Stephan Crump: “Slow Water”

Memphis-bred, Brooklyn-based composer and bassist Stephan Crump presents an extraordinary ensemble and body of work inspired by science journalist Erica Gies’s book Water Always Wins and the movement to redefine how we live with water in an era of rapid change. 

Performers

Yuhan Su, vibraphone
Fung Chern Hwei, viola
Erica Dicker, violin
Jacob Garchik, trombone
Kenny Warren, trumpet
Stephan Crump, acoustic bass

Stephan Crump
Stephan Crump is a Grammy-nominated bassist and composer, collaborator, bandleader, soloist, and educator based in New York City since 1994. A Memphis native, Crump fell for New York’s fecund scenes during his first semester at Amherst College, when he would drive hours to play late-night weekday gigs in the West Village. He knew this was where he’d make his life and career.

Working beyond genre, he has become a crucial component of multiple New York music communities in and beyond jazz. For two decades, Crump recorded and toured as a third of Vijay Iyer’s acclaimed trio, helping to build that band’s global reputation. Meanwhile, many of his own ensembles—Rhombal, with Tyshawn Sorey, Ellery Eskelin, and Adam O’Farrill; Secret Keeper, with Mary Halvorson; Rosetta Trio, with Jamie Fox and Liberty Ellman—prize versatility and voicings in a manner that more traditional configurations often do not. His Borderlands Trio, with pianist Kris Davis and drummer Eric McPherson, brings this same mentality to a more familiar setting. Other collaborators have included Miguel Zenón, Gordon Gano, Patti Austin, Johnny Clyde Copeland, Wadada Leo Smith, Jim Campilongo, David Gilmore, Sam Newsome, Steve Lehman, Cory Smythe, Ingrid Laubrock, Okkyung Lee, Mat Maneri, and Ches Smith. Crump’s physical and emotional connection to the bass is abundant through the new sextet Slow Water, which explores ecology and environment through composition and group communication.

He teaches “On Magnetism,” a course in connecting more deeply through one’s instrument, after a lifetime of doing just that, and lives still in Brooklyn with his wife and collaborator, singer Jen Chapin, and their two sons.

Yuhan Su
“Like the best fiction, it’s entirely enveloping”(DownBeat). New York–based Taiwanese vibraphonist Yuhan Su is a leading force in contemporary jazz, recognized for a style that is both intellectually rigorous and deeply evocative. Recently named one of the “Up-and-Comers of the Year” by The New York City Jazz Record and a 2025 DownBeat “Rising Star Vibraphonist of the Year” nominee, Su has also been distinguished as one of the “25 Best Vibraphonists” by uDiscoverMusic. Her discography as a leader spans five critically acclaimed releases, including her most recent work, OVER the MOONs (2025, Endectomorph), and the celebrated Liberated Gesture (2023, Sunnyside). Her work has garnered prestigious accolades globally, including the 2024 Golden Melody Award for “Best Instrumental Composer” and multiple honors from the Golden Indie Music Awards, including “Best Album of the Year” and “Best New Artist.” A sought-after collaborator, Su was selected as the 2025 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission Artist and a member of the M3 (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians) Cohort 7. She has performed alongside visionary figures, such as Vijay Iyer, Amir ElSaffar, Greg Osby, and Matt Mitchell. Su is a Ludwig-Musser Percussion, Resta-Jay Percussion, and Alternate Mode Inc. endorsed artist.

Fung Chern Hwei
Fung Chern Hwei is a native of Malaysia who has adopted New York City at his home for the past 20 years. As a violinist and violist, he performs and records as a regular member of Sirius Quartet and SEVEN)SUNS, both forward-thinking ensembles in the outfit of a string quartet. Through the years, he has had the privilege of performing with artists such as Hiromi, Tyshawn Sorey, Rufus Reid, Marlis Petersen, Sigur Rós, and many more. 

Erica Dicker
Erica Dicker is a New York–based violinist and improviser making music reflecting her interest in the very new, the very old, and their refractions within the musical continuum. In addition to activities with commissioning horn trio Kylwyria, Erica is one half of experimental duo Blood Luxury (with percussionist Dennis Sullivan) and a performing artist affiliate and member of the Faculty String Quartet at Lehigh University. In addition to writing her own music, Erica has collaborated with contemporary luminaries, such as Ingrid Laubrock, Brandon Seabrook, Eric Wubbels, and Katherine Young. She serves as an educational ambassador for Anthony Braxton’s nonprofit Tri-Centric Foundation and has performed and recorded with Braxton in various contexts since 2007. Erica has written about and curates performances of Braxton’s work and leads workshops on free improvisation and contemporary performance practice. She holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and delights in birding, running, and baking. 

Jacob Garchik
Jacob Garchik, trombonist and composer, was born in San Francisco and has lived in New York since 1994. At home in a wide variety of styles and musical roles, he is a vital part of the Downtown and Brooklyn scene, playing trombone in groups ranging from jazz to contemporary classical to Balkan brass bands. He has released seven albums as a leader, including The Heavens: The Atheist Gospel Trombone Album. 

Since 2006, Jacob has contributed over 120 arrangements and transcriptions for Kronos Quartet of music from all over the world. His arrangements were featured on nine records, including Glorious Mahalia. In 2017, he composed the score forThe Green Fog , a found-footage remake of Vertigo, directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson, which Kronos performed live at the San Francisco International Film Festival premiere. In 2019, he composed “Storyteller” using the talking, singing, playing, and compositions of Pete Seeger. He has created arrangements for Anne Sofie von Otter, Angélique Kidjo, Laurie Anderson, Rhiannon Giddens, k. d. lang, Jolie Holland, Natalie Merchant, Tanya Tagaq, and Alim Qasimov. He teaches “Arranging Ensemble” at Mannes School of Music in NYC.

As a trombonist, Jacob has worked with many luminaries of jazz and the avant-garde, including Henry Threadgill, Steve Swallow, Anthony Braxton, John Hollenbeck, and George Lewis. He has also played in ensembles led by emerging artists Dafnis Prieto, Anna Webber, Alan Ferber, Ethan Iverson, Darcy James Argue, Dan Weiss, and Miguel Zenón. He is part of Mary Halvorson’s Amaryllis sextet, DownBeat magazine’s 2025 “Group of the Year.” He won the 2025 El Intruso International Critics Poll for trombone.

Kenny Warren
Denver-born trumpeter/composer Kenny Warren has been living in Brooklyn since 2006. He has released over a dozen records of his own music, which reach across genres but always center some element of improvisation. His latest LP on Out of Your Head Records with his trio Sweet World features Christopher Hoffman on cello and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums. He is currently involved with many collective projects, including a band called Slow Tiger with JP Schlegelmilch, a trio with Carlo Costa and BlankFor.ms, and a band with Berlin-based woodwind virtuoso Jeremy Viner. Warren has worked with some of New York’s finest artists, including Angelica Sanchez, Anna Webber, Stephan Crump, Tony Malaby, Rob Brown, Gerald Cleaver, Chris Speed, and Caroline Davis. He is also a long-standing member of the Brooklyn brass-band institution Slavic Soul Party.

Erica Gies
Erica Gies is the author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge, a National Geographic Explorer, and an independent journalist who writes about water, climate change, plants, and critters for The New York Times, Nature, Scientific American, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and other publications. Published in the US, the UK, and China, Water Always Wins is about the “Slow Water movement,” working with water to adapt to the increasing floods and droughts brought by climate change. The book won the Sierra Club Rachel Carson Award for Excellence in Environmental Journalism, the California River Award, and an honorable mention from the Society of Environmental Journalists, and it was a finalist for the Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year.

Gies has given keynotes at national and international conferences and has advised the EPA and the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. She was the 2023–24 Harvey Southam Lecturer at the University of Victoria and the 2024 Leeson Lecturer at the University of Rhode Island and spoke at the University of California–Santa Barbara’s Capps Forum on Ethics and Public Policy. She was a featured author at the Tucson Festival of Books and has appeared on PBS’s Amanpour & Co., Fox News’s The Next Revolution, NPR’s Science Friday, CBC’s What on Earth, KERA’s Think, KQED’s Forum, radio programs in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK, and many podcasts. She lives in San Francisco and Victoria, British Columbia, with her partner and tabby cat.

Here are selected press responses to the Slow Water album, now available on Papillon Sounds:

“Mystical.” (four stars) —AllMusic

“Both daring and beautiful.” —PopMatters

“Haunting, plangent and memorable music.” —The Wire

“A creative masterwork.” (four stars) —All About Jazz

“A fascinating and original creation.” —Textura

The views expressed by performers during this event are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Museum of Art.