Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Matthew Shipp: 4D
Matthew Shipp: 4D
His last solo outing was One (Thirsty Ear, 2006), a strong set of originals, and before that Songs (2002), comprised of jazz, popular and gospel standards. For 4D, Shipp presents a set that devotes its first half to his own compositions and its second to repertoire. His originals are typically dense and knotty and though they might sound as if they're improvised, they have an inner logic. Lines contrapuntally cross, sometimes colliding into each other, melodies emerge and recede. "Equilibrium," a distinctive piece he's recorded before, pivots on a recurring motif of four chiming chords. The lovely chords that permeate "Stairs" contrast wonderfully with the dense, almost brutal chordal stabs of the preceding "Dark Matter." "Blue Web In Space" contains passages that wouldn't sound out of place in a Duke Ellington piano recital alongside plenty that would.
Shipp's kaleidoscopic handling of standards is well-known. He stretches out melodies then seems to condense all thematic material into a rush of phrases. "What Is This Thing Called Love" has a remarkable left-hand contrapuntal line, the tres fey melodie francais of "Freres Jacques" is humorously recast as a pounding Hungarian peasant folk dance à la Bartók and the brief (less than a minute) "What A Friend We Have In Jesus" is as straightforward as it gets. More so than his previous solo releases, 4D is as complete an example of Shipp's solo pianism as one could want.
Track Listing
4D; The Crack In The Piano's Egg; Equilibrium; Teleportation; Dark Matter; Stairs; Jazz Paradox; Blue Web In Space; What Is This Thing Called Love?; Autumn Leaves; Sequence And Vibration; Frere Jacques; Prelude To A Kiss; What A Friend We Have In Jesus; Primal Harmonic; Greensleeves.
Personnel
Matthew Shipp
pianoMatthew Shipp: piano.
Album information
Title: 4D | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Thirsty Ear Recordings
About Matthew Shipp
Tags
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Become a Sustaining Member
Since 1995, All About Jazz has championed jazz as an art form and supported the musicians who create it. Over three decades, it has grown into one of the world's leading jazz resources, serving hundreds of thousands of readers, musicians, presenters and industry professionals each month.
Help Build the Future of All About Jazz
Your support helps us continue building All About Jazz for the next generation—expanding our editorial coverage, preserving jazz history, developing new community features and creating better ways to discover the music and the people behind it.
Become a sustaining member for as little as $20 per year and you'll immediately enjoy an ad-free experience along with access to subscriber features and future articles for a full year.
Together, we're not simply sustaining All About Jazz—we're building its future. Thank you for being part of the journey.
