Few artists feel truly at ease in both concert halls and jazz clubs, playing improvised or composed music. But Courvoisier — “a pianist of equal parts audacity and poise,” according to The New York Times — is as compelling when performing Stravinsky’s epochal Rite of Spring in league with new-music pianist Cory Smythe as she is when improvising with her own acclaimed jazz trio, featuring bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Then there are her ear-opening collaborations with such luminaries as John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker, Ikue Mori, Ned Rothenberg, Fred Frith, Andrew Cyrille, Mark Feldman, Christian Fennesz, Nate Wooley and Mary Halvorson. In music as in life, Courvoisier crosses borders with a creative spirit and a free mind; her music-making is as playful as it is intense, as steeped in tradition as it is questing and intrepid. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead has encapsulated her art in an evocative way: “Some pianists approach the instrument like it’s a cathedral. Sylvie Courvoisier treats it like a playground.”
Discography
Battle Pieces
By Nate Wooley
Battle Pieces 2
By Nate Wooley
Battle Pieces 4
By Nate Wooley
Chimera
By Sylvie Courvoisier
Crop Circles
By Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson
Either Or And
By Evan Parker / Sylvie Courvoisier
Every So Often
By Ellery Eskelin & Sylvie Courvoisier
Free Hoops
By Sylvie Courvoisier Trio
HOODOOS [CAA-008]
By Sylvie Courvoisier & Jacques Demierre
Hôtel du Nord
By Sylvie Courvoisier / Mark Feldman Quartet
Live at Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne
By Sylvie Courvoisier / Mark Feldman Duo
Live at Willisau 2006 [CAA-058]
By Sylvie Courvoisier & Joey Baron
Lockdown
By Sylvie Courvoisier / Ned Rothenberg / Julian Sartorius
Momentum 1 : Stone
By Ken Vandermark
Mutual Aid Music
By Nate Wooley
Oblivia
By Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier
OCRE [CAA-034]
By Sylvie Courvoisier Ocre
Salt Task
By Chris Corsano, Sylvie Courvoisier & Nate Wooley
Signs and Epigrams
By Sylvie Courvoisier
The Rite of Spring – Spectre d’un songe
By Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe