Taylor Eigsti Celebrates GRAMMY Victory for 'PLOT ARMOR' (GroundUp), Earning Second Career Win

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On February 2, 2025 pianist and composer Taylor Eigsti was awarded the GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for his 2024 album Plot Armor. This achievement marks the 4x GRAMMY nominee's second career win, having previously won in this same category in 2022 for his album Tree Falls.

"I'm so deeply honored to receive a second GRAMMY Award for Plot Armor, which is a very special album dedicated to my late mother. I'm absurdly lucky to have worked with such a magical cast of musicians and collaborators on this project, and this is a reflection of their love and extreme dedication to this music. I feel so incredibly lucky, " Eigsti shared in a statement.

His ninth album and GroundUP Music label debut, Plot Armor boasts twin masters in each instrumental slot—featured guest (vocalist Lisa Fischer, trumpeter Terence Blanchard); vocals (Gretchen Parlato, Becca Stevens); saxophone (Ben Wendel, Dayna Stephens); guitar (Charles Altura, fellow GRAMMY nominee Julian Lage); keyboards/piano (Maya Kronfeld, the man himself); bass (David "DJ" Ginyard, Harish Raghavan); drums (Oscar Seaton, Jr., Kendrick Scott), plus many appearances by a layered string section (Stephanie Yu, Corinne Sobolewski, Mia Barcia-Colombo, Jules Levy).

"I wanted to build the whole record around two concepts: One was using the bands that I'm playing with frequently—Oscar and DJ and Charles and Maya, " Eigsti says. "And I also wanted more than one representative of every instrument on this record. It's been a huge source of joy to play with Harish, Kendrick, and Julian over the years, and I'm so happy they were able to join us on this project."

Plot Armor continues Eigsti's winning approach of showcasing eleven of his original compositions plus a standard. With ace string arrangements by Andrew Balogh, its orchestral lushness showcases Eigsti's compositional prowess and his experiences sharing the bandstand with the Turtle Island String Quartet as a member of Blanchard's E-Collective band (along with Altura, Ginyard, and Seaton).

Plot Armor has received critical acclaim, with outlets such as Glide Magazine praising it as a 'sumptuous offering', and Jazzwise proclaiming it as "stylishly yet organically arranged and produced.

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