Memphis-bred, Brooklynite bassist/composer Stephan Crump, best known for his dynamic role in the Grammy-nominated, Echo award-winning Vijay Iyer Trio, has for years led his own ensembles, including the uniquely colorful and hard-grooving all-string Rosetta Trio, featuring guitarists Liberty Ellman and Jamie Fox. Hailed as “a string ensemble for the new century” (AllAboutJazz), 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. Their second album, Reclamation (2010), declared “a low-key marvel” (JazzTimes) and noted for its “bareness in emotion” (NPR), was much more than a follow-up effort, though it was the earlier album that gave the trio its name and its mission: to inhabit the dynamic and rhythmic flexibility of a drumless ensemble and embrace its challenges and expanded responsibilities; to reject restrictions of genre; to explore different territories of feel, texture, color; to groove.
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. Their third album, Thwirl (2013), recorded after eight years of collaboration and on the heels of a two-week European tour, captures Rosetta Trio not only at peak telepathy, but charting new territories of shape and feel.