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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    This is a special Papillon Sounds label Vinyl LP reissue of the 2013 "Thwirl" album, originally released on CD and digital by Sunnyside Records.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thwirl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      $21 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Beautiful digipak design and original artwork by artist Andy Friedman

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thwirl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Features both Limited Edition Vinyl LP Rosetta Trio releases on Papillon Sounds, "Thwirl" and "Outliers," at a discounted price.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thwirl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      $37 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Features all four Limited Edition Vinyl LP releases from Papillon Sounds, including "Thwirl" and "Outliers" by Rosetta Trio, the "Rhombal" Double LP, and "Rocket Love" solo album on clear vinyl, all at a discounted price.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thwirl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      $85 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    All four Rosetta Trio albums on CD, including Rosetta (2006), Reclamation (2010), Thwirl (2013), Outliers (2019), at a box set price.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Thwirl via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      $52 USD or more 

     

  • Sheet Music

    All ten original compositions from the Thwirl album, in PDF format.
    ships out within 1 day

      $28 USD or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12 USD  or more

     

  • 11 oz. white coffee mug with Thwirl title art
    ships out within 2 days

      $17.50 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Apparel

    Yes, we finally have Thwirl t-shirts!

    Some specifics about the material…

    The Bella + Canvas 100% combed and ring-spun cotton t-shirt feels soft and light, with just the right amount of stretch. It's comfortable and the unisex cut is flattering for both men and women.
    ships out within 2 days

      $23 USD or more 

     

  • Full Digital Discography

    Get all 13 Stephan Crump releases available on Bandcamp and save 15%.

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Slow Water (24bit Hi-Res 96kHz), Slow Water, Rocket Love (24bit Hi​-​Res 96kHz), Rocket Love, Pipestone - music from the film, Outliers, Rhombal, Thwirl, and 5 more. , and , .

    Excludes subscriber-only releases.

    Purchasable with gift card

      $136.85 USD or more (15% OFF)

     

1.
Ending 06:06
2.
3.
4.
Whiteout 04:20
5.
Thwirl 05:09
6.
Still Stolid 06:09
7.
8.
Flotsam 03:05
9.
Palimpsestic 02:47
10.

about

“a declaration of increased proportions, a culmination of
superior interplay, chemistry, delicacy and
vision” DownBeat (4.5 stars)

“exquisitely intimate music that seems to encompass the whole
world” NYJazzRecord

“stunning....as close to telepathy as we're going to get”
TheJazzSession

“careful attention reveals the intricacies of its repertory and
the calm intensity of its rapport” New York Times

“a low-key marvel...melodies and harmonies that seem equally
alluring and askew...bracing improvisation..a strangely
intuitive group dynamic... selfless and deceptively
effortless” JazzTimes

from the 2013 press release:

When it feels right, stick with it...and keep digging.
Rosetta Trio has done just that, and on Thwirl they achieve a breakthrough of their own.

Crump brought together Rosetta Trio for the first time in 2005 to record an album of pieces written in the aftermath of 9/11.  That “engaging and sublime meeting” (Signal to Noise) of Crump on acoustic bass with guitarists Liberty Ellman and Jamie Fox, produced Rosetta (2006), which was greeted enthusiastically by fans, radio, and the press. “Here is a string ensemble for the new century!" raved All About Jazz NY. 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. Recorded after eight years of collaboration and on the heels of a two-week European tour, Thwirl captures Rosetta Trio not only at peak telepathy, but charting new territories of shape and feel.

The opening piece, “Ending,” is a meditation initiated by Crump’s resonant unaccompanied bass and through which the trio emerges into the album. The cinematic “Reclamation Zone,” whose particular cadence represents an accomplishment that took the band years to achieve, is inspired by artful, green repurposing of many New York City post-industrial zones. The lovely, laconic “He Runs Circles” is inspired by Crump’s youngest son’s pre-verbal manner of showing affection by circling around his father.

The vision of a steady, quiet, but heavy snowfall is the basis for the cascading “Whiteout,” while the title track, “Thwirl,” is tricky, playful, and off-kilter...another triumph in feel that took time to discover. After all that work, “Still Stolid,” an older piece from Crump’s Tuckahoe album, feels like sliding into a well-worn saddle for an easy ride. “Palimpsestic” is a pointillistic, architecturally-inspired piece written for an eponymous concert series at the beloved, intimate Barbès venue in Brooklyn, site of the trio’s very first performance. The album concludes with “Steel Skin & Sky,” a dreamy, sky-gazing ode inspired by a New York Times Magazine photo essay on the elite cadre of steel workers whose final touch is needed to coax giant beams gently into place high above the city streets.

In Crump’s own words: “This album feels like an arrival for the trio...at the least, a snapshot of a special period of breakthrough on our journey.  Although the group’s chemistry was immediate upon our first gatherings, there are subtleties and depth now to the way the band functions, the way we feel the music together, that could come only from years of work. It’s as though, now, the trio is it’s own entity. Perhaps, then, this could be a sort of final statement for the band, but I can just as easily see it continue to grow in a number of a rich directions.  We’ll see...”

Many discerning jazz listeners have come to know Stephan Crump from his fourteen years of collaboration with Vijay Iyer, particularly in the core trio which created Accelerando and the Grammy-nominated Historicity. Stephan has worked for nearly as long with Liberty Ellman, notably on the Pi discs Tactiles and Ophiuchus Butterfly. And together with Jamie Fox, Crump performs and records with his wife, the radiant singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, most recently on Light of Mine (featuring Rosetta Trio) and her brand-new Reckoning.

Since his arrival in New York almost two decades ago, Crump has found it both natural and essential to be part of multiple music scenes. A child of Memphis, he is strongly influenced by the blues, R&B, rock and soul music of his hometown but also inspired by the classical traditions of his Parisian mother’s native land. He is a pillar of the progressive jazz scene, but also works outside it, often with eclectic uncategorizables such as Telecaster wizard Jim Campilongo. Known for his elegant, purposeful groove and for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity with magnetic pull on audiences, Crump has recorded and performed across the globe with, among others, Bobby Previte, Patti Austin, Gordon Gano, Joel Harrison, Mahavishnu Project, Big Ass Truck, and Johnny Clyde Copeland. As composer, he is emerging as a singular voice, one who “avoids obvious routes but manages never to lose his way” (New York Times). His music can be heard in numerous films and on his seven critically acclaimed albums, the three most recent of which document duo collaborations with alto saxophonist Steve Lehman, pianist James Carney, and guitarist Mary Halvorson.

Ellman and Fox were both fixtures on the San Francisco Bay area scene and had toured internationally before arriving in New York in the 90s. Aside from his own critically-acclaimed recording career, Ellman has been featured as guitarist and producer in Henry Threadgill’s innovative group, Zooid, and has performed with other jazz visionaries such as Steve Coleman and Greg Osby. An accomplished jazz composer in his own right, Fox brings his idiosyncratic folk, R&B and blues perspective that has contributed to the music of such legends as Joan Baez and Brother Jack McDuff.

credits

released January 19, 2016

Liberty Ellman - acoustic guitar
Jamie Fox - electric guitar
Stephan Crump - acoustic bass

Recorded March 26 & 27, 2012 at The Butler Plaza, Brooklyn, NY by Stephan Crump
Mixed spring 2012 by Stephan Crump with Liberty Ellman at The Butler Plaza
Mastered by Ian Kennedy at New Alliance East
Art and Design by Andy Friedman

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Stephan Crump Brooklyn, New York

Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated, Echo Award-winning bassist/composer Stephan Crump is an active bandleader with fourteen critically-acclaimed album releases in addition to numerous film scoring contributions. Known for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity of magnetic pull, his focus on creative instrumental music has led to collaborations with many leading lights of his generation. ... more

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