page_title: Craig Taborn
section_title: Artistry
hierarchical_section_title: Craig Taborn / Artistry
caption_attribution_description: English: Keyboardist Craig Taborn performs at the 2013 Monterey Jazz Festival.
context_page_description: Craig Marvin Taborn is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music.
  While at university, Taborn toured and recorded with jazz saxophonist James Carter. Taborn went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings, while also building a reputation as a solo pianist. He has a range of styles, and often adapts his playing to the nature of the instrument and the sounds that he can make it produce. His improvising, particularly for solo piano, often adopts a modular approach, in which he begins with small units of melody and rhythm and then develops them into larger forms and structures.
  In 2011, Down Beat magazine chose Taborn as winner of the electric keyboard category, as well as rising star in both the piano and organ categories. By mid-2017, Taborn had released nine albums as leader or co-leader, and had appeared on more than ninety as a sideman.
context_section_description: Taborn's range of playing styles was summarized by Mike Hobart in The Financial Times: Taborn "draws obliquely on the jazz tradition [...] he is as at home in free improvisation as he is in composition". In an interview for Down Beat in 2011, Taborn described his improvising style, particularly for solo piano. When playing, he often adopts a modular approach, using small units of melody and rhythm and then developing them. This can begin from as little as three notes, with structure being built around referring back to elements of the units. He starts simply, using basic elements such as major and minor thirds, varies them in turn, and then continues to expand to create larger structures. He uses a combination of his attack and the piano's sustain pedal to draw attention to the upper partials of a note; this allows a heightened contrast between notes to be perceived.
  
  Taborn has commented on the similarities and differences in his playing on piano and electronic instruments. Comparing his accompaniments on piano and Fender Rhodes, he said that: 
  I play some of the same chords on the piano, but there are definitely things I would do on the piano because it's a more transparent instrument that I wouldn't do on the Rhodes. [...] The Rhodes is so strong that when you play something on it, it really can dictate, because it's louder and the timbre is much more opaque. So you leave more holes. On the piano, I would maybe play more sustain chords.
  Taborn prefers earlier models of Fender Rhodes, for their raunchier sound. He also attempts to retain control over the sound that is presented to an audience when playing electronic instruments: he links his instruments to his own amplifier, and then has the venue take its feed from that amplifier.
  Guitarist David Torn commented that Taborn is "the rare musician who takes the approach, 'What can I do with this instrument?' rather than playing through its book of techniques. [...He] is able to eschew the technological aspect in order to get out the sounds that he feels are suitable for the music."
caption: Taborn at the Monterey Jazz Festival, 2013
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