Matthew Shipp: The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp

In a broad-themed 2023 interview with All About Jazz, Matthew Shipp described The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp as his "grand statement for who I am now." With this solo release, we have a time-stamp in the composer's constantly evolving portfolio. As we trace Shipp's music from his first solo work, Symbol Systems (No More Records, 1995), through a quarter century, a sense of composing and playing in the moment becomes career-defining. Shipp's musical explorations are location pins on terrains which have developed, disappeared, or existed only in the artist's imagination.

"Crystal Structures" is characterized by expressive intensity and rigid, knotty sprays of notes. Shipp takes a sharp turn in direction on "That Vibration," with its sophistication and gaunt beauty. The infinitesimal breakdown of his tactics on "The," are concurrently distinct and vague. The audacious, thundering "The Bulldozer Poetics" exemplifies Shipp's surgical precision in the midst of a fiercely eccentric invention. There is a reluctant majesty in "The Essence," influenced by the classics, but subjected to an aggressive spate of passing wildness. Perhaps nothing expresses the artist's range better than "Tune Into It" and the closing piece, "The Essence of Silence." In the latter, we hear a striking but all too brief composite of an artist whose sensitivity and sensibility are dual muses.

Intrinsic to Shipp's music is his remarkably developed and communicative language. There can be many interpretations of Shipp's broad range of ideas and that is both the challenge and enjoyment of listening. The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp advocates a less complex, more thoughtful unearthing of Shipp's analytical revelations. He employs dense clusters of notes and rapid-fire arpeggios, creating a rich and intricate tapestry of sound. His use of extended techniques adds to the diversity of textures and tones in his performances. It is clear that introspection has a stronger presence here, articulated in ten unadorned pieces. Shipp has shaved off unnecessary gesticulations, hovering in spiritually extensive spaces while driving towards a higher level of innovation. The Intrinsic Nature Of Shipp is enhanced with repeated listening. Shipp's music, despite the stated move toward simplicity, remains demanding. That is a very good thing.