Eclectic jazz bassist Stephan Crump brings quintet to Bates College

Known for both his own jazz projects and his work as sideman in myriad genres, bassist Stephan Crump and his quintet perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 9, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell Street. The public is invited to this concert sponsored by the Edith C. and Raymond L. Kendall ’19 Music Fund. Admission is free.

Raised in Memphis and based in New York, Crump has worked with figures in the jazz mainstream, the downtown avant-garde, singer-songwriters and artists in diverse other styles. He’s known for the elegance and purposeful groove of his work on acoustic and electric bass.

He currently performs with Bobby Previte’s Voodoo Down Orchestra, Atilla Engin’s Istanbul Orchestra, Gregg Bendian’s Mahavishnu Project, the Weimarband, singer-songwriter Jen Chapin’s band and others. Crump has accompanied Portishead’s Dave McDonald, the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano, Ernie Watts, Matt Wilson and late blues legend Johnny Clyde Copeland.

In 1998 Crump released a collection of 13 original pieces, Poems and Other Things, performed by an acoustic quartet. Tuckahoe, his second album as a leader, was released on Accurate Records last September and has made No. 1 on several jazz radio playlists nationally.

The Kendall Music Fund was established in 1986 by Edith and Raymond Kendall, a member of the Bates class of 1919 and professor of education and psychology at the college from 1933 to 1966. The fund supports musical performances and lectures at Bates by artists, in the wording of the endowment, “of high achievement.”

For more information about the concert, please call 207-786-6135.