Matthew Shipp: New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz

Jazz fans are much like baseball geeks; they collect facts and statistics. The baseball fan will know a player's numbers such as on base percentage, at bats, home runs and stolen bases, whereas the jazz fan, maybe better said the jazz fanatic, will note recording dates and lineups, titles, releases and recording engineers. The baseball fan will utilize those statistics to predict what a player will do in a clutch situation as in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and a runner on second. Same for the jazz listener with a history of a particular lineup, knowing that group's prior output. Notwithstanding the stats, we love baseball because almost nothing in those numbers guarantees what an athlete will do in any situation.

The same can be said about New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz. Some first heard Shipp's trio from their 1990 date, one that was reissued as Circular Temple (ESP Disk, 2023) with bassist William Parker and drummer Whit Dickey. Then there are the other trio variations that included different drummers such as Guillermo E. Brown and Susie Ibarra and bassist Joe Morris. The stats geek in jazz listeners will note Shipp's longest and most consistent piano trio is with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. The trio's previous releases on ESP Disk are World Construct (2022), The Unidentifiable (2020), and Signature (2019). Stat geeks will note all of the current trio's recordings were engineered by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios.

Just as in baseball, prior performance does not predict how this new release sounds. Shipp's New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz is approaching a revelation and may just be the best starting place for those who have never had the opportunity to hear this trio. Opening with "Primal Poem" followed by "Sea Song," Shipp seems to be slowing down his attack as if to allow listeners, especially new ones, to penetrate his approach. Bisio and Taylor Baker execute the song sketches Shipp brought to this session with an ease that might make one believe each piece were thoroughly composed, kind of like a 6—4--3 double play in baseball. Highlights include the blues march of "The Function" with its sneaky vibe and the economically sparse opening of "Tone IQ," which features Bisio's bowed bass and Taylor Baker's minimal accents to match Shipp's sparse economical approach. The previous seven tracks prepare listeners for the finale "Coherent Systems." Here, the trio brings together all their varied concepts from solitude to turbid roil.