensity of focus lends this CD a special aura... It's music in which architectural rigor and a slow dance of liberation seem to define a common ground, music in which emotion is free to be both complex and direct."[8]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Marilyn Crispell, except as noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Vignette I" 2:19
2."Valse triste" 2:59
3."Cuida tu espíritu"Jayna Nelson7:47
4."Gathering Light" 5:54
5."Vignettes II" 2:29
6."Vignette III" 1:08
7."Vignette IV" 1:48
8."Vignette V" 1:36
9."Sweden" 7:04
10."Once" 3:55
11."Axis" 3:45
12."Vignette VI" 2:56
13."Vignette VII" 4:02
14."Ballade" 5:11
15."Time Past"  
16."Stilleweg"Arve Henriksen6:18
17."Little Song for My Father" 3:21

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ ECM discography accessed November 14, 2011
  2. 1 2 Jurek, Thom. "Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes". AllMusic. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  3. 1 2 Gladu, Martin (May 22, 2008). "Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes". All About Jazz. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Kopman, Budd (May 11, 2008). "Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes". All About Jazz. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Kelman, John (April 15, 2008). "Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes". All About Jazz. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  6. 1 2 Fordham, John (May 1, 2008). "Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes". The Guardian. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  7. ↑ Reid, Graham (May 17, 2008). "Marilyn Crispell: Vignettes". Elsewhere. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  8. ↑ Broomer, Stuart. "Recent CDs Briefly Reviewed". Point of Departure. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
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