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Matthew Shipp Trio: Root Of Things
by John Sharpe
The third album by pianist Matthew Shipp's trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey persuades as their strongest yet, no mean feat after the live disc included on The Art Of The Improviser (Thirsty Ear, 2011) and Elastic Aspects (Thirsty Ear, 2012). Over the six cuts from this 2013 studio session they restate their case to be considered one of the premier contemporary piano threesomes, supremely cohesive and thoroughly convincing in Shipp's unique idiom combining insistent themes, darkly ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp Trio: Root of Things
by Troy Collins
Root of Things is the third recording by pianist Matthew Shipp's working trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey, following Elastic Aspects (Thirsty Ear, 2012) and the group's live debut The Art Of The Improviser (Thirsty Ear, 2011). Over the past three decades, Shipp has demonstrated the reach of his artistry in myriad ways, including genre-defying electro-acoustic experiments. In recent years however, Shipp has narrowed his focus, concentrating on acoustic efforts largely based in intimate solo, duo and ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp Trio: Root Of Things
by Mark Corroto
A mathematical equation can chart and explain everything in life, from the arc of a thrown baseball to the dynamical systems of chaos. The scientific study of deterministic chaos is a bit of an oxymoron, in that the mathematicians suggest everything can be graphed and explained by calculations. The theory being, the deeper you delve into any system, the clearer and more uncomplicated it becomes. The same can be said for the music of pianist Matthew Shipp. Like ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp: Piano Sutras
by John Sharpe
Wikipedia tells us that in ancient Indian literature, the term sutra denotes a distinct type of literary composition, based on short aphoristic statements. Similarly concise motifs lie at the heart of many of the selections on Matthew Shipp's eighth solo album Piano Sutras. It's a measure of the American's place in the pianistic pantheon that he still has something worthwhile to say after some 25 years on the scene. Of all his outings, Piano Sutras most resembles Un Piano (Rogue ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp: Piano Sutras
by Mark Corroto
There is a sort of primitivism that can be found at the edges of advanced physics and mathematics. The same sort of primitivism is at the heart of pianist Matthew Shipp's music. Just as one can speak of the sweet science (or art) of boxing, the pianist plays with a violent beauty.Piano Sutras is his seventh solo recording following the Thirsty Ear discs 4D (2010) and One (2006) and Un Piano (Rogue Art, 2008), Songs (Splasc(h), 2002), Creation ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp: Greatest Hits
by Harry S. Pariser
"Greatest Hits" compilations are not releases normally associated with jazz musicians, and especially not with pianist as decidedly avant-garde as Matthew Shipp.Shipp explains that “My impetus for creating this CD was that I have a vast catalogue which I don't think the jazz world has started to absorb yet. I selected the tunes by which ones stood out in reviews of my CDs, which tunes had received the most airplay, or compositions I had received the most feedback ...
Continue ReadingMatthew Shipp: Shipp Shifts
by Chris Rich
Pianist Matthew Shipp's artistic collaboration community is a counterpart to his business community. It is its own ecosystem of multidisciplinary work, scholarly conversations and mentorship.The TrioThe trio is Shipp's main vehicle. It is, by turns, his midnight train, his slow boat to China and a way of flying home. It takes a hike, rides a bike and covers lots of ground. It sails and it soars. And who can better describe it than the ensemble proprietor ...
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