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Matthew Shipp: Zero
ByThe same can be said of Shipp. Over the course of more than thirty years recording and performing, his catalog has swelled. Unlike Monk, Shipp rarely repeats a composition, leaving listeners of his often challenging music in need of a way in, a sort of Rosetta Stone. I suggest that Zero might be just such a tool.
These eleven tracks are a synthesis of his methodology. Although he has absorbed Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Cecil Taylor, Elmo Hope, Arnold Schoenberg, and Johann Sebastian Bach, the language he has created is all his own. That said, his catalog is ineffable and possibly without a proper description. Listening to Zerolike, say, Thelonious Alone In San Francisco (Riverside, 1959)is a key to his denser works.
Like Monk, Shipp has created his own language, what he might call a symbol system. His blues are often fragmented, leading you away from the familiar and into a house with many rooms. He can attack the keyboards as a percussionist, or play some gentle licks that would soothe a kitten. There is a logic to each piece here, and the listener can have confidence in the resolution of ideas.
Besides the music as a blueprint to Shipp's vast catalog, the release comes with a second CD recording an hour-long lecture the pianist gave at The Stone in NYC explaining his process.
Track Listing
Zero; Abyss Before Zero; Pole After Zero; Piano Panels; Cosmic Sea; Zero Skip and a Jump; Zero Subtract From Jazz; Blue Equation; Pattern Emerge; Ghost Pattern; After Zero.
Personnel
Matthew Shipp
pianoMatthew Shipp: piano.
Album information
Title: Zero | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: ESP Disk
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