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Okuden Quartet: Mat Walerian/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Hamid Drake: Every Dog Has His Day But It Doesn't Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter
by Karl Ackermann
A student of eastern philosophy and Japanese culture, reed player/composer Mat Walerian coined the Okuden series name from a Japanese word meaning “inner teachings." Walerian had studied piano at six and taught himself saxophone while in his teens. He expanded his self-taught regime to include clarinet and flute in 2008-9. Walerian has sporadically taken lessons from Matthew Shipp. His musical interests are broad and he had earlier played classical Japanese music, heavy metal, psychedelic, funk, and jazz. Walerian's original music ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp String Trio: Symbolic Reality
by John Sharpe
Pianist Matthew Shipp's String Trio reunites three familiar collaborators whose paths cross in multiple settings. Bassist William Parker and violist Mat Maneri complete a line-up unchanged since the triumvirate's debut By The Law Of Music (Hatology, 1997). In the twenty-plus years since that point, they have further cemented their standing in the jazz world as leading stylists on their instruments. In this chamber setting they function as interlocking parts in a mysterious jigsaw which depicts an abstract realm ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey: Morph
by Karl Ackermann
Two players on Morph, Matthew Shipp and Nate Wooley, hardly need an introduction to those who venture into free jazz or experimental waters. But the leader, free jazz drummer Whit Dickey, is more of an enigma. Though prolific, his credits are more often in a supporting role. Dickey has been working with Shipp for nearly four decades in David S. Ware's quartet, Shipp's trio and his own projects. The New York native has recorded with Rob Brown, Eri Yamamoto, Daniel ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Carter, Matthew Shipp. William Parker, Gerald Cleaver: Welcome Adventure Vol. 1
by Mike Jurkovic
It takes all of fifty-seven seconds for Welcome Adventure Vol. 1 to move from what starts as of one of those gnarled but exquisite, corpse-like Matthew Shipp solo mind-opuses into exactly that but with some friends. Friends who want want to swing but in a just-out, avant way. It's where their heads are at the moment and is the advance directive imbued in the spirit of Welcome Adventure Vol. 1. The three performances, “Majestic Travel Agency," “Scintillate," and ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp: Poetic Connection
by Seton Hawkins
It is difficult to describe the impact of pianist and composer Matthew Shipp without descending into hyperbole. A core figure in the now-legendary David S. Ware Quartet, a bandleader with a staggering recording output, a groundbreaking curator for the influential Blues Series of Thirsty Ear Records, Matthew Shipp has also more recently broken new ground at the helm of the extraordinary Matthew Shipp Trio, featuring bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. Preparing to celebrate his 60th ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp - Nate Wooley: What If?
by John Sharpe
What If? presents pianist Matthew Shipp and trumpeter Nate Wooley in their first appearance as a duo. Both possess illustrious back stories and, while Shipp's place as one of the pre-eminent piano stylists in contemporary jazz is assured—as much due to his staggeringly constant series of solo and trio dates as his tenure with the likes of saxophonists David S. Ware and Roscoe Mitchell—it's not too much of a stretch to make a similar claim for Wooley. They ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Carter / Matthew Shipp / William Parker / Gerald Cleaver: Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1
by Karl Ackermann
When multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter, bassist William Parker and pianist Matthew Shipp met for an esoteric evening of discussion and music at Tufts University in 2017, the net result was Seraphic Light (AUM Fidelity, 2018). That three-part improvised program was one of the best free improvisation albums of the year. On Welcome Adventure! Vol. 1, the trio expands to a quartet with the addition of drummer Gerald Cleaver. The new formation brings with it a sound different from the first excursion. ...
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