Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

ALBUM REVIEW July 3, 2020

Matthew Shipp String Trio: Symbolic Reality

Read "Symbolic Reality" reviewed 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 ...

INTERVIEW May 21, 2020

Matthew 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 ...

ALBUM REVIEW April 22, 2020

Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation

By Mark Corroto

Let the celebration of pianist Matthew Shipp's 60th birthday year 2020 commence with The Piano Equation. Having released a dozen or so prior solo sessions, this also is a recording sans nostalgia. Shipp, like Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, or Thelonious Monk before him, does not pine for the past, but ceaselessly forges a path onward. And outward. As with the esteemed masters listed above, Shipp has created his own piano language, best described as a percussive decoding of ...

ALBUM REVIEW April 21, 2020

Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation

By Karl Ackermann

Matthew Shipp is like an engineer from another dimension. In three decades of making music, he maintains an inquisitiveness for expanding new dialects and an aptitude for blending composition and exploration. Marking his sixtieth birthday, The Piano Equation reveals the pianist contemplating past experiments if only as a platform for the future; a foundation for yet another new conception. Seeing words like “equation," “vortex," or “cosmic" in Shipp's titles points to a theoretical approach that the composer's loyal audiences are ...

ALBUM REVIEW April 20, 2020

Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation

By Dan McClenaghan

A sixtieth birthday might be greeted as a time of reflection, a looking back on a life well-lived. Or it might serve as a call to action, as it did for pianist Satoko Fujii as she celebrated her sixth trip around the sun by releasing twelve albums in 2018. Matthew Shipp also answers the call to action at hitting that six decade mark, though he probably won't take things as far as Fujii did. But who knows? He is a ...

ALBUM REVIEW February 26, 2020

Matthew Shipp String Trio: Symbolic Reality

By Karl Ackermann

Of the many formations in which Matthew Shipp works, his string trio is one of the most eclectic and appealing. Mat Maneri, William Parker and Shipp have covered the breadth of progressive improvised music from chamber to noise. Shipp has dabbled in electronica and hip-hop, but more often in the genre-less manner which makes him stand apart. Maneri has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Cecil Taylor, Paul Motian and Club d'Elf. Parker's resume includes recordings with artists ...

ALBUM REVIEW October 30, 2019

Matthew Shipp: Invisible Light - Live São Paulo

By Karl Ackermann

Matthew Shipp's playing has become so distinct over the years that it is difficult to view him from the perspective of influences. There are numerous examples of the virtuoso pianist-composer channeling Cecil Taylor, Andrew Hill, Thelonious Monk or even Morton Feldman, but not through imitation. Nor is his own identifiable style so tangible that his music loses any spontaneity. Invisible Light -Live São Paulo is among the finest of Shipp's solo projects, reflecting the best of what he has cultivated ...