Grammy-winning pianist Kris Davis returns with her acclaimed trio for the scintillating Lost in Geneva
out September 25, 2026, the album is the second for Davis’ bold and adventurous trio featuring bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake

"Anyone closely concerned with contemporary jazz keeps an ear open for Davis’ next move."
– Giovanni Russonello, DownBeat

“We’ve been touring steadily for a few years now, and I feel a real clarity about who we are as a trio. I wanted to write music that highlights our strengths—grounded in groove and open enough to explore and engage with
my compositional language.” That’s the way that Grammy Award-winning pianist Kris Davis describes the process of composing for her superb trio featuring bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake. Since the release of the band’s acclaimed debut, Run the Gauntlet, in 2024, the three have logged countless hours together on the road and on the stage, a luxury that the restlessly investigative pianist has rarely enjoyed with any other ensemble. What has emerged from those invaluable experiences is a deeply attuned and acutely communicative trio, adept at unearthing revelatory new inspirations as they delve deeper into the music. Hailing a January 2025 concert at the legendary Village Vanguard as the “first jaw-droppingly great performance” of the year, critic Nate Chinen hailed the way that Davis’ “stretchy provocations at the keys met with heavy ballast, but also a shared spirit of adventure” from her bandmates. “After playing together so much and getting to know each other musically and otherwise, I’ve come to realize what makes this band shine,” Davis explains. “It's been fun to play the same music night after night and find away to have a different experience every show. We’re digging deeper all the time, and this trio has become focused on the smaller details within the structure of the pieces. It’s all about those little discoveries and shaping the music together.” Davis has geared her writing for the trio towards that potential for epiphanies, leading to the band’s luminous second outing, Lost in Geneva. Where its predecessor paid homage to six influential women pianists, the new album draws its inspiration from within, sparked wholly by the dazzling spirit of the trio itself. Hurst and Blake contribute a composition apiece to complement eight new or reimagined Davis originals, along with a thrilling interpretation of a piece by iconoclastic composer Morton Feldman. The title of the album, out September 25, 2026, is drawn from one of those stories earned through the ordeal of travel mishaps, one facet of the camaraderie forged through touring that may not be evident in a band’s music but inevitably colors the chemistry they share. The namesake tune conjures the fog of temporal and geographical disorientation caused by jet lag and unfamiliar surroundings. Listeners may recognize the piecefrom the trio’s recent NPR Tiny Desk Concert - itself a moment added into the trio’s collective repository of memories.

Lost in Geneva opens with a jarring blur of piano crosstalk to introduce “The Subtext,” alluding to a different sort of disorientation - the surging, elusive rhythms replicating the secret meanings hidden beneath double-talk.
“Congestion Pricing,” introduced by Hurst’s lovely, resonant solo, is likely the first ode to New York City’s recent imposition of tolls on cars entering Lower Manhattan. The music seems to wade into increasingly hectic traffic, from its steady but spacious beginning to the frantic barrage of Davis’ percussive piano and Blake’s thundering drums. The theme of navigating unknown terrain continues with “Where Does That Tunnel Go,” originally recorded by
Davis’ trio with bassist John Hébert and drummer Tom Rainey on her 2010 album Good Citizen. The delicate “The Ballerina” is a composition that Davis has explored in a variety of settings, including in duos with Ingrid Laubrock and Craig Taborn, but has never been captured in its entirety. Both pieces reveal the subtlety with which this trio transmutes even pre-existing material into an expression of their own unique language. Hurst’s “The Bluesy Bird in Bob’s Backyard” engages with Davis’ long history of taking inspiration from birdsong, echoing the call of a more-soulful-than-usual avian visitor to the bassist’s home. It’s preceded by the group improvisation “Mourning Dove,” one of two spontaneous introductions to Hurst’s piece that grew into their own pieces on the album - the second, “Northern Flicker,” closes the set. Davis’ “The Deer Fly” is a portrait of a less welcome winged creature, a bloodsucking insect known for diving at the heads of New England hikers, evoked by the tune’s relentless momentum. Blake’s “Clues” was originally recorded on the drummer’s 2012 debut, The Eleventh Hour, rendered here in a propulsive and vigorously grooving form. Davis also zeroed in on the unexpected - and far more abstract - groove of Morton Feldman’s “Nature Piece 5” in her arrangement for the trio, simultaneously rollicking and sharply angular. Vibrant, exhilarating and riveting, Lost in Geneva is an infectious argument for veering away from the familiar path. Wherever Davis, Hurst and Blake find themselves, they seem sure to discover new depths.

Kris Davis
Kris Davis is a Grammy award-winning pianist and composer described by the New York Times as a beacon for “deciding where to hear jazz [in New York] on a given night.” Davis has released 26 recordings as a leader or co-
leader and collaborated with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Dave Holland, John Zorn, Craig Taborn, Ingrid Laubrock, Tyshawn Sorey and esperanza spalding. She was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist alongside Wayne Shorter and Danilo Perez, Pianist of the Year by DownBeat magazine in 2025, 2022 and 2020, and Pianist and Composer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2021. In 2019, Davis’ Diatom Ribbons was named jazz album of the year by both the New York Times and the NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. Davis is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development at the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice, the founder of Pyroclastic Records and co-founder of the International Creators and Collaborators Workshop. Davis is a Steinway Artist.