Music Secret Keeper Featuring Bassist Stephan Crump ’94 and Guitarist Mary Halvorson

The Amherst College Department of Music presents a concert by Secret Keeper, a duo featuring bassist and Amherst College alum Stephan Crump '94 and guitarist Mary Halvorson, on Tuesday, March 31 at 4 p.m. in Cole Assembly Room of Converse Hall at Amherst College. The performance is free of charge and open to the public.

Described by Jim Macnie of The Village Voice as “a laboratory for two of the most inventive string players working today ... luminous, hushed, reflective, whimsical, dramatic, gripping, edge-of-your-seat soundscapes imbued with architectural savvy...,” Secret Keeper will perform music from their new Intakt Records release, Emerge, along with pieces from their debut, Super Eight, interspersed with spontaneously composed passages.

Memphis-bred, Grammy-nominated bassist and composer Stephan Crump is a rising light on the New York music scene. Shunning barriers of genre, he has performed and recorded in the U.S. and across the globe with a diverse list of artists-- from late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland, Portishead's Dave McDonald, Patti Austin, The Violent Femmes' Gordon Gano, Dave Liebman, Billy Hart, Sonny Fortune, Greg Osby, The Mahavishnu Project and Bobby Previte, among others. As a longtime collaborator with adventurous jazz composers (since 1999 with Vijay Iyer) as well as guitar wizard Jim Campilongo and radiant singer-songwriter Jen Chapin, he has become known for the elegance and purposeful groove of his acoustic and electric bass playing, and for transforming his instrument into a speaking entity with magnetic pull on audiences. As a composer, Crump is emerging as a singular voice, one who “avoids obvious routes but manages never to lose his way” (The New York Times). His music can be heard in numerous films and on his eight critically acclaimed albums, the latest of which, Thwirl, featuring his all-string Rosetta Trio (“a highly-original ensemble” --JazzWise), has been lauded by DownBeat for its “superior interplay, chemistry, delicacy and vision.” Currently, Stephan can be heard as a member of Vijay Iyer Trio, Jen Chapin Band, Ches Smith Quartet, Rez Abassi Acoustic Quartet, Liberty Ellman Quintet, Secret Keeper and his own Rosetta Trio.

Guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. Critics have called Ms. Halvorson “NYC’s least ­predictable improviser” (Howard Mandel, City Arts), “the most forward-thinking guitarist working right now” (Lars Gotrich, NPR.org) and “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders” (Francis Davis, The Village Voice). In addition to her longstanding trio, featuring bassist John Hébert and drummer Ches Smith, and her quintet, which adds trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and alto saxophonist Jon Irabagon, Ms. Halvorson also co­-leads a chamber ­jazz duo with violist Jessica Pavone, the avant-­rock band People and the collective ensembles Thumbscrew and Secret Keeper. She is also an active member of bands led by Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, Trevor Dunn, Tomas Fujiwara, Curtis Hasselbring, Ingrid Laubrock, Tom Rainey, Mike Reed and Marc Ribot, among others.

For more information, contact the Amherst College Concert Office at 413-542-2195 or concerts@amherst.edu.