2001 · Album
Light Made Lighter
Thirsty Ear (Blue Series) · Album: Light Made Lighter · Artist: Craig Taborn · Released: 2001
The Quiet Architecture of Craig Taborn's Second Act
Light Made Lighter finds Taborn building something spare and deliberate, letting silence do as much work as sound.
Light Made Lighter arrives as Taborn's second album, released on Thirsty Ear's Blue Series in 2001. By this point in his career, Taborn had already spent years working through different approaches to the piano — post-bop vocabulary, open improvisation, and something closer to composition. This record feels like a step inward. The album is piano-centered and minimal, which means every choice matters. What makes it work is the restraint, the willingness to leave space empty rather than fill it. Taborn doesn't overplay. The songs are often short, sometimes just sketches, which gives them an intimate quality. You're not listening to someone demonstrate virtuosity; you're listening to someone think out loud. The Blue Series was Thirsty Ear's outlet for more experimental, less commercial work, which suited Taborn's approach here. This isn't his most celebrated record — that reputation belongs to later work — but it's an important one because it shows him discovering what he actually wanted to say as a bandleader. Light Made Lighter works best if you come to it after hearing some of his earlier collaborations. It's quieter than what came before, more focused. Not an easy entry point for newcomers, but for anyone following Taborn's development, it's where he started to sound like himself.
