Jason Crosby
After decades on the road as one of rock’s most in-demand sidemen touring with the likes of Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph and others, multi-instrumentalist Jason Crosby took time for himself. The result was his 2017 solo album, Cryptologic, and a relationship with Nashville’s Blue Rose label. The album revealed the keyboard/violin/guitar player to be an honest, thoughtful lyricist and songwriter in his own right, singing and playing all the instruments on half of the tracks and bringing in Northern California stalwarts The Mother Hips for the rest of it. It was also inspired by the longtime New Yorker’s earlier move to the Bay Area of California, where he found a kindred musical community that included The Mother Hips and the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Bob Weir.
But for his new solo piano album, Gilder, Crosby wanted to pay tribute to all of the artists who’d hired him over the years — artists who’d been a part of his life experience.
“I had that as the template,” he explains. “I would first pick an artist friend that I’d played with, think about all of their songs and find one that was suited for solo piano. It’s my way of celebrating everyone that I’ve played with and admire.
“When I was on the road with Jackson Browne, multiple people in that band had said, at different times, that I should make a solo piano album,” he recalls. “And it was serendipitous in that Dave Schools (Widespread Panic) and Joe Poletto (Blue Rose) were also saying the same thing at the same time, and these people weren’t even talking to each other about it. So within the span of a few weeks, I was getting all these signals that I should be doing this.”
Recorded both at Dave Schools’ Sebastopol studio, Spacecamp, and Grammy-winning producer Dave Way’s Waystation in Los Angeles, Gilder’s 11 solo piano tracks find Crosby covering artists he’s worked with ranging from Mahavishnu Orchestra to Father John Misty, and from James Taylor to Jenny Lewis. It was the culmination of a longtime dream.
“I’ve always wanted to do a solo piano album, something that’s been on my mind for a long time,” he says. “Every time I’d finish a track, I’d send it to the artist friend that I was covering, and the happiness and approval in their response would fuel the fire for the next song.”
Jason has dedicated this album to his younger brother and fellow musician Christopher Crosby, who passed away in 2021.
“Christopher was my favorite person in the world. It’s hard existing without him, but I will always feel connected with him through the music we shared. One of our last collaborations was when he was writing songs about the public library he worked at, and so I decided to cover his song ‘Headed Down to the Library’ for the solo record.”
The album was a labor of love, with Dave Schools and others pitching in. "There were a few different friends that were in the studio that also happen to be producers that helped out.” he says. “I started recording this in L.A. and did all of "Side A" at Dave Way’s studio the Waystation in L.A. Val McCallum, my bandmate with Jackson, came by and helped with the arrangement for Jackson’s song Colors of the Sun. "Side B" was done at Space Camp with Dave Schools and Jason Reed guiding me through. It was a happy coincidence that the LA and Bay Area sessions were the same length so it worked as two sides for the vinyl.”
Together, the 11 songs shine as a cohesive collection, with Crosby’s understated, refined keyboard work bringing a new dimension and mood to these artists’ songs. With Gilder, Crosby has delivered an elegantly affirming celebration of life and relationships, both of those still here with us, and those we have lost.