The intrepid musician and pianist Matthew Shipp is not the first pianist to believe in the expressive power of the piano trio – nor will be the last. Mind you, it is not as if Mr Shipp eschews the are of the duo and his advanced ideas have also found expression as a soloist – on stage and in the studio. Who can forget the many innovative recorded duets he has created with the inimitable tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, or his quartet recording such as Water Music [RogueArt, 2024] that included Mr Perelman, including Mark Helias and drummer Tom Rainey, or another duo with peerless trombonist Steve Swell, that quite memorable recording being Space Cube Jazz [RogueArt, 2022]?
And then there was the epic solo flights of The Data [RogueArt, 2024], released as a double-CD. This otherworldly, inward-looking, outward-bound meditation comprising 17 movements. Each of the remarkable sections seemed to have been born of a single refracted idea that rippled into the 17 movements, off the nerve-endings of Mr Shipp’s fingers, splayed onto the keyboard of his piano. More often than not the pianist also produced gnarled arpeggios from the rolling of his fists onto ebony and ivory keys. Taken separately – and as a whole – this music appeared to represent an out-of-body experience into the rarefied realm, or the spirit world inhabited by the wandering of the very breath of the pianist’s soul.
On New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz, Mr Shipp mines the trio format, digging deeper than most pianists have rarely ventured. [Perhaps only Cecil Taylor, Paul Bley and a few members of that tribe have done likewise]. The works, sketched for the session in some detail – but with titles already decided – we have been told by producer Steve Holtje suggest that Mr Shipp knew exactly what he wanted. However, true to form Mr Shipp created space for each musician to stretch [while perhaps reining them in at the appropriate moment] not so much to control the next musical expression of the theme, but clearly to ringing in a change and send the masterful contrabassist Michael Bisio and the prodigious drummer Newman Taylor Baker down a new musical rabbit hole.
These ringing in of the changes by Mr Shipp beckons us from the first bars of Primal Poem which makes us follow on [mindful of the title of the disc] as we witness musicians in the thrall of bracing change – refreshing change – with each of them [pianist, bassist and drummer] nurturing each other and supporting what is conceptual change, which is to say that the kind of ‘change’ we are talking about here goes way beyond harmonic variations. Mr Shipp’s trio music here gives birth to prismatic change – the dazzling architecture of which is made of melody, harmony and rhythm. We see not only Mr Shipp, [but naturally] both contrabassist Mr Bisio and drummer Mr Taylor Baker strike out along individual [and collective] paths and embrace that change through eight pieces.
The bracing change in a literal – and figurative – sense is heard right from the opening bars of Primal Poem. Edgy andunpredictable, the music tumbles in elliptical arcs onto our collective sensibilities with a sensation as invigorating as a shower of ice-cold water. Between this opening piece and the album’s unpredictably and delightfully jagged dénouement Coherent System are six works, each as compelling as their evocative titles. Mr Shipp shows himself to be a purveyor of music that shifts from the rippling waves [cue Sea Song] to visceral volatility of Coherent System. Meanwhile we sit and listen, enthralled by the twists and turns of the edge-of-the-seat music on this recording beautifully captured here by its sound engineer by Jim Clouse.
In between are six eloquent works. Each a muscular exertion from the first bar to the last, when the music catches its breath on a final pulsating note, chord, or beat. One gets a sense that Mr Shipp may have conceived – despite the six individually-titled works – as a continuous musical stream of consciousness lasting almost forty-seven minutes. Certainly, what is evident is the music is performed with extraordinary energy and vitality, acoustically aerodynamic figures and patterns glide along until deliberately blown off course by sudden changes in direction or temperature. Shifts occur through rapid changes in register and articulation, with Mr Shipp – and the other performers – imaginatively exploiting the music’s full range and drawing on harmonics, overtones and microtones.
On Non Circle and Tone IQ the musicians send wave-like shapes with concentrated bursts of expression. As Mr Holtje observes in his notes, “We were hearing, and discussing, how the music often seemed classical, preconceived [he could have added programmatic], even though it was completely improvised… how e there were transcendent moments of stillness in which the music seemed to float. How unlike the standard piano/bass/drums trios it all sounded.” He might as well have gone further but wisely left it to us to listen to this music is evocative of glistening and ductile steel that also imbues hues of deep auburn and russet [meaning evoking the alchemical secrets of nature]. The composer’s source of inspiration is certainly trio music of future past. Certainly, the works are organically conceived and executed, with change built into the very foundations of the material itself. Another Matthew Shipp recording to die for…
Deo Gratis…
Music – 1. Primal Poem; 2. Sea Song; 3. The Function; 4. Non Circle; 5. Tone IQ; 6. Brain System; 7: Brain Work; 8. Coherent System.
Musicians – Matthew Shipp: piano; Michael Bisio: contrabass; Newman Taylor Baker: drums.
Main Photograph: Matthew Shipp at the Vision Arts Festival 2024 photograph © Marek Lazarski. Middle Photograph: Cover of Matthew Shipp Trio – New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz designed by Diana K. Bottom Photograph: Matthew-Shipp-Trio [l to r] Newman Taylor Baker, Matthew Shipp, Michael Bisio photo © Anna Yatskevich
Released – 2024
Label – ESP-DISK [ESP5085]
[esp.com]
Runtime – 46:21