CRAIG TABORN

Interview

28

November, 2025

Interview: Craig Taborn, a pianist and composer who’s somewhere above heaven

Text: José Cabello

Photos: Paulo Pacheco from Guimaraes Jazz Festival

During our time at the Cologne Jazzweek, we got to interview the great Craig Taborn. He was staying at out same hotel and we hanged for a little while having a nice conversation on different topics. In this interview, you can listen to him talk about The Weird Mouth Trio as well as his deepest thoughts on music and improvisation. We hope you enjoy both the podcast and the written article!!!

Listen to the PODCAST below

In&OutJAZZ Magazine: Alright, Craig Taborn in the house. We’re right now in Cologne for the Cologne Jazz Festival. He’s playing with the Weird Mouth Trio tonight. We are very excited to have you in In&Out Jazz. As you know, we’re a journal that covers all types of music, but we really are interested in the new forms of music, and the free jazz, and the experimental music…, and pretty much every kind of music that tries to avoid old forms or old visions of the music, and that considers the musicians kind of vessels for whatever music they want to express in whatever moment. And we find your art and yourself as a very, very interesting character and figure in the whole span of nowadays music.

So, we’re very, very pleased to have you. And the first question we would like to ask you is, how did the Weird Mouth Trio start, and how was the project thought about in the first place?

Craig Taborn: Yeah, well, I think, well, I’ve known Mette for quite some time, maybe more than 20 years.

Wow. 

And I’ve known Ches for maybe almost as long. But I hadn’t played with Mette really, I met her more when there was a workshop that she had organized with some danish musicians that I was teaching at 20 years ago. So, I had been playing with Ches in other people’s groups, but he had me in one of his groups too called The Bell, there was a trio with Mat Maneri.

Nice. 

And then he plays in my trio with Tomeka Reid as well. And so, Ches and I have played a lot together. And then I think I played with Mette maybe about 10 years ago when she asked me to do something in Brooklyn, just at a small space. So that’s when I sort of re-encountered her musically.

And then I think this group, The Weird of Mouth, came together because I had Stone’s residency, a John Zorn’s Stone Space where you do residencies for a week. And I think the way this one came about is I had a Stone week, and Mette was in town. And so, I invited her to play, and then I asked Ches to play. I think it was something like this that happened. So that’s just, and I was like “Oh, let’s have drummer and let’s have Ches”. And that’s maybe how it started. Not that it was, it makes it sound like it was my idea and it’s my group, which it wasn’t. It was just one of the ways that configuration happened.

Very interesting.

And then we did it, I can’t remember, we did it again, but what ended up happening is a couple years ago when Mette was in New York, we just decided to record. We said “hey, let’s go record somewhere”. And we did, and we just went to a studio and recorded the album that is out now that was released about a year ago. So, we recorded that, and then after that, when the album came out, we did some touring last year. So, it’s just something we’ve kind of kept going, kept developing. Yeah, that’s kind of how it started, but it was sort of just from the community and friends, you know, just coming together with different things.

How were the compositions born?

Well, it’s completely improvised. So, they’re born, they’re continually born each night.

That’s so great.

We don’t really, yeah, it’s definitely invested in the spontaneous composition method.

Sure. What’s the most important thing for you in the project, or more than that, what would be the thing that you’re learning with this trio?

Well, it’s always like kind of just learning the people or allowing the space for everybody to bring what they’re bringing. You know, it’s the same question with each ensemble, but because this kind of thing, because you’re inviting an equal, it’s an equal creation, you know. Like truly, there is no author, you know. It’s all of us, so you’re always kind of learning about each other, you know, like every performance. But the most important things are trust and open-minded and open-heartedness, because that’s what allows that. So, each person’s just bringing the thing, but I think, like any relationship, the first thing is you trust each other to just bring, operate openly, bring the best of what they can bring, and then you bring yourself. And you’re engaged in making those things happen, and I do find that’s just continually a learning process. But it’s not learning towards a goal, it’s just learning more about all the ways that stuff can be, you know.

Okay, that’s interesting, that’s beautiful. So, you just mentioned it’s not learning towards a goal, but is there any conceptual or spiritual aim? Is there any, you know, pursue anything you’re looking for or searching for when you guys are playing? Yeah, anything you guys or you are trying to achieve or, you know, also regarding the audience maybe, or regarding the music you expect will sound, or regarding yourselves, regarding your families, regarding your loved ones, I don’t know. Is there any, while you play or when you play, anything you guys are looking for?

Wow, that’s a big question. I think the best answer I would have for that is that each time I play, I sort of discover what I’m looking for, you know, and it can be different for this kind of music and these groups.

That’s fun.

I mean, I do think some people may come together with a goal of a sound, you know, like a concept, like “we’re going to be a loud heavy group or we’re going to be this”. But this kind of thing we really don’t, nobody talks about that. I think it’s about allowing things to be what they want to be at the time. And when you do that, then you kind of engage. Those groups can last forever because it allows change, you know, it’s like you might totally change who you are or what you’re trying to do even on your instruments, you know. And then when you come back to the group, it’s like, “oh, they’re at a different place, great, let’s engage with that”. So, it’s more about, “ok, what is it? What am I bringing?”. You see, William Parker’s music label is Centering Music. And he often talks about a center. And I think that, if I could identify anything, that’s the most important thing to bring is that you have a center and you can kind of know what your center is. But we’re in space time and beyond space time. So that can be, your center can be anywhere. So, it’s important that you bring that and then try to bring the best of that. So, I think in encountering that, that’s your centering everything. If you identify your center and the other musicians and then the audience, everything, it’s almost like a circumlocation where it’s like, “ok, I’m here, you’re here, this is you, the audience, the sound, this is how I’m feeling”. And when you create them, whatever is created in that context, and we’re all listening, becomes identifying, it’s almost like physics. It’s like this is the ultimate, maybe for this space, this is, you can identify the center and everybody sort of understands it some way, another way of understanding the relationship between everybody. And the beauty of that is if even another person enters the room, that may change. All of a sudden that’s changing, but you’re realizing all this. This is sort of a kind of a maybe overly conceptual abstraction, but somewhere in there is something like what I mean.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s very interesting… touching words, man. I think a lot of people are going to find that description interesting. Now, how would you describe the scene? Because you’re based in Brooklyn, right? How would you describe it’s scene? Are you thankful for what you are surrounded by?

I’ve seen a lot of scenes around, so my sense of it is, in many ways, even a larger scene, because it’s so global to me, because I have friends all over the place. But to focus on just even the area of New York or in Brooklyn, there’s so many, I think there’s a lot of interesting musicians, especially among younger musicians. There’s a lot of really interesting creativity going on right now, and there are quite a few places where it’s happening. There’s a lot of places where people are playing music. Nothing is incredibly lucrative, you know. Nobody’s making tons of money, but there are so many, like any given night, there are a lot of people doing concerts, whether it’s in somebody’s living room or in a small bar or club or lounge or in a concert space.

A lot of music going on, right?

All the time, yeah.

A lot of initiatives.

Like, if you go there, it’s like, if you’re into creative music, it’s like, “oh, there’s ten things to go see tonight, like right now”. And it’s like, whoa. And it’s all at a certain level are pretty interesting.

Would you give us a couple names of places and young people that you are looking up to? 

Oh, wow. I mean, I guess there are a lot. There are so many. I mean, a number of them are here.

Maybe you can go just for the venues if you don’t want to…

Well, yeah, I mean, I could say, yeah, because it gets weird and then you start admitting people. And yeah, it’s a long list, but I’m aware there’s little places like in Brooklyn, let’s just say Brooklyn. So there’s a place, Close Up, that’s in Lefferts Gardens area, there’s a place where jazz, there’s a place Ornithology, there’s a place, a little place, Barbes, where there’s some stuff. There’s a little bar, Lowlands, that a lot of people play at, Tim Berne kind of almost has a weekly thing there. There’s a space, it’s called 411. Actually, their space has been renovated, so they’ve been moving around. And then there’s the bigger places like Roulette and there’s Issue Project Room, which is quite a pioneer works or. Well, that’s already a lot.

Yeah, we got to be thankful for the fact that there are a lot of venues that open up the doors to these kind of projects and these kind of ideas, creative music going on. Because that keeps us all happy, really. It gives motivation to everyone that follows the music that you guys do. All right, let’s go for the last question, man. How would you, if you were to think of a concept, what concept would describe better your improvisations?

I don’t know how to… I don’t know, because I mean, so much of that is just dependent. I mean, being an improvisation, it’s so context dependent. So, there is no grand. Well, I guess an answer would be multivalent. It’s about being able to apply yourself to any variety of situations and see the different ways that things are connecting. So that would be the grand. I was about to say I couldn’t answer it because it was about that. So, I guess that’s what it is.

Yeah, there you go. There you go. I love the answer, man.

So that was all, man. Craig Taborn, thank you so much for this interview. We’re looking forward to seeing you tonight and see the trio doing great things as always. And yeah, let’s just hope you guys have a lot of fun and enjoy as we’re always doing when we listen to you guys. 

Fantastic, man.

Thank you so much. Thank you, Craig. Have a good day, man.

Great, you too. See you later.