Jeff Crompton with the marker that honors Mary Lou Williams. Crompton was instrumental in getting the marker erected. (Photo by Karen Brakke)
Many of the longtime musical mentor’s collaborators and students will pay tribute with a performance in Candler Park on August 15.
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For five decades, Jeff Crompton has been a major force in Atlanta’s progressive jazz and experimental/improvisational music communities. As a musician, composer, educator, bandleader and concert producer, the 66-year-old saxophone and clarinet specialist helped shape the contours of the city’s offbeat sonic landscape.
In October, Crompton, his wife Karen Brakke (a professor of psychology at Spelman College) and Pablo the cat are moving to Bellingham, Washington. To mark this consequential occasion, a group of musicians who played and collaborated with Crompton have organized a special farewell concert on Friday, August 15, at the Old Stone Church (First Existentialist Congregation) in Candler Park. The program will feature solos, duos, trios, quartets and larger ensembles performing compositions selected from Crompton’s personal output, which extends back to the 1980s.
A provisional list of participating musicians indicates the depth and breadth of Crompton’s reach: Roger Ruzow (4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra), Bill Taft (W8ing4UFOs), Benjamin Shirley (Artifactual String Unit, BASrelief), Monique Osorio (Relay Station, Mute Sphere), Bill Pritchard and John Arthur Brown (Three Way Mirror), Majid Araim, Al-Yasha Ilhaam Williams, Ben Davis, Ben Gettys, Blake Helton, Colin Bragg, JD Walsh, Isaac Bishop, Kenito Murray, Peter Sloan, Scott Burland, Ipek Eginli and FLAP. By the time the downbeat is given for the opening selection on Friday, additional musicians undoubtedly will have joined the ranks.
“When I was around 4, so I’ve been told, I would not go to bed unless my parents played ‘Cool Water’ by The Sons of the Pioneers (a popular country band in the 1940s),” Crompton recalls. “I played with toy instruments, but it never occurred to me to try a real instrument until I moved to a new school when I was 12.” At a PTA meeting, the band teacher asked Crompton’s mother whether her son would like to join the school band. “I had seen Boots Randolph play at an Atlanta Falcons game and Paul Desmond on TV, so I said yes and chose the saxophone.”
Years later, Crompton found himself on the other side of the bandstand, teaching music in the metro Atlanta public school system. During a 29-year-long professional career, he constantly moonlighted, performing at corporate gigs and with rock bands, blues bands, straight-ahead jazz groups and edgy music-makers, with whom he especially enjoyed collaborating.
The list of collaborators includes Darryl Rhoades, Andy West and Rod Morgenstern of The Dixie Dregs; Keith Christopher of The Brains; Kevin Scott, Sean Costello, Neal Starkey and avant-pianist Michael J. Smith. With Rhoades, he played the last show at the old Moonshadow Saloon. Crompton’s “free jazz” group, The Bazooka Ants, played the closing night of Picasso’s (now Eddie’s Attic). The Ants also performed at long-defunct but forever-beloved bohemian joints such as Frijoleros, Homage Coffee House and Somber Reptile. The group also performed several times at the Atlanta Jazz Festival.
“When The Bazooka Ants broke up, my main creative outlet was the Jeff Crompton Quartet, which played free jazz originals,” Crompton says. At various times, the quartet included Bill Urick, Bill Nittler, Ben Gettys, Chris Riggenbach, John Lewis, Jamie Shepard and Keith Leslie. “And, of course, my many years with Roger Ruzow’s bands — the Nu South Subterraneans; Atlanta Creative Music Ensemble; 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra — were indispensable to my musical growth.”
When his teaching job was eliminated due to budget cuts, Crompton felt lost. “Even though I was playing music on a regular basis, so much of my identity was tied to waking up at 5:30 in the morning, driving to the suburbs and teaching kids how to play music,” he says. “It took me about a year to realize that, by losing my job, I had been given an incredible gift.”
Thanks to his pension, Crompton could live comfortably without going back to work. As a result, since 2010, he has been fully committed to composing, forming bands and producing concerts. For several years, he organized Creative Music in Hapeville, a series that showcased improvisational and experimental work. He frequently produced concerts at the First Existentialist Congregation, mostly featuring local avant-garde musicians but also national acts including ROVA Saxophone Quartet and New Orleans pianist Tom McDermott. In 2019, Crompton was a featured guest soloist with Canadian post-rock collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor for the band’s Atlanta show at Variety Playhouse.
Crompton has formed and dissolved a number of bands, including a series of duos with cellist Benjamin Shirley, trombonist Peter Sloan and multi-instrumentalist Majid Araim; an off-center jazz trio called Three Way Mirror; an ambient jazz/not jazz duo called Anagrams; and a wonderfully eccentric jazz quintet, Relay Station, described by its leader as “my song band.”
More on ArtsATL: A celebration of the life and music of Atlanta’s Mary Lou Williams
“My favorite ensemble of all time was the Edgewood Saxophone Trio,” says Crompton. Formed in 2013, the EST — baritone saxophonist Bill Nittler, tenor saxophonist Ben Davis and Crompton on alto — played together until 2022, when Nittler succumbed to cancer. “After Bill’s death, there was no question of trying to replace him. The EST was Ben, Bill and me, not just three saxophones.”
2020 saw the online release of Buddy Bolden, a chamber opera written and composed by Crompton — with music performed by EST — about the legendary New Orleans cornetist who some scholars credit with “inventing” jazz. The online video format was a consequence of the Covid-19 outbreak, which put the kibosh on dress rehearsals and the opera’s scheduled debut. Four years later, a fully-fledged live production of Buddy Bolden was staged at the First Existentialist Congregation. The performance garnered widespread praise, while the video version is an innovative, compelling work of art in its own right.
“The way we’re presenting this opera — call it ‘an enhanced opera’ — was born of necessity, a second choice,” Crompton said at the time. “Yet, in some way, I’m more excited about this version. Now, instead of premiering Buddy Bolden to a couple of hundred people in Atlanta, anyone, anywhere, will be able to see it anytime they choose.”
The interview for this article was conducted by email because Crompton was touring Croatia and Montenegro in July and August with the Sarajevo-based BDB Trio. In 2019, Crompton and the leader of BDB Trio, Sarajevan guitarist Eddie Beho, co-founded the Macedonian-tinged, fusion-jazz outfit Sataraš Quartet, when Beho was residing in Atlanta.
“We play at night and sit around looking at the Adriatic Sea during the day,” Crompton notes. “It seems incredible to me that I have this life.”
For the last 20-plus years, it seems, hardly a month has gone by without a Crompton club date, project premiere or record release on the calendar. Soon, the fruitful run will end, leaving Atlanta with a sizable void in its alternative music scene.
“I’ll miss Atlanta deeply, but the music is in good hands,” Crompton says. “I hope that I’ve been a positive influence on the younger musicians. I’m planning on visiting frequently to listen and to play.”
Where & When
A Concert Celebrating Jeff Crompton. 8 p.m. Friday, August 15. $15 suggested donation. Beer, wine and non-alcoholic options will be available for a donation. First Existentialist Congregation in Candler Park, 470 Candler Park Drive NE, Atlanta.
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In the course of writing this story, a number of musicians were asked to contribute remarks about working with Crompton, the significance of his music and impact on the community. The following comments have been edited mainly for space constraints.
Roger Ruzow (trumpeter/composer/bandleader; Nu South Subterraneans; 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra): A brilliant teacher and mentor, Jeff has influenced so many young musicians to go out and play without being constrained by traditional approaches. Instead, his guidance is to play wherever you need to play, be original and play your own music.
Rob Rushin-Knopf (guitarist, partner in the duo RoboCromp, Crompton’s longest-running project): The current Atlanta creative music scene would not exist without Jeff’s work. He has the imagination to see what is possible (an opera about Buddy Bolden fer cryin’ out loud!?!) and the capacity to recognize talent across several generations of musicians who have become better players and human beings as a result of his friendship and generous creative practice. We first played together 37 years ago; I simply cannot imagine a musical life without Jeff in it. The big question now lies in the title of one of his pieces: “What Comes After?”
Colin Bragg (guitarist/bassist; Relay Station; and Sataraš Quartet): As improvising Georgia boys, we both have a somewhat wistful appreciation for R&B, blues and the Allman Brothers. In combination with our appetite for the weird stuff, we have developed a shared musical shorthand and collaborative flexibility, which reaps rewards while also being great fun.
Majid Araim (multi-instrumentalist; Whispers of Night; BASrelief; regular Crompton collaborator): Jeff is kind and a great listener, very supportive and wise. His music and vernacular are singularly his own, brimming with originality and history.
Noah Kess (drummer; 4th Ward Afro-Klezmer Orchestra; former Crompton student): Jeff has an encyclopedic knowledge of New Orleans jazz, straight-ahead and free jazz and numerous other genres, which he combines to chart new territory, inspiring us to keep up.
Benjamin Shirley (cellist; regular Crompton collaborator): I’m certain I’ve learned more than a few advanced degrees’ worth of music history just sitting in Jeff’s living room.
Dan “JD” Walsh (guitarist; lap steel, keyboard; Anagrams; Relay Station): Jeff has an uncanny ability to take all of his influences, whether avant-jazz, blues, big band, country, classical or whatever, and process everything in a way that’s respectful to the source and still uniquely his own.
Jeff Albert (trombonist; Crompton collaborator): Jeff is very serious about music making but also very serious about not being too serious. He has just the right combination of respect for the art and ability to let music-making be fun.
Scott Burland (theremin; Duet for Theremin & Lap Steel; Javelinas): Atlanta will miss Jeff, but he’s leaving behind a legacy of inspired collaborators who will pick up the torch — and he will be back. He played my 50th birthday party, my 60th birthday party and — dammit — he will play my 70th!
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An Atlanta native, Doug DeLoach has been covering music, performing and static arts in his hometown and beyond for five decades. Doug is a regular contributor to Songlines, a world music magazine based in London, and his ruminations on arts and culture have appeared in publications such as Creative Loafing, Georgia Music, ArtsGeorgia, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, High Performance and Art Papers.
