Sam Crowe Group - Towards the Centre of Everything (2013)

Towards the Center of Everything is the second solo album from pianist & composer Sam Crowe and his first for Whirlwind. Featuring a set of original compositions and a genre-mash of styles, colors and moods with improvisation as it's focus, the supporting cast features some of the most cutting-edge young improvisers on the planet.

Recorded in two days at Systems Two Studios in NYC, Towards the Center of Everything features Crowe on piano, Fender rhodes & keyboards, NYC-based Will Vinson on alto saxophone, London-based Adam Waldmann on soprano saxophone, British guitarist Will Davies, Alan Hampton on both double & electric bass, drummer Mark Guiliana and guest Emilia Martensson on vocals.

The album is a no holds barred development of rhythmic textures and epic themes heard on Crowe's critically-acclaimed debut Synaesthesia with an added New York sensibility to the performances. There are rock and 'drum and bass' influences as well as an ever-present folk feeling to some pieces which weave a narrative through moody and modal harmony. This is cinematic music of the now; the result of Crowe's lifetime pursuit to amalgamate his ever-evolving palette of musical influences from across the genre-spectrum, both past and present, with improvisation as the guiding thread.

Sam Crowe - piano, rhodes, keyboards
Will Vinson - alto saxophone
Adam Waldmann - soprano saxophones
Will Davies - guitar
Alan Hampton - bass (double & electric)
Mark Guiliana - drums
Special Guest - Emilia Martensson - vocals