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Whit Dickey, William Parker, Matthew Shipp: Village Mothership
by Alberto Bazzurro
Inciso nel febbraio 2020 e pubblicato alla fine dell'anno seguente, questo notevole album, frutto di una seduta di libera improvvisazione ma il cui principale responsabile è l'oggi sessantottenne batterista newyorchese Whit Dickey, che nell'ultimo trentennio non ha mancato di fornire ampie testimonianze del suo valore, è di quelli che ci fanno capire quali ragguardevoli risorse e possibilità rigenerative possa ancora vantare una formula che per anzianità di servizio e assiduità di frequentazione potrebbe apparire a occhi distratti persino consunta (come ...
Continue ReadingChad Fowler: Alien Skin
by John Sharpe
Although the group responsible for Alien Skin might be a one-off, unlikely to meet again in this exact configuration, it contains sufficient prior connections to vouchsafe cohesion, to go with the undoubted quality. Bassist William Parker furnishes the common denominator, having previously recorded with all of the participants, even relative newcomer, reed player Zoh Amba, while pianist Matthew Shipp's releases with saxophonist Ivo Perelman are legendary and abundant. Label boss reedman Chad Fowler hooks up regularly with drummer Steve Hirsh, ...
Continue ReadingChad Fowler: Alien Skin
by Mike Jurkovic
Just from the paperwork alone, it was duly expected that Alien Skin would be unruly, raw, and cathartic. That is just the nature of the beast. That is just the way the big man planned it. But even with all that said, no one (including the players) saw Alien Skin coming down the runway. A bayou bebop rave-up of the highest order, the album's madcap namesake rips the veil, drops the mic, and makes subversive a badge of ...
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman: Fruition
by Hrayr Attarian
To say that saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp have seamless synergy is an understatement. After a dozen and a half improvised duet albums the two men form a single creative entity, one that is multifaceted, dynamic and crackles with spontaneity. Fruition, their eighteenth, is a stimulating set of eleven interlinked tracks which has a melancholic undercurrent and a fluid poetry. Opening with a bluesy tenor break, “Nine," which also starts off the recording, transforms into an ...
Continue ReadingIvo Perelman / Matthew Shipp: Fruition
by Mark Corroto
After 26 years years of recording in duo together, is it possible now to decode the music of Ivo Perelman and Matthew Shipp? The word “decode" is used here because their efforts, nearly all freely improvised, are a musical language the two musicians have created themselves. Like the Steve Lacy/Mal Waldron duos, their sound together is instantly recognizable. In contrast though, where Lacy and Waldron often began with the familiar music of Thelonious Monk, the Brazilian-born Perelman and the American ...
Continue ReadingChad Fowler: Alien Skin
by Mark Corroto
Freely improvised music, saxophonist Paul Flaherty dubbed it “the hated music." Experiencing Alien Skin brings to mind another quote, this one from a shampoo commercial from the late 1980s: “Don't hate me because I'm beautiful." A beautiful alchemy is this session captured in the fall of 2021. It contains a three-horn front line of Chad Fowler, Ivo Perelman and Zoh Amba, plus pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, and drummer Steve Hirsh. I reference alchemy because the quintet ...
Continue ReadingWhit Dickey Quartet: Root Perspectives
by Mark Corroto
If it were possible to inhale an entire recording, Root Perspectives by drummer Whit Dickey's quartet might be the perfect delivery system. The music Dickey has put together comes as currents of wind, both a breeze and a gale. It is a drummer-led recording, but with any session this drummer leads (or plays in as sideman) his playing always complements without dominating the music. His new quartet includes pianist Matthew Shipp. Together, the pair have recorded dozens of ...
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