A renowned composer, bandleader, visionary producer, and creative instigator, Kip Hanrahan has long been known for intensely passionate music that is both tender and hard-driving, with a deep poetic edge. 'Crescent Moon Waning' is the first Kip Hanrahan album since his 2011 release 'At Home in Anger'. Fans of forward-thinking, outernational music will no doubt be thrilled to hear that Hanrahan is back!
The cast of musicians includes such luminaries as vocalist/bassist Jack Bruce, tenor saxophonists Chico Freeman, JD Allen and Craig Handy, bassists Steve Swallow and Andy González, plus many others.
Kip Hanrahan has experienced a lot. He was an assistant with Nouvelle Vague director Jean-Luc Godard, the video artist Nam June Paik and the innovative composer Carla Bley, made from the early eighties wonderful records like "Coup de Tete", "Desire Develops An Edge" and "Exotica "for which he formed fantastic, exciting all-star bands with Jack Bruce, Milton Cardona, Charles Neville, Henry Threadgill, David Murray, Arto Lindsay, Billy Bang, Taj Mahal, Astor Piazzolla and even Sting.
Today Kip Hanrahan moves between Rio de Janeiro and Reston, Virginia, swinging cross boundaries acts as a catalyst again, less as a jazz musician in the usual sense. On his 14th album percussionist and producer, poet and visionary Kip Hanrahan compensates his vivid anger about oppression and exclusion: "Crescent Moon Waning" - a fascination with excitement, relaxation, warmth and magic.
"There is nothing quite like Mr. Hanrahan's music – a steamy blend of rhythmic and melodic tensions, drawn from musicians of different traditions (Latin, jazz, rock), yet with something very much his own." - Jason Weiss, The New York Times
"The music of Hanrahan, and of the American Clavé label which he runs, is rich beyond compare." - Phil Johnson, The Independent