Travis Laplante is a composer, improviser, and saxophonist. Laplante leads the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet Battle Trance, as well as Subtle Degrees, his duo with drummer Gerald Cleaver. Recently, Laplante has composed long-form works for new music ensembles such as the JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, and the ~Nois Saxophone Quartet. Laplante is also known for his raw solo saxophone concerts and being a member of the avant-garde quartet Little Women.
He has performed and / or recorded with Tyshawn Sorey, Yuniya Edi Kwon, Wendy Eisenberg, Caroline Shaw, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, Sō Percussion, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, International Contemporary Ensemble, Nate Wooley, Tyondai Braxton, Darius Jones, Mat Maneri, Julia Bullock, and Matt Mitchell, among others. Laplante has released 13 critically acclaimed albums as a leader or co-leader on New Amsterdam Records, Aum Fidelity, Skirl, Tripticks Tapes, Out of Your Head Records, New Focus Recordings, and NNA Tapes.
Laplante has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals such as The Moers Festival (Germany), Jazz Jantar (Poland), Saalfelden (Austria), Jazz em Agosto (Portugal), Earshot (Seattle), Hopscotch (North Carolina), and the NYC Winter JazzFest.
As a composer, Laplante has been commissioned by the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), the JACK Quartet, Roulette Intermedium, Yarn/Wire, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the MATA festival, and The Jerome Foundation.
Selected Press Quotes
For Battle Trance:
“A floating tapestry of fascinating textures made up of tiny musical motifs, and a music that throbs with tension between stillness and agitation, density and light.”
– Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
“Battle Trance is a world unto itself, built of nothing but resonance. Listen for more than a few minutes and you’ll lose track of melody, narrative, even time. It’ll connect you to a deeper part of you. In a world where representation threatens to outstrip action, that’s a useful step to take: both backward and ahead.”
–Giovanni Russonello, JazzTimes
For Subtle Degrees:
“Here, the players’ familiarity with one another charges the encounter with practiced empathy, as well as the need to reconnect […] Ritual, personal and compositional energies converge to create music that is deeply rewarding.”
–Bill Meyer, DownBeat Magazine
“The duo’s music leverages the most transcendent elements of avant-garde jazz, modern classical and experimental folk music, drawing on each player’s individual strengths and musical cohesion to further elevate the celestial, spiritual qualities of Laplante’s composition.”
–Scott Murphy, Heavy Blog Is Heavy
For solo saxophone:
"Overtones register almost as seismic events on “Heart Protector” (Skirl), Travis Laplante’s severe and haunting debut. It’s an album of solo inventions for tenor saxophone, arrhythmic and often atonal, but ripe with tension. There’s tremendous technical control behind what Mr. Laplante does here, splintering notes as if through a prism, using circular breathing for purposes of hypnotism."
- Nate Chenin, The New York Times
"If you’re already acquainted with Evan Parker, John Butcher, Colin Stetson, and Mats Gustafsson, you’ll want to put Travis Laplante’s name on your list of must-see saxophonists."
- Alexander Varty, Georgia Straight
Contact: Travis@travislaplante.com