John Butcher/Matthew Shipp

At Oto
Fataka 2

John Butcher

Bell Trove Spools

Northern Spy NSCD 032

Expressive in distinct ways, these CDs by British soprano and tenor saxophonist John Butcher not only expand understanding of his distinctive solo playing, but on one session also demonstrates how he reacts in a duo situation with a free player from a parallel tradition.

That CD is At Oto, and the other musician is New York pianist Matthew Shipp. Shipp is known for his work with the most committed exponents of the tough and vociferous Free Jazz tradition as well as electro-oriented experimenters who flirt with Rock and Hip-Hop beats. Butcher, on the other hand, whose list of collaborators, is as extensive as Shipp’s, comes from the cerebral and hushed Free Music tradition, where improvisers share concepts with notated musicians, especially when it comes to utilizing electronics.

On a London gig at the Café Oto – hence the title – Shipp has a track to himself, following two solo outings by Butcher. Then the two combine for a fascinating almost half-hour duet. In contrast Bell Trove Spools is completely solo Butcher, encompassing 10 defining reed tracks by the English stylist from concerts in Houston and Brooklyn.

Neatly collecting all his soprano solos in the Brooklyn gig, Butcher’s improvisations using the smaller horn appear more concerned with technique than tale-telling. Overall then, outside of the sheer audacity of sound creation, fascination lies with itemizing how many unique textures can be sourced from Butcher’s straight horn. The answer is flutter-tonguing and reed osculation; repeated snorting glissandi mixed with reed bites; and on “The Fourth Dart”, a collection of spetrofluctuation, staccato trills and constant and repetative circular breathing that converge so that skittering note patters almost jump over one another.

The tenor saxophone tracks are in contrast invested in single techniques, with one devoted to finger-thumping key percussion and another to testing the venue’s spatial qualities with electronically amplified feedback. Surprisingly however, there’s a certain underlying lyricism expressed in Butcher’s flat-line tremolo expression along with the expected aggressive cries and continuous patterning. That makes “Perfume Screech”, the CD longest track, alive with the set’s most distinctive improvising. Moving from sections where the timbres are legato and mobile to those in which tones are mercurial and strained, Butcher sets up a call-and-response vamp with himself. Subsequently he outputs air blown through the horn’s body tube without touching the keys, or exposes slide-whistle-like chirping. The ending is all lip razzing, reed bites and tongue smacks.

Actually recorded before either part of Bell Trove Spools, Butcher tenor solo on At Oto is defining as well. Pressurized to the extent that he seems to be constantly overblowing, “Curling/Charred” is an abrasive line extended with stutters and slaps. It’s concerned with exposing the horn’s most abrasive tessitura while simultaneously bringing out the partials affiliated with each note.

For his part Shipp’s solo excursion is all about chromatic expansion, although using the pedals plus stops and strums from the strings to establish fundamentals. As power clusters judder back and forth, the pianist mixes thunderous basso notes, staccato interludes and at junctures highlights recognizable blues sequences that are infrequent visitors to any EuroImprov gig. With his high-frequency key clinking his finale is as durable as his exposition.

As a duo on “Generative Grammar”, the two improvisers appear to circle around each other rather than intersecting. The saxophonist’s inimitable tone takes on even more violent qualities so that at junctures he appears to be pulling sounds from the saxophone’s metal rather than from its reed. Meanwhile Shipp’s response to Butcher’s rugged tongue stops and slurs, is a redoubling of his muscular playing strategy. Along with hand-pumped glissandi, he uses rugged, moving strokes and octave jumps to parallel Butcher’s slurring multiphonics. Moreover, if the expression, anvil-like pounding can be used, it’s certainly present in Shipp’s playing here. Eventually a pause, following the saxophonist unleashing a series of shaking tones paralleled by lip sucking and unaccented air blowing, leads the pianist to a moderated piano sequence. Keeping his playing grounded Shipp’s carefully wrought cascades unfold at the same time as Butcher’s slurred staccato lines. This attempt at broken-chord concordance finishes the set.

Both these CDs are valuable expressions of Butcher’s ever-expanding saxophone vocabulary as well as a glimpse at Shipp’s inventive technical strategy. However the two-person expression appears to be more about playing singly at the same time rather than being true duo work. It will be interesting to chart if the Yank and Brit ever play together again.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Oto: 1. Curling/Charred 2. Mud/Hiss 3. Fundamental Field#* 4. Generative Grammar*

Personnel: Oto: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones [except #]) and Matthew Shipp (piano)*

Track Listing: Bell: 1. A Place to Start 2. Padded Shadows 3. Willow Shiver 4. Perfume Screech 5. Unspeakable Damage 6. First Dart 7. Second Dart 8. Third Dart 9. Fourth Dart 10. Egg

Personnel: Bell: John Butcher (tenor and soprano saxophones)

February 28, 2013

Festival Report

The Guelph Jazz Festival
By Ken Waxman

A spectre was haunting the 2012 Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), but it was a benign spectre: the ghost of John Coltrane. The influence of Coltrane, who died in 1967, was honored in direct and indirect ways throughout the five days of the festival which takes places annually in this mid-sized college town, 100 kilometres west of Toronto.

This year’s edition (September 5 to 9), featured two live performances of Ascension, Coltrane’s free jazz masterwork from 1965, one with the original instrumentation by an 11-piece Toronto ensemble at the local arts centre; the other on the main stage of the soft-seated River Run Centre concert hall featured the Bay-area ROVA saxophone’s quartet reimaging of the work, scored for 12 musicians adding strings and electronics to the basic ensemble.

Coltrane’s legacy was also apparent in the improvising of Reggie Workman, bassist in one version of Trane`s quartet, with the Brew trio with kotoist Miya Masaoka and percussionist Gerry Hemingway, as well as in the impassioned playing of alto saxophonist Darius Jones, whose duo with pianist Matthew Shipp split the bill with Brew during an afternoon concert in the River Run`s smaller concert hall. Coltrane’s commend of the saxophone was not only recalled in the wide ranging work of many other reedists present, including a trio of saxophonists in the jazz-jive-R&B Shuffle Demons band, one of the high points of the GJF’s 12 hours of free outdoor concerts in a large tent in front of Guelph City Hall, but in a more profound fashion by the incisive tenor soloing by Peter Brötzmann and Larry Ochs. Those two gigs were part of the more than six dozen other performances during the GJF’s third annual dusk-to-dawn Nuit Blanche extravaganza. The ghostly forms visible during Nuit Blanche, were those of festival goers moving at interval s among sites throughout the city ranging from art galleries, yoga studios to parks attending as many shows as possible.

True to the shape of the composition, Rova’s Electric Ascension – cornetist Rob Mazurek; saxophonists Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin, Steve Adams and Bruce Ackley; violinists Carla Kihlstedt and Jenny Scheinman; guitarist Nels Cline; Fred Frith on electric bass; drummers Hamid Drake; Ikue Mori and Chris Brown on electronics – used prompts and hand signals to pilot Trane’s amorphous score. With Drake’s backbeat plus Brown’s and Mori’s processed oscillations and juddering vibrations constant presences, the performance frequently was transported from dense tremolo crescendos for all, to measured solos, duos and trios. An impassioned, double-time alto solo for instance would be paired with opaque guitar distortion and sluicing electric bass runs; or a phrase would toggle between Mazurek’s looped triplets and Raskin’s stretched tongue stops; or unison guitar and violin plinking would presage a cacophonous sound-shard explosion

Frith’s characteristically witty guitar playing was better exposed during a Nuit Blanche show at the intimate Guelph Youth Music Centre (GYMC). Instrument resting on his knees, bare feet manipulating effects pedals, Frith pummeled and bowed his strings more often than he strummed them; showed drum stick between strings and the neck and used an e-bow to create chiming vibrating while picking up snatches of local radio programs. Although processing as well, Masaoka was similarly restrained at the Brew set, relying instead on her koto command able to replicate anything from harp-like glissandi to isolated guitar picking on her multi-string instrument; she even used chop sticks on the bridge for different effects. Committed to three-way dialogue, Hemingway smacked, rotated, patted and tapped his drums and cymbals. Meanwhile Workman maintained pulsating, jazz-defining bass lines when he wasn’t rubbing his strings or bowing and stroking them in one fluid motion. At one point he achieved a rhythmic effect knee-slapping and foot-banging.

Rhythmic beats were present in abundance during a well-attended church-basement set by Norway’s Huntsville – guitarist/banjoist Ivar Grydeland, electric bassist Tonny Kluften and percussionist Ingar Zach – joined by Cline and drummer Glenn Kotche. Although there were sequences during which Kluften’s pedal point joined Grydeland, jangling guitar runs or bowed banjo twangs plus Zach’s contrapuntal tap, wiggle and pops on miscellaneous percussion gave new impetus to the buoyant folk-like melodies the trio uniquely reconstruction. Cline and Kotche may have spent too much time in rock bands. Flashy and busy in the guitarist’s case or overwhelming percussive in the drummer’s, the two exacerbated a tendency to leadenness only lessened when Kotche withdrew for Zach’s beat manipulation and Cline concentrated on vibrating a shruti box.

Simple, folk-like melodies were also prominent during a morning recital at the (GYMC) by Scheinman and pianist Myra Melford. Melford frequently also squeezed accordion-like tremolos from a harmonium as Scheinman used glissandi friction and flying spiccatto to build up dramatic sequences from what sometime threatened to turn into a hoedown. But the detours away from fiddle tunes with accompaniment towards compositions that allowed the pianist to exhibit spiky intonation and a slippery blues time sense were more notable. Melford’s 12-bar command also appeared 24 hours later in the same location as her encore following a rapturously received solo piano showcased was a pumped-up version of honky-tonk. Her skill digging into blues chord progressions was as obvious as her playing of a series of emotional miniatures she previewed, composed to reflect a series of artist’s sketches. Using assertive elbow pushes on the keyboard plus jocular stops and variously weighted climaxes, she composed a series of interludes that threatened to fragment into dissonance but never did.

Another pianist skillful in exhibiting the broad strokes of dissonance is Shipp. His recourse to glistening arpeggio runs, processional chording, kinetic patterning and waves of impressionistic color was notable in itself. Evolving in parallel fashion to Jones’ reed invention was another highlight. With his all-encompassing and fluid blowing approaching the intensity of late Coltrane, Jones often compressed distended cries and altissimo screams into aggressive almost impenetrable glossolalia; elsewhere he built solos out of key percussion, distended slurps and reed bites or churned so many splintered runs that Shipp relied on foot pedal pressure to meet him.

Ochs and Brötzmann were two other extenders of Trane’s spirit, the former in a duo with Drake in a yoga studio and the latter with vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz at the (GYMC). Weaving his tenor or soprano saxophone above the packed crowd seated on the floor, Ochs mixed moderato and agitated tones as he slid from harsh reflux to shofar-like bays, swallowed breaths, vocalized altissimo riffs or nephritic cries. Connecting these disjointed vibrations, Drake used windmill-like patterning as he rapped on a wood block, strokes drum tops and cymbals with brushes and gauged exactly when to clobber his bass drum for maximum effect. If Ochs/Drake recalled Trane’s celebrated duets with Rashied Ali, then Brötzmann, who created an unparalleled Euroimprov variant around the time Ascension was recorded, boisterously pushed each one of its four horns to its limits backed only by an instrument he professed to dislike. Favoring four mallets, vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz held his own however emphasizing his instrument’s chordal and percussive qualities. With marionette-like jerks, sometime balancing on one foot, the vibist rang out enough polyphonic chords or hard-hitting single notes to match Brötzmann, whether he was producing blues-based multiphonics from his alto, angled smears from his tárogató or stacking intense blasts ridden with even tougher split-tone shrieks from his tenor.

Like Coltrane or nearly every one of the featured performers at the 2012 festival, Brötzmann balanced absolute sound experimentation with sonic story telling. His breath-taking textural display helped pinpoint why the GJF has become a major international festival. Participants are now anxiously awaiting 2013’s edition to find out what the GJF’s significant 20th anniversary edition will highlight.

--For New York City Jazz Record October 2012

October 7, 2012

Matthew Shipp Trio

Elastic Aspects
Thirsty Ear TH 57202.2

ROVA Saxophone Quartet

A Short History

Jazzwerkstatt JW 099

Ballrogg

Cabin Music

Hubro CD 2515

Albert Beger/Gerry Hemingway

There’s Nothing Better to Do

OutNow Records ONR 007

Something in The Air: New Excitement at the Guelph Jazz Festival

By Ken Waxman

One of jazz’s watershed musical creations, John Coltrane’s 1965 performance of Ascension marked his committeemen to Free Jazz and has since served as a yardstick against which saxophone-centred large ensemble improvisations are measured. On September 7 at the River Run Centre’s main stage, one of the highpoints of this year’s Guelph Jazz Festival is a reimagining of Coltrane’s masterwork by the Bay area-based ROVA Saxophone Quartet and guests. Not only is the ensemble gutsily tackling the suite, but its arrangement take Coltrane’s all-acoustic piece for five saxes, two trumpets and rhythm section and reconfigures it so that ROVA’s four saxes, and one trumpeter interact with two drummers, two violins, electric guitar and bass plus electronic processing.

You can get an idea of ROVA’s style of sonic daring-do on A Short History Jazzwerkstatt JW 099. Referencing all sorts of reed writing from R&B vamps to atonal serialism, the 35-year-old quartet made up of soprano and tenor saxophonist Bruce Ackley, alto and sopranino saxophonist Steve Adams, baritone and alto saxophonist Jon Raskin and tenor and sopranino saxophonist Larry Ochs show its versatility throughout. Especially germane and related to Ascension, is a section on Part 2 of the Ochs-composed Certain Space sequence when he corkscrews an intense, stop-time solo into a strident collection of irregular polyphony and slap-tongue invention from the other saxes with the authority of Coltrane’s sax choir from 47 years earlier. That’s merely one highlight of this tour-de-force which outline’s the band’s other influences with tracks dedicated to improv pianist Cecil Taylor and notated composers Giacinto Scelsi and Morton Feldman. The Scelsi section dramatically contrasts bagpipe-like slurs from the soloists with impressionistic harmonies from the other reeds modulating through different modes and tones. Although other sequences in the Taylor section expose sinewy tessitura and staccato reed bites in call-and-response fashion, Part 3, for Feldman is unsurprisingly moderato and leisurely, introduced and completed by air blown through the horns’ body tubes without key movement, yet lyrically balanced throughout as each saxophone’s timbre is clearly heard within the close harmonies.

That same night, Ascension guitarist Nels Cline and others will join members of the Norwegian Huntsville trio at St. George’s Church for its unique mixture of improvisation tempered with electronic impulses and influenced by folk and rock music textures. Huntsville’s Ivar Grydeland, who plays electric, acoustic and pedal steel guitars plus banjo and electronics with bassist Tonny Kluften and percussionist Ingar Zach in that band, shows off his zesty mix of spidery licks, resonating twangs and droning pulses with Ballrogg, another Norwegian combo on Cabin Music Hubro CD 2515 With that trio filled out by alto saxophonist/clarinetist Klaus Holm, who adds electronics and field recordings to the mix, and bassist Roger Arntzen, the disc is a close cousin to what Huntsville creates, albeit with more overdubbing, and with Grydeland frailing his banjo as often as he strums his guitar, more country-folksy. Probably the most descriptive track is Sliding Doors which manages to deftly balance clarinet glissandi, ringing banjo flanges and a powerful walking bass line. Before the result takes on too much of a rural interface however, the trio’s juddering interaction is meticulously intercut with previously prepared jagged guitar flanges and sluicing bass lines.

There are no guitars in sight the next afternoon at a double bill at River Run Centre’s Cooperators Hall, although Miya Masaoka’s multi-string koto may make up for that as she plays with bassist Reggie Workman and percussionist Gerry Hemingway. A long-time festival visitor, Hemmingway’s recent CD with tenor and soprano saxophonist Albert Beger There’s Nothing Better to Do OutNow Records ONR 007 demonstrates the drummer’s skill in the sort of duo format that Coltrane excelled in during his latter career. The near-naked improvising of this first-time meeting between American drummer and Israeli saxophonist demonstrates the universality of expression, Using his hands as often as sticks and brushes, Hemingway is as likely to come up with a tom-tom rhythm, produce a ratcheting scratch on his kit’s sides or tap a small bell as he is to let loose with full-force ruffs and drags. Beger responds to these understated rhythms in kind, with hoarse-throated vibrations, ragged tongue fluttering or surprisingly aligned trills, which are as often chromatic as cascading. Using both his horns throughout, the saxophonist’s moderate tones can be graceful and emotional as Hemingway’s beats gracefully scurry around them. However elsewhere ragged, altissimo reed bites stridently operate in tandem with the drummer’s blunt flams and tough backbeat. With bravura timing the two show how easily they can move from cacophonous vibrations to an arrhythmic but bluesy output on Missing You or on the title track, speedily layering freak reed notes and circular slurs plus clashing cymbals and incisive shuffle beats into a parallel exposition that is as moving as it is staccato.

Negotiating the tightrope between staccato and lyrical in his playing is the forte of pianist Matthew Shipp, whose duo with saxophonist Darius Jones is the other half of the double bill at Cooperators Hall. Elastic Aspects Thirsty Ear TH 57202.2 with long-time associates bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey however, shows that Shipp’s improvising can be as mercurial in the standard jazz piano trio setting as well. With each of the 13 aspects of this suite stretching so that they adhere to one another, the effect is wholly organic, not unlike the recording of Ascension. With Dickey’s nuanced patterning and Bisio’s buzzing, often bowed, sometimes walking bass lines beside him, Shipp skillfully moves through the piano language. A track like Explosive Aspects balances on ringing, left-handed syncopation, while the subsequent Raw Materials evolves like a baroque invention with leaping, high-pitched notes carefully shaded as they jostle with pedal-point bass line until the theme finally break free into rubato pulsing. There are internal string plucks and harpsichord echoes in Shipp’s playing as well. With tremolo, lyrical and sometimes impressionistic patterning on show, the trio maintains the swinging centre of jazz while subtly or overtly charting new experiments and explorations.

Overall 2012 promises to be a banner year for the Guelph Jazz Festival. And that’s not even mentioning the dark-to-dusk Nuit Blanche late Saturday encompassing more unexpected sounds.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 18 #1

September 6, 2012

Ivo Perelman Quartet

The Hour of the Star
Leo Records CD LR 605

Eastern Boundary Quartet

Icicles

Konnex KCD 5258

Carlo De Rosa’s Cross-Fade

Brain Dance

Cuneiform Rune 317

Of all the formations that have characterized improvisation at least since the Bop era, the most common has been that of one reed player along with piano, bass and drums. Just because it’s unexceptional doesn’t mean every session has to be identical however, especially if the meeting ground is original compositions. As these quartet discs demonstrate, plenty of variations are available, even if the form prods participants towards a mainstream orientation.

Least committed to that concept is Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, who is also most closely aligned to what could be called Energy Music. His all-star American quartet includes guitarist-turned-bassist Joe Morris, sought-after and sympathetic drummer Gerald Cleaver, and, on four of the six tunes, celebrated pianist Matthew Shipp. Shipp’s presence is crucial here. For while nowhere does he entertain thoughts of running the changes, the pianist helps create a conventional rhythm section, which steadies the often-abrasive playing of Perelman.

If The Hour of the Star is the most avant-garde session, then Brain Dance is the most conventional. That’s conventional as in normal, not predictable however. Leader/bassist Carlo De Rosa, who has worked with everyone from drummer Jack DeJohnette to Jazz-World Music trumpeter Amir El Saffer, has composed seven high quality tunes, and his Cross-Fade band is made up of top New York players. Vijay Iyer who plays Fender Rhodes and piano here is one of the most celebrated younger keyboardists, mixing Asian inflected concepts with Jazz. Kingston, Jamaica-born tenor saxophonist Mark Shim has worked with the Mingus Big Band and trumpeter Terrence Blanchard; while young drummer Justin Brown’s credits include gigs with Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba.

With its music somewhere in between these two previous discs, and with an inside-outside quality, is the aptly named Eastern Boundary Quartet, a working unit since 2007. Two of its members are American veterans and long-time playing partners: bassist Joe Fonda and pianist Michael Jefry Stevens, who together or alone work regularly with players such as German reedman Gerald Ullman. Their lesser-known – in the West – compadres are Hungarian. Mihály Borbély plays alto saxophone and tarogato and Balázs Bágyi is on drums. Borbély teaches at both the Béla Bartók Conservatory and the Ferenc Liszt Music Academy, and has worked with musicians as different as the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and flautist Herbie Mann. Someone who also works in theatre music and takes Jazz gigs, Bágyi is a mamber of the Magyarvista Social Club, a 31-member Hungarian World Music orchestra.

Working with different line-ups over the years, right now Cross-Fade’s weakest links seem to be in the drum and saxophone chairs, but for different reasons. Brown is an incredibly busy drummer and appears committed to hammering rhythms and licks onto every track –whether they’re called for or not. Shim on the other hand has developed a distinctive, robust tenor sound. Unfortunately it’s nearly unchanging on most tracks, making those few instances where he alters his playing strategy stand out. Additionally, while De Rosa’s centred bass lines holds many of the pieces together, cleverly winnowing or double-timing distinctive solos or accompaniment, Iyer’s touch, so masterful and clear-cut on acoustic piano loses its individuality when he switches to electric.

That’s why the CD’s stand-out tunes are “Headbanger’s Bawl” and “Terrane/A Phrase”. The latter, the nearly 13½-minute lengthiest track, feature a straightforward up-and-down bass line, a similarly unadorned swinging backbeat from Brown, with enough breathing space left for both Shim and Iyer. As Brown moves among wooden clatters, drags and ruffs, the pianist exposes a series of tension-building chords and the saxophonist equally intense snorts plus controlled flutter tonguing. Iyer’s cascades circle around the reedist’s multiphonic expansion, until De Rosa’s atonal string vibrations move all concerned to cross tones and connections. Rhythm on “Headbanger’s Bawl” is properly opaque and Rock-like, with De Rosa adding a bulky pulse, and Brown later breaking up the time with paradiddles and cymbal clanks. Shim’s stuttering tenor line soon escalates to slurs and tongue stops, while the pianist constructs his brooding, multi-fingered sequence out of glissandi and flashing tremolo runs.

Stevens is another commanding piano soloist with the experience that makes him an equally sensitive accompanist. On Icicles he effortlessly slides from the gentle impressionism of his self-composed title tune to tougher syncopation on more blues-oriented material. Furthermore he can offhandedly use slinky tremolos for effect in the piano’s mid-section, without letting the rhythm lag. Fonda too is assured. He quotes Oscar Pettiford’s “Blues in the Closet” in his rhythmic introduction to the band’s treatment of Atilla Zoller’s “Hungarian Jazz Rhapsody”; and on his own “Fish Soup” uses solid thumps and echoing lines to set up Borbély’s double puffing and extended flutter tonguing. Borbély’s reed lines throughout are distinctive, sticking to the alto saxophone’s highest register – or perhaps actually playing soprano saxophone – for melodic interludes. Meanwhile he uses narrowed tarogato tones and frenetic triple-tonguing to keep the momentum going on Balázs’ “Soft BalkanWinds”, which actually is blown along via the drummer’s primitivist beats.

“Borders”, again composed by Borbély is the most fully realized performance. In part it’s a Fonda showcase with the bassist’s runs scurrying from super-speedy to walking to strained strums, as well as exposing additional tones and partials. Still ample room is available for the composer and pianist. Stevens’ muscular patterns, cascading chords and repetitive key clipping pave the way for Borbély’s slithering split tones, as the reed man elaborates a melody which almost sounds Scottish.

Someone whose melodies definitely lack a Scottish – and usually a tonal – tinge is tenor saxophonist Perelman, although after more than 20 years of recording and times changing, his textures sound more tempered than in the past. Not that the Brazilian’s improvisational allegiance is any less to late-period Coltrane. It’s just that in the nearly 50 years since Trane’s death, these concepts are part of many saxophonists’ lingua franca.

Interestingly enough, there’s a portion of “As For the Future” where Perelman’s tenor tone seems to be condensing to approximate that of a tarogato. His tone is just as strident; his pitch is as altissimo, but is that a quote from “Secret Love” that sneaks into his solo? Atop Morris’ ostinato plucks and Cleaver’s restrained rolls and rim shots, Perelman chews on the exposition like a pooch with a meaty bone, using snorts, bites, growls and tongue motions to extract every ounce of protein from the material. Finally he slows the piece down to a Hard Boppish, almost mellow ending.

In such fast, yet encouraging company some of the tenseness that has characterized the tenor saxophonist’s improvising in the past has dissipated. His lines are still harsh, especially when pushed along by Shipp’s metronomic chording. Yet framed among irregular drum beats and adhered bass thumping, even as glossolalia and guttural tones exit his horn, his playing is more focused. Juddering counterpoint from the pianist, mixed with repeated renal cries and sudden descents into the horn’s nether regions from Perelman, create an altogether original take on the material.

One climax occurs on “Singing the Blues”, where the saxman’s approximation of late-period Trane slurs, shakes, snort and timbre-shredding meets Shipp’s expressive kinetic runs until the palpable ferocity is almost visible. Accelerating to fortissimo and seemingly emptying the horn of all its air with diaphragm pressure and note stretching, the addition of Cleaver’s backbeat helps wrap things up so that the saxophonist’s agitated growls find their proper place among the pianist’s downwards punctuation.

No matter the nationality of members of the formations – and no matter how advanced and far-out the improvising may be – these sessions prove that the sax-plus-rhythm- section format is still as viable as it ever has been,

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Icicles: 1. Fish Soup 2. Icicles) 3. Soft Balkan Wind 4. Borders 5. China 6. Hungarian Jazz Rhapsody 7. Transylvania Blues

Personnel: Icicles: Mihály Borbély (alto saxophone and tarogato); Michael Jefry Stevens (piano); Joe Fonda (bass) and Bágyi Balázs (drums)

Track Listing: Brain: 1. Circular Woes 2. For Otto 3. Maja 4. Headbanger’s Bawl 5. Brain Dance 6. Terrane/A Phrase 7. Route 17

Personnel: Brain: Mark Shim (tenor saxophone); Vijay Iyer (piano and Fender Rhodes); Carlo De Rosa (bass) and Marcus Gilmore (drums)

Track Listing: Hour: 1. A Tearful Tale 2. Singing the Blues 3. The Hour of the Star 4. The Right to Protest 5. As For the Future 6. Whistling in the Dark Wind

Personnel: Hour: Ivo Perelman (tenor saxophone); Matthew Shipp (piano [except 2, 5]); Joe Morris (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums)

January 10, 2012

Label Spotlight:

SoLyd Records
By Ken Waxman

Like that of many successful endeavours ranging from the mass production of the automobile, the feature-length cartoon or the personal computer, SoLyd record label’s driving force is one person. While Andrei Gavrilov, may or may not like the comparison to Walt Disney, Henry Ford or Steve Jobs, it’s his ideas, taste and finances that keep the Moscow-based label afloat and is responsible for its massive, (more than 400 releases) somewhat idiosyncratic catalogue. “Sometimes, when I look over the catalogue I get confused myself,” he admits.

Founded in 1993 and named for his daughters Sonia (So) and Lydia (Lyd), Gavrilov is not only SoLyd’s “head, president, owner, director, you name it” but also the label’s entire staff. A freelance journalist/broadcaster/translator since 1983, one of whose more unusual jobs is supplying Russian translation for the TV broadcast of the Academy Awards, Gavrilov initially worked for independent Russian publishing houses. He often wrote about art and music, which put him in contact with many musicians who subsequently appeared on SoLyd.

“I’ve known Andrei Gavrilov since the early 1970s when he used to attend all of the concerts when our Trio (Ganelin, Tarasov, Chekasin) played in Moscow,” recalls percussionist Vladimir Tarasov. “He is good friend to all jazz musicians in Russia. When the Sonore label, which published many CDs from our Trio, my solo and other projects went out of business, he bought the publishing rights and the sound archive.” Plans to reissue these sessions on SoLyd haven’t yet been realized. But in 2006 Gavrilov allowed Leo Records to include Tarasov’s Sonore material in its 11-CD Tarasov box set.

Re-issues don’t play too large a part in the SoLyd catalogue. In fact, says Gavrilov, “SoLyd releases only the music that I personally am interested in at the moment, and tastes can change with the time,” he notes. “But even though tastes change, the main principle remains – the project must be something new, something unorthodox and off the beaten track.” SoLyd has never concentrated on a single musical genre. So while jazz fans may know its CDs featuring improvisers, the catalogue also includes contemporary classical music, Russian rock and blues and local, radical “singing poets”. However the majority of rock releases are from bands either initially unknown or are side projects of more popular bands. The few pop CDs that became best-sellers – by Russian standards – also turn enough of a profit to help subsidize so-called avant-garde sessions.

Although SoLyd releases a combination of newly created and already recorded sessions, one fact remains constant: Gavrilov pays all costs involved, and each CD is marketed the same way. This decision was crucial during the late 1990s when the value of the American dollar to the ruble skyrocketed. With many recording firms bankrupt, disc pirating became rampant. To counter this and still sell CDs, legitimate companies such as SoLyd put out budget versions of their discs. Not surprisingly no improvised music was released as these budget “best-of” compilations. While SoLyd hung on to its artists and distributors, earning suffered. That situation finally rectified itself by 2008, but another irritant remains. As Gavrilov states, “Western distribution is the main problem for Russian labels.”

Today SoLyd discs are available for download and distribution through outlets such as CD Baby, Qualiton, Downtown Music Gallery and Amazon.de, but “for more than 10 years I bombarded European and US distributors with e-mail proposals for different kinds of collaborations. I sent out hundreds of samples with minimal results,” he recalls. “Many absolutely great, wonderful Russian musicians and recordings remain unknown in the west because Western distributors do not want to deal with Russian labels.”

That many of these “great, wonderful Russian musicians” released on SoLyd are part of the so-called avant-garde, concentrating on this music wasn’t a conscious decision, reports Gavrilov. It’s just that for him improv became more interesting over the years and other music less so. Many of the first avant efforts had nothing to do with jazz. One consisted of spontaneous improvisations by contemporary composers Vyacheslav Artyomov and Sofia Gubaidulina; another was by rocker Boris Grebenschikov. Ganelin Trio saxophonist Vladimir Chekasin’s Bolero-2 was the first jazz-improv session. Today the catalogue includes discs by pianist Alexey Lapin, bassist Vladimir Volkov and saxophonist Alexey Kruglov among many others.

“Gavrilov was a person who told me that a generation of musicians had arrived in Russia who are young, play well and think for themselves.” remembers Tarasov. “He told me about Alexey Kruglov, rented a studio and asked me to record two CDs [Dialogos SoLyd 403 and In Tempo SoLyd 404] with him. Playing with Kruglov I realized what Gavrilov had said was true. The saxophonist doesn’t play behind or ahead, he plays together with me and that’s great.”

Happenstance also accounted for SoLyd releasing CDs by non-Russians. Among the first was a CD of a Moscow concert by American pianist Joshua Pierce, followed by efforts like the Russian Second Approach trio’s disc with Roswell Rudd. Other SoLyd releases include ROVA’s Planetary (SoLyd SLR 0407), Anthony Braxton/Marel Yakshieva Improvisations (duo) 2008 (SoLyd SLR 0383/4), Matthew Shipp/Sabir Mateen Sama Live in Moscow (SoLyd SLR 0408) and Jones/Jones [Larry Ochs, Mark Dresser and Tarasov]’ We All Feel The Same Way SoLyd SLR 0396). Some sessions were even recorded in the United States. “It doesn’t really matter where the recording is made – you obtain the rights, you pay for them – what’s the difference between Moscow and New York?” asks Gavrilov.

“I only met Gavrilov once in May 2010, but working with him as an artist is a breeze,” says Ochs. An admirer of Tarasov’s playing the SoLyd owner was so impressed with a mix Ochs had done of music from a Jones/Jones mini-tour, that “he accepted the master immediately and released it in September 2009 on the occasion of our performance during the Moscow Biennale.” A Moscow recording the trio made is now set for 2011 release. As for the ROVA connection, the saxophonist recalls: “Somewhere between the mixing of Jones/Jones CD 1 and the recording of CD 2 I suggested a ROVA recording for his label. I thought the connection ROVA had with Russia, because of its two tours there in the 1980s, might interest him. Sure enough he decided that a ROVA CD, our first release on a Russian label, would be cool.”

Besides the second Jones/Jones set, other future SoLyd improvised music releases include Tarasov playing with pianist Matthew Goodheart and ROVA saxophonist Jon Raskin. It’s sessions like this that make jazz fans hope that distribution deals will soon make all SoLyd CDs easier to access.

--For New York City Jazz Record August 2011

August 6, 2011

Matthew Shipp/Sabir Mateen

SaMa Live in Moscow
SoLyd SLR 0408

By Ken Waxman

Rather than Moscow on the Hudson, this session is more like the Lower East Side transferred to near Red Square, as two of Manhattan’s most accomplished downtown improvisers express their art for an enthusiastic audience in the Russian capital.

Associates in a variety of group as well as consummate band leaders, pianist Matthew Shipp and especially multi-reedist Sabir Mateen aren’t constrained by technique when either feels the need for expression beyond standard notes. At the same time, as indicated by the inclusion of Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays” in the set list, both have strong links to the ongoing tradition.

At the same time staunch traditionalists may blanch at “Yesterdays”, since Mateen’s screeching altissimo textures and Shipp’s initial keyboard pounding spell atonality before the familiar melody statement appears. During the remainder of the tune, the pianist references stride while limning staccato and highly decorated variations, occasionally flirting with the theme. Meanwhile Mateen, on tenor saxophone, is engaged in deconstruction. His passages of screaming glossolalia and irregular vibrations break the tune into whistling and honking sound shards. Cascading keyboard chords again expose the melody near the finale with Matten’s riposte paced animal-like cries.

Although the CD begins with a fairly standard blues progression on Shipp’s part, most of the sounds here are aleatory and aggressive. “Inner Chambers”, the CD’s 21½-minute climax is broken into several interludes transmitting a variety of voicings and dynamics. On clarinet, Mateen’s contralto notes start moderato and gentle, and return to calm at the finale. In between however, his tempo is always staccatissimo and his volume stentorian, with passionate altissimo squeaks and splintered chalumeau. In contrast Shipp’s harpsichord-like internal string plucking gives way to a dramatic near-etude where key coloration encompasses ringing impressionistic variations and concludes with a meditative note overlay.

A glimpse of sonic freedom unaffected by Putin-styled state capitalism, SaMa gave the audience at the DOM cultural center plenty of reasons to lustily applaud.

Tracks: SaMa Blues; Ma Solo; Moscow Spaces; Yesterdays; Inner Chambers; Kinetic (encore)

Personnel: Sabir Mateen: tenor saxophone and clarinet; Matthew Shipp: piano

--For New York City Jazz Record June 2011

June 10, 2011

Marshall Allen/Matthew Shipp/Joe Morris

Night Logic
Rogueart Rog-0028

More like a cozy song-swap around the campfire by a trio of equals than an intergenerational showdown or torch passing, Night Logic still offers 10 real-time improvisations between of representative of today’s advanced music and a musician who has trawled the sonic spaceways for many decades.

Pianist Matthew Shipp, 49, epitomizes the contemporary multi-directional explorer, at home playing in advanced Free Music situations with bassist Mike Bisio and saxophonist David S. Ware, to cite two, as he is involved in synthesizers and programming with Chris Flam or the Anti-pop Consortium. Joining him here is multi-instrumentalist Marshall Allen, 86, who has been part of Sun Ra’s Arkestra since 1956 and led the large improvisational ensemble since Ra’s death 16 years ago. Backing both with stops and strokes that are usually more felt than heard is bassist Joe Morris, 54, equally renown for his guitar playing.

Oddly – or perhaps appropriately, considering the Arkestra’s futuristic bent – it’s Allen who brings the electronic sounds to the date, playing an EVI or electronic valve instrument as well as his customary alto saxophone and flute. Recorded in real time at New York’s Roulette, the date really takes off in its second half as the two main men finally realize exactly what each can contribute to the session.

For instance, Shipp’s relaxed and definitely Jazz-like introduction to “Star Dust Splatter” is quickly deconstructed with stops, chordal voicing and measured glissandi, as Allen enters on alto with characteristic flattement, squeezed refractions and split tones. With Morris plucking and pumping his strings, dynamic strums and pressured crescendos from the pianist match the saxophonist’s gurgles and squeals, eventually calming both sides of the equation so that the results are melodic inventions that are both languid and moderato. The finale consists of a series of rebounding strums from the bassist.

Alternately, as on the title tune, when Shipp chimes sharply across the piano’s inner strings in repetitive syncopation, it’s Allen whose gentling flute flight moderate the mood. Of course being the trickster he has been for years, once Morris’ arco sweeps and the pianist’s restrained plinking join him in near-bucolic repose, Allen pulls out his saxophone for a series of reed-biting slurs and irregular vibrations.

Even the EVI with its almost signal-processed squeaks and buzzes as exhibited on “Particle Physics” doesn’t upset the sonic connection. Faced with this sequence of outer-space-like interjections, it’s Morris whose speedy staccato runs pulls the reedist back from the cosmos, ending the piece by uniting his walking bass line with near-rococo phrasing from Allen’s flute.

Elsewhere, when the reed man creates discordant slide-whistle-like toots from his EVI, Shipp impels the momentary disconnect into tripartite tonal cooperation with a variety of strategies. It could be metronomic key pounding, fungible block chords or even a detour into what could be “Chopsticks”. Without compromising any of the players’ exploratory impulses, consonant interludes trump disharmony with the musical result as satisfying as it is high class. Depending on the time frame all of this might not have unrolled within night logic, but it was the right logic for this CD.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Ark of the Harmonic Covenant 2. Bow In the Cloud 3. Night Logic 4. Heart Aura 5. Star Dust Splatter 6. Cosmic Hammer 7. Particle Physics 8. Harmonic Quanta 9. New Age for the Milk Sea Nightmare 10. Res X

Personnel: Marshall Allen (alto saxophone, flute and EVI [electronic valve instrument]); Matthew Shipp (piano) and Joe Morris (bass)

October 17, 2010

Matthew Shipp/Sabir Mateen

SAMA
NotTwo NW 817-2

Sabir Mateen

Urdla XXX

RogueArt ROG-0026

One of the linchpins of the Free Jazz scene centred around New York’s Lower East Side, multi-reedman Sabir Mateen’s fiery improvising has been a contributing factor to the musical successes of many bands, most notably those led by bassist William Parker and trombonist Steve Swell, plus his own combos.

Nonetheless the true mark of a sophisticated improviser is how inventively the musician operates alone or nearly so; and these CDs confirm the breadth of Mateen’s creativity. Recorded at New York’s Roulette performance space, but without an audience present, SAMA is a duo date that matches Mateen’s clarinet stylings with the piano of Matthew Shipp, another downtowner who has also worked with everyone from Parker (William) to Parker (Evan). Using alto saxophone, clarinet, alto clarinet, bells and percussive noise-makers Mateen is recorded alone with a live audience on Urdla XXX. His concert marked the 30th anniversary of Urdla, an engraving workshop in Villeurbanne, France.

Infused with the significance of the situation, he begins the French celebration, almost out of earshot, shaking his bell-tree, chanting and yodeling, until he reaches centre stage and begins to play. And what playing it is. Abstract and atonal, it’s also striking and significant. Throughout, side-slipping and tongue-slapping vibrations pump and dart, alternating moderato chalumeau warbles and strident altissimo splutters. Frequently playing in broken octaves, his reed lines encompass double and triple-tongued pressure as often as they’re legato and unforced.

Case in point is “Sekasso Blues” that only in its final measures approaches blues tonality. At the top, Mateen backs into an improvisation, swiftly accelerating from moderato and mid-range lines to honks, quacks and single notes stretched to their limits without breaking. After attaining a series of languid harmonies, he tries out different sonic strategies until reaching the expected blues line.

With gospel-like reed harmonies sounding and shaman-like bell-tree shaking, Mateen’s instrumental message here is universalistic rather than solipsistic; and one that never loses sight of jazz roots. Two earlier Free Jazz reedists – alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons (1932-1986) and tenor saxophonist Frank Wright (1935-1990) – both of whom were at the prime of their powers in the years when Urdla was establishing itself – are honored in separate compositions.

“Jimmy Lyons”, speaks to the dual inside/outside identity of the saxophonist who was pianist Cecil Taylor’s confrere for many years. It contrasts altissimo alto saxophone screeches and long, mellifluous timbres, building up lines to their limits, but definitely ending in the tonic. More complex, “One for the Rev, which is Rev. Frank Wright”, celebrates this associate of Albert Ayler who moved from R&B to Free Jazz, with what sounds like variations of “Bye Bye Blackbird”. Mateen also plays it on alto saxophone with plenty of wide vibrato flutters, narrowed multiphonics and thematic variations that trade balladic inferences for triple-tonguing and rhythmic patterning. With a shrieking finale, the piece remains singularly less resolved at the climax, unlike the legato and pulsating reed timbres with which Mateen himself ends this live recital.

If Urdla XXX is about singular celebration and memory – honoring Mateen’s heroes along with an important European arts workshop – then SAMA is undoubtedly American and very much in the present. The eight inventions, numbered sequentially, resemble free fantasias, designed to highlight the solo and contrapuntal talents of pianist Shipp and Mateen, who confines himself to standard clarinet.

Compare “SAMA Three” for instance with “SAMA Seven”. The former captures a sound transformation as Mateen’s vibrating flutter-tonguing and top-of-range squeals meet Shipp’s thick chording and powerful voicing in such a way that both parts uptick to feather-light jollity. The pianist bounces arpeggios and bell-pealing-like timbres, with key strumming and fanning, while the clarinetist peeps his way up the scale, finally attaining shrill clusters and an elongated tone held until the end. “SAMA Seven” on the other hand, is awash in dark, bluesy keyboard ruminations from Shipp and slithering glissandi from Mateen. As the largo trills and reed bites press up against languid and pulsated piano chording, the exchange moves from a slight mutual hesitancy to a contrapuntal duet of extended reed slurs and strummed chords.

Establishing a framework, Shipp at points introduces portamanto cascades and percussive rumbles extended with pedal pressure so that Mateen’s narrowed and liquid vibrated tones appear in counterpoint. Elsewhere Shipp reaches into the piano’s innards for soundboard echoes, plucking the wound strings like a guitar’s. This adds an astringent pattern to his playing, spicing it correctly like a chef adding the proper amount of garlic to a pasta dish. When it appears that he figures Mateen’s tremolo obbligatos and smooth glissandi don’t further flavor the musical dish, Shipp speeds up the tempo from andante to presto, forcing the clarinetist to match the change by the means of singular and abstract squeaks.

With help from this friend, SAMA proves that Mateen is a sympathetic and inventive duet partner. Meanwhile Urdla XXX shows that his improvising can be just as stimulating on its own.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Urdla: 1. The City of Lyon 2. Art Dance 3. Dakka Du Boo Yu! 4. Music is Sound and Sound is Music 5. Jimmy Lyons 6. Sekasso Blues 7. One for the Rev. - Rev. Frank Wright 8. More than a Hammer and Nail 9. Blessing to You

Personnel: Urdla: Sabir Mateen (alto clarinet, alto saxophone, small percussions and vocal)

Track Listing: SAMA: 1. SAMA 1 2. SAMA 2 3. SAMA 3 4. SAMA 4 5. SAMA 5 6. SAMA 6 7. SAMA 7 8. SAMA 8 9. SAMA 9 10. SAMA 10

Personnel: SAMA: Sabir Mateen (clarinet) and Matthew Shipp (piano)

August 22, 2010

Matthew Shipp

Nu Bop Live
Rai Trade RTPJ 0015

The Frame Quartet

35 MM

Okka Disk OD 12078

Rempis/Rosaly

Cyrillic

482 Music 482-1064

Connie Crothers-Michel Bisio

Sessions at 475 Kent

Mutable 17537-2

Extended Play: Combos: Ad Hoc and Long Constituted in Toronto

By Ken Waxman

Long-established jazz groups have become as common as pop hits based on Mozart melodies topping the charts – they sometimes exist. But with accomplished improvisers tempted by side projects, bands often reconstitute and sidemen regularly have their own gigs. In most cases, though, this doesn’t affect the music’s quality.

Two bands confirm these realities. Ken Vandermark’s Vandermark5 (V5), which is at SPK (Polish Combatants Hall) June 17, has been together with only one personnel change for almost 15 years. Yet even Chicago-based Vandermark is involved in multiple side projects, as The Frame Quartet 35 mm Okka Disk OD 12078 demonstrates. V5 members, cellist and electronics-player Fred Lonberg-Holm and drummer Tim Daisy are represented as well. Meanwhile saxophonist Dave Rempis, a V5 fixture for 10 years, shines on Cyrillic 482 Music 482-1064, a duo with drummer Frank Rosaly. New York pianist Matthew Shipp, whose trio plays June13 at Gallery 345 on Sorauren Ave. is similarly part of numberless formations. Nu Bop Live Rai Trade RTPJ 0015) involves some of his cohorts, who won’t be Toronto. For an idea of what piano/bass communication sounds like involving Michel Bisio, the bassist who is in Shipp’s Toronto trio, there’s Sessions at 475 Kent Mutable 17537-2 with Connie Crothers.

The Non-V5er on “35mm” is Nate McBride, whose thick acoustic bass lines, electric bass thumps and manipulated wave forms distinguish this disc. Strident friction from Lonberg-Holm additionally gives the CD’s five long selection a rough-hewn quality, enhanced by Daisy’s reverberating and pinpointed cymbal slaps, not to mention Vandermark’s soloing which encompasses straight-ahead licks or tongue slaps on tenor saxophone and feathery clarinet trills. This is especially notable on Theatre Piece (for Jimmy Lyons) which links decisive sawing from the cellist, restrained plucks from the bassist and clatters, pops and rim shots from the drummer as Vandermark sound ranges from tremolo pitch-sliding on the clarinet to tongue-moistured saxophone flattement, flutters and split tones. Mid-way through, the tempo halves to allegro to expose faux romantic cello sequences that gradually shatters into sul ponticello lines mated with harsh, low-pitched saxophone rasps, balanced on crackling and buzzing electronics. Eventually the piece ends with an exposition of disconnected timbre-shredding from Vandermark and a conclusive string slap from the cellist.

Halve the number of players and double the performance intensity for “Cyrillic”. Completely improvised, the selections include those with cymbal-chiming funk grooves, replete with honking reed patterns plus others featuring smeared double-tonguing from Rempis, where he never seems to stop for breath, matched with rim shots and side spanks from Rosaly. Most impressive are In Plain Sight and How to Cross When Bridges are Out. The former, which could be a deconstructed classic R&B line, gains its rhythmic impetus from Rempis’ guttural baritone saxophone snorts. The later is like a face off between never-ending ratcheting, rolls and ruffs from Rosaly’s Energizer Bunny-like drumming and Rempis’ Eric Dolphyish-alto saxophone with its broken-octave staccato runs and wide split tones. Changing the the agitato tempo to andante, the tune slips into uncharted aleatory territory, echoing with excitement and abandon.

Both those adjectives are also on show on Shipp’s CD, especially on the 26-minute Nu Abstract suite. Putting aside the many-fingered staccato patterning on other tunes, the pianist initially restricts himself to occasional plinks, as drummer Guillermo Brown use electronics to unload crackling signal processing and hissing voice patches. After the pianist constructs a many-layered impressionistic response, he joins with William Parker’s fluid bass line and saxophonist Daniel Carter’s tightened reed snarls, in multi counterpoint. The performance swells to shrieking horn glossolalia, stretched and scattered bass-string movements and the pianist’s cascading note patterns. Climaxing alongside Brown’s explosions of drags and bounces, Shipp’s raw, exposed notes layer the interface alongside Carter’s strident altissimo cries and Parker’s triple-stopping.

Sophisticated piano-bass double contrapuntal interaction get an even better showcase on “Session at 475 Kent” as every tune is a culmination of Crothers’ thickly voiced, chromatic chords working out a challenge or response to Bisio’s chiming, slapping string reverberations. Chamber interludes, the CD’s four lengthy tracks evolve similarly to Resonance, the CD’s climatic finale. With Bisio double-stopping and pulling his strings fortissimo, Crothers’ glissandi and metronomic pumping, gradually give the sympathetic dynamic a novel undercurrent of unrelieved tension – embellished by the pianist’s strumming syncopation and the bassist’s woody string-stopping. Lightening her touch with freer harmonies, Bisio follows and shifts downwards into diminished pulses until the notes from both directions merge into a satisfying, protoplasmic whole.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 15 #9

June 1, 2010

Steve Dalachinsky and Matthew Shipp

Logos and Language: A Post-Jazz Metaphorical Dialogue
RogueArt

with photographs by Lorna Lentini

Defining the process of sonic creation is difficult enough when analyzing notated works. But when it comes to improvised music, each performer’s individual background and beliefs weigh even more heavily.

Widely recorded American pianist Matthew Shipp, a self-described avant-garde jazz musician, attempts to articulate his improvisational philosophy in dialogue with New York poet Steve Dalachinsky in this book. The discussion takes up about half of this volume, while Shipp’s written musings on the subject plus a selection of Dalachinsky’s poems, written while listening to the pianist, complete the book.

An African-American Christian mystic, Shipp’s articulation of the musical creative process takes side trips into Christian symbolism involving metaphorical, metaphysical and Gnostic interpretations of the bible. Shoving aside the mysticism, an overall philosophy appears. In brief, the pianist – who cites as three of his biggest influences Coltrane, Bach and Scriabin – sees himself as a conduit through which the music flows. As he writes: “In a mature improviser, a language system is always being generated by the improviser’s subconscious mind; the performance is … a process that moves on by itself and really doesn’t need the performance to actualize itself.”

In conversation however, he admits that an instant composition is only successful if informed by the performer’s creative process. “Whether I create in real time or on a piece of paper there are hours of craft … to do. And they both equal a product or a process. So if one listens to an improvisation and gets enjoyment out of it even if it was created in real time, there were obviously hours of craft… that allow me to have the ability to do that in real time. And there might … be more structural integrity to that improvisation than if somebody else wrote something on a piece of paper …. But for me to really have power there needs to be some murkiness where improvisation and composition … disappear into one another, and I don’t know where that is all the time.”

Tied in with this concept is the necessity of the improviser’s constant search for originality, which must take place without copying or idolizing his or her influences. “If you love Charlie Parker, if you love [John] Coltrane you shouldn’t deify them, you should kill them (as they say in Zen …),” Shipp states. “The only thing important is life and the transition of life to new forms… I mean who gives a fuck about Duke Ellington? … I love Duke Ellington and …I love his music, but if I really love Duke Ellington ... I have to take myself for better or worse and try to be me.”

Excerpted and précised Shipp’s statements sound more dogmatic than in full context since he appears to possess that rare ability to articulate in complete sentences and paragraphs. Then again removing these thoughts on music from his musings on religion, literature and metaphysics does put them in sharper focus. Readers who have been impressed by Shipp’s recorded work, captured on his many recordings, on his own and with such leaders as tenor saxophonist David S. Ware and bassist William Parker, will likely gain further insight into his creative process with this volume. Furthermore Dalachinksy’s poetry is an added bonus, reflecting his appreciation of the pianist’s craft over almost 20 years, expressed through his personal word improvisations. Presenting an original series of images and metaphors that go beyond the sounded notes, the poems provide an individual reflection on the creative process, plus a parallel configuration of creativity.

-- Ken Waxman

-- In MusicWorks Issue #102

November 20, 2008

Matthew Shipp Trio

Piano Vortex
Thirsty Ear THI 57180

Undeniably confirming that he can easily make an unhyphenated jazz album, Matthew Shipp puts aside the studio processing and remixing he’s used on sessions with electronica duo Spring Heel Jack or DJ Spooky for a standard jazz piano trio with notable results.

Filled out by the pianist’s long-time associates – drummer Whit Dickey and bassist Joe Morris – the New York-based combo runs through eight Shipp compositions, lodged so firmly in the tradition that the CD could be slotted alongside 1950s’Red Garland LPs with Paul Chambers and Art Taylor. Shipp quotes “Giant Steps” in the middle of one number and his unaccompanied track could be an offbeat variant on “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. No Taylor, Dickey snaps his cymbals and finesses the beat, leaving the heavy lifting to the others. Morris sticks mostly to low pitches, thumping or pumping behind Shipp’s bouncy runs and flashing cadenzas, rarely unveiling squat arco runs.

“Nooks and Corners”, one of the tunes on which he does so, is also the CD’s most incandescent track. Taken mid-tempo, the cooperation between the bassist and pianist is most evident on the tune when the later’s low-frequency octaves are extended with pedal work into flashing runs after the former’s legato bowing turns to sul ponticello squeaks then thick thrusts. Idiosyncratically, the pianist’s concluding statements are in the form of baroque-like pitter pattering.

Elsewhere Shipp’s skittering note clusters or whorl-like connections and Morris’ measured walking decisively situate the performances within the contemporary jazz framework. At least here, whirlwind-like creations lead to first-rate modern music.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For CODA Issue 337

January 15, 2008

Evan Parker/Matthew Shipp

Abbey Road Duos
Treader trd 009

Confluence of musical improvisations at the highest plane, this CD captures a cross-generational melding of minds between a veteran British saxophonist and an accomplished American pianist. Although tenor and soprano saxophonist Evan Parker (b. 1944) initially solidified his mature style around when Matthew Shipp (b. 1960) was taking his first piano lessons, the inspired performances suggest no generational or geographic gap.

If any fissure exists, it’s that the British reedist’s tone is initially uncharacteristically breathy and gentle on the four-track tenor saxophone suite. Later as the pianist’s undertow of arpeggios hardens to metronomic pounding, exposing the keyboard’s timbral limits, broad-chested tenor exhalations solidify into harsh split tones, reed bites and note smears.

Softer and more deliberate overall, the subsequent four-part soprano saxophone suite is nearly a scherzo. Shipp humorously and percussively pitches rubato patterns extended by pedal work in direct counterpoint to Parker’s pinched bubbles of whistling trills and tongue stops. Eventually the saxophonist expands his characteristic archetype of circular breathing tropes, squeezing and splashing tone clusters to outline the andante melody. Shipp’s repeated accompanying motif, hardens as it relies on continuous glissandi.

Abbey Road Duos proves that concentrated and cerebral inspiration trumps any purported differences when top-flight improvisation is fashioned

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #3

November 2, 2007

JOE MCPHEE/MATT SHIPP/DOMINIC DUVAL

In Finland
Cadence CJR 1186

BONI/LAZRO/MCPHEE/TCHAMITCHIAN
Next To You
émouvance émv 1023

By Ken Waxman

Recorded five months apart in 2004, these sessions confirm one again the apparently endless adaptability of multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee. NEXT TO YOU is the first time the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. native has recorded with his French quartet after 12 years of its existence. IN FINLAND on the other hand is a classic one-off festival gig in Raahe, where pianist Matthew Shipp joins the long-established duo of McPhee and bassist Dominic Duval. Both have something unique to offer.

McPhee, playing soprano and alto saxophone plus pocket trumpet, is joined by bassist Claude Tchamitchian, known for his nuanced work with pianist Sophia Domancich; guitarist Raymond Boni, who works in duo with McPhee; and alto and baritone saxophonist Daunik Lazro, one of France’s leading reed experimenter. In a Montpellier studio, the quartet in various combinations plays nine pieces ranging in length from less than 90 seconds to almost eight minutes. Earlier in the year, the three Americans in Finland improvised on three long tracks of almost 33, almost 25½ and almost 15 minutes each.

Central player on the first CD is Boni. Heightening and lessening the harmonic tension with slurred fingering, flanged, rubato asides and droning amp effects, his harsh vibrations give added heft to the improvisations. Radiating from this hub are ground bass rhythmic licks from Tchamitchian, curving and reverberating alto saxophones vibrations and tongue slaps from one or both horn players, plus splattering bellows from Lazro’s baritone.

Geysers of murky low-pitched multiphonics are often worked into the mix by Lazro, which contrast nicely with McPhee’s triple tonguing on saxophone or circular grace notes on muted pocket trumpet. Boni also outputs resonating chromatic chording plus high-pitched, nail-scraping timbres, while the bassist moves from solid slap style to supplely manipulating his axe’s extremities.

Not surprisingly, innovation is the buzz word of the date. On “Straight Knife”, for instance, McPhee yodels timbres through his mouthpiece – perhaps sans reed – as if he was playing the Aboriginal didjeridoo. This splayed vibration picks up even more resonance as Boni clanks chromatic single notes behind him, Tchamitchian walks stolidly and Lazro adds further reed shading. Eventually the baritone meets McPhee’s horn for a session of surging call-and-response.

“Other Warriors” finds the bassist’s sul ponticello strokes and the guitarist’s rasgueado forming a backdrop for inspired overblowing by both hornmen. Before the technical extensions are superseded by a cataract of twisted and abrasive tones, the two play in double counterpoint. Lazro highlights pitch-sliding squeaks and swirls, while McPhee moves into Don Ayler territory with tongue-shredding vibrations.

None of McPhee’s trumpet work is that unconventional on IN FINLAND. For as far-flung as the three explorers set their long improvisations, each ricochet back to earth. The first tune features McPhee’s muted trumpet interpolation of “My Funny Valentine”, the next references “Blue Monk” in his soprano saxophone playing and the last features Shipp’s weighty voicing on “Summertime”.

Not that any of the main themes are contrafacts of those familiar songs. On the contrary, the CD is a controlled experiment with Shipp finding a place for his piano among the concentrated interaction that characterizes the Duval-McPhee partnership. You can see this as early as “Never Before”. As soon as McPhee enters playing unforced soprano saxophones lines, the bassist immediately harmonizes with the reedist. When the saxman’s line augments to hovering tongue-stopping obbligatos, Shipp turns to kinetic high-frequency cadences, first accompanied by the bassist, then superseded as Duval reverberates a flamenco-like solo of his own. The pianist’s insistence on pummeling cascades of chords is what causes McPhee – on pocket trumpet – to buzz out an almost abstract line then play that variant of “My Funny Valentine”. Its appearance confirms Shipp’s quickness as his response offers guitar-like arpeggios that contrast with the familiar melody. Deconstructing the tune at a quicker tempo, McPhee – now on saxophone – climaxes the performance with a nasal version of the head, soothing Duval’s sul tasto slashes and Shipp’s hard and high-frequency dynamics with repeated grace notes.

“Never Again”, the nearly 25½-minute second piece, finds McPhee swapping hummingbird-light trumpet emphasis for grainy split tones on the soprano, in response to Duval’s tenacious recreation of the “Blue Monk” melody half way through the piece. Cross layering both the main theme and its variations, and abetted by Shipp’s Monk-like stride piano interpolations, McPhee recaps the head for a proper finale. Beside him, Shipp flashily splinters dynamic chords, while Duval selflessly holds down the rhythm.

Memorable as first-time collaboration, the CD points out avenues the three can explore in the future. Meanwhile NEXT TO YOU confirms the American multi-instrumentalists simpatico interaction with his Gallic associates.

Track Listing: Next: 1. Folie Dure 2. The Last Border 3. Next To You 4. Shorty 5 One More Step 6. Other Warriors 7. Softitude 8. Straight Knife 9. Le Règne du Calamar Géant

Personnel: Next: Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet, alto and soprano saxophones); Daunik Lazro (alto and baritone saxophones); Raymond Boni (guitar); Claude Tchamitchian (bass)

Track Listing: In Finland: 1. Never Before 2. Never Again 3. In Finland

Personnel: In Finland: Joe McPhee (pocket trumpet and alto and soprano saxophones); Matthew Shipp (piano); Dominic Duval (bass)

October 2, 2006

DAVID S. WARE

Live in the World
Thirsty Ear THI 57153.2

David S. Ware doesn’t shy away from the Free Jazz label. Unlike some contemporary improvisers who say they play Free Music and treat jazz the way nouveau riche yuppies view acquaintances still wearing last year’s clothes, the tenor saxophonist esteems the tradition that goes back through 1960s New Thing to take in distinctive reed stylists such as Sonny Rollins and before that Coleman Hawkins.

This three-CD set of live performances helps stake his claim as one of the foremost jazz tenor saxophone stylist in the 21st century. Made up of one 1998 Swiss concert and two Italian gigs from 2003, it features three different drummers: the band’s former trapsperson, Susie Ibarra; its present one Guillermo E. Brown; and Hamid Drake, the gentleman from Chicago who often plays with the quartet’s longtime bassist William Parker. Ware’s tough love jazz values are such that they run roughshod over any tendency towards electronica or world music in which some of the other players have indulged at other times. The three hours of music also confirm Ware’s status as a major league jazzer.

Key statement here is the first disc and two additional tracks from the same session on discs two and three that couldn’t have been squeezed onto CD1. By the time it ends, the Ware-Parker-Ibarra-pianist Matthew Shipp four has fused into an indivisible unit of improvisational skill, sort of like the Modern Jazz Quartet or John Coltrane’s classic quartet with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. Here and on the other CDs, Shipp demonstrates that in the right situation his jazz credentials are fully in order and his comping and pianisms perfectly mesh with the rest; ditto for Parker’s rasping and rhythmic double bass underpinning.

Somewhat constrained by the band’s heavy jazz orientation, Ibarra’s use of offbeat and miscellaneous percussion still confirms that she offered the most varied percussion response to the others’ testosterone-fuelled playing. Drake, whose experience with Chicago veterans like tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson allows him to mix the unexpected with heavy time keeping is also a fine addition. Brown, a beat-meister does his job thoroughly and competently.

His powerful yet commonplace rhythmic work is why CD3 is the weakest of the three discs. Although the lengthening and recasting of Rollins’ “Freedom Suite” are noteworthy, especially for Shipp’s high-frequency gospellish piano work, the four tracks are most impressive to “Suite” virgins. Ware recorded his definitive studio version of the suite for AUM Fidelity (AUM 023) that same year, and the necessity for the preservation of a live version is somewhat louche. Rollins himself only recorded the original once.

Back to the Swiss date however, and the almost 32-minute “Aquarian Sound”. Pivoting on Parker’s walking, modal fills from Shipp, and steady cymbal clinks and bouncing bass drum beats from Ibarra, Ware initially enters mimicking the rhythmic backbeat. Soon, however, he pushes himself into double-tonguing glossolalia, encompassing a swelling crescendo of resonating honks and reverberating blasts. Depending on extended variation provided by sonorous bass thumps, Shipp begins to vigorously voice patterns that seem to draw on Herbie Hancock’s freebop period. Shipp’s dramatic voicing extend the music even further, sluicing from treble to bass clef without interrupting its vigorous flow, and only gearing down half way through to make space for a low-pitched arco solo of strained, high-pitched motions from Parker that melt into moderato and legato shuffle bowing. Meanwhile, Ibarra is cunningly altering the backing with gourd-shaking, gong-soundings and cymbal claps.

When the head is finally recapitulated, by Ware’s droning tongue stops and Shipp’s stolid heavy chording, she has switched to brisk cross rhythms. This precedes a climatic, extended – and concluding – renal scream from Ware.

Ibarra brings similar inventiveness to “Stargazer”, CD3’s bonus track from 1998 appended to the 2003 material. Except in this case the pianist varies his output as well. Feeding prepared, almost harpsichordic tones or quivering, theremin-like timbres to the composition, Shipp’s foreshortened piano expressions meet up with cymbal cracks, varied patterning on the snares, and crosswise stick thumps. Parker’s penetrating bass lines link these quirks with focused comping from Shipp that resembles mainstream nightclub strategies. On top of all this is Ware’s majestic soling, which creeps in mildly then distends into colossal foghorn-like honks and overblowing, nasally masticating the notes.

For the unconvinced, there’s how Ware recomposes Marvin Hamlisch’s “The Way We Were”, as it morphs from unrecognizable to almost familiar. Low-key rumination, split-tone variations and body-tube blasts a cappella is Ware’s initial strategy, until a few minutes later false register glissandi hints at the melody’s harmonics. With his droning vibrato wide and wider and his use of glottal punctuation and double tonguing referencing Rollin’s and Coltrane’s way with a ballad, by the finale he finally double-times the recognizable tune. His variations may be like the tail wagging the dog, but what a tail it is.

Drake’s interface brings out the Tyner-like modal emphasis in Shipp’s playing, scraping and sawing double-stopped runs from Parker and some of Ware’s most emotional soloing. But considering his cross-handed deliberations hardly let a phrase from the others pass without a flam, rebound or ruff comment, lesser histrionics are really Drake’s forte.

One of those tunes is “Unknown Mansion”, an edifice that seems to have been partially built on the calypso-chanting Caribbean island where Rollins likes to dwell. Varying his beat patterns with doubled smashes and Latinesque prettiness, Drake somehow manages to get the usually dour-sounding Ware to appear as if he’s swinging a Louis Jordan ditty. At one point you can swear you hear the riff from “Open the Door, Richard”. Meantime Shipp is uncoiling cadences that contain Monk-like key clipping and steady, left-handed percussive notes. Harmonically conservative compared to Ibarra’s accompaniment, Drake is as externally directed in his solos. Apparently spanking his toms and snares with his palms, he also horizontally cross patterns a single drum on those same surfaces, while simultaneously propelling the beat with hi-hat and cymbal resonation. Ware, almost mellow, returns to sound broken cadences in tandem with Shipp and provides a clenched-teeth version of the head.

Subsequent tunes like “Sentient Compassion” and “Co Co Cana” may feature harder reed tone and shrill whinnying from Ware, but, possibly because of Drake, his abrasive tone is less than it would be with Brown. On the first he reverberates split tones back and forth, as Parker bows vibrating double stops, bringing out the woodenness of his bass along with the solidity of his strings. Combined, the four produce almost ballad-like twittering lines that echo onto themselves. On the later, Ware’s high-pitched yelps, Drake’s rim shots and Shipp’s high frequency double counterpoint serve as backing for a Parker display. Moving from walking to relay race string action on the fretboard, Parker double stops with masculine power and by the end of his solo has Shipp spinning out circular patterns to sustain his momentum.

LIVE IN THE WORLD is a major achievement in quantitative heft as well as music.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: CD 1: 1. Aquarian Sound 2. Logistic 3. Sentient Compassion 4. Mikuro’s Blues CD 2: 1. Elder’s Path 2. Unknown Mansion 3. Sentient Compassion 4. Co Co Cana 5. Manu’s Ideal 6. Lexicon CD 3 [Freedom Suite]: 1. Part One 2. Part Two 3. Part Three 4. Part Four 5. Stargazer

Personnel: Disc One: David S. Ware (tenor saxophone); Matthew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Susie Ibarra (drums): Disc Two: Ware; Shipp; Parker; Hamid Drake (drums) Disc Three: Ware; Shipp; Parker; Guillermo E. Brown (drums)

September 12, 2005

MATTHEW SHIPP/WILLIAM PARKER/GUILLERMO E BROWN TRIO.

Plays Ware
Splasc(H) Records CDH 862.2

Who would have believed at this late date that underneath his blustery interior melodic and romantic impulses inhabit the soul of Free Jazz firebrand tenor saxophonist David S. Ware? His regular sidemen – to name three individuals.

This CD offers eight of the reedist’s original compositions interpreted by pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker and drummer Guillermo E. Brown. At its conclusion, without knowing the writer’s identity, you might link the intense pieces are some of pianist Herbie Nichols’ tougher lines or even unknown modernistic Duke Ellington compositions.

Part of this can be connected to the dexterity of Shipp, who when he’s really on, can mix the most advanced keyboard impulses with glancing, sometimes split-second references to earlier jazz masters. But it could also be that without Ware’s oversized presence spewing out frenetic, declamatory saxophone inflections, his compositions’ shape becomes clearer. In truth, Ware isn’t as nuanced a soloist as even Charles Gayle is. Yet when pared to their compositional kernels, these tunes reveal their inner strength, swing, and – dare one say – beauty?

Also, because the CD is called PLAYS WARE, not “sounds of the trio”, Parker and Shipp – two of improv’s most bravura performers – subordinate their massive technical prowess to the themes. Brown, the most recent members of Ware’s quartet keeps himself under wraps, limiting himself to short solos. Elsewhere his constrained snare and cymbal work, often with brushes, stays out of the way. As Ware drummers go, Brown adds more than Whit Dickey may have, though Susie Ibarra would probably have created more unusual textures here.

Among the themes are ones that call upon Shipp’s command of the gospel idiom, impressionistic romanticism and the sort of sharp swing-to-bop cadenzas that bring Nichols’ work to mind. Some detour into expositions that could come from Broadway show themes, and there’s one head that may be a twin of Chicago’s “Color My World”.

Sometimes the pianist uses his metronomic time sense and a weighty touch to rapidly produce ornamental variations on the primary melody. In other cases he’ll sound seemingly endless arpeggios and near-swing riffs that circumscribe one another. Or if need be, he can lighten his tone to skitter across the keys.

Right beside him, as they have done in so in many projects over more than a dozen years, is Parker. Besides adding the bowed intensity of his preferred sul ponticello licks, the bassist uses smooth arco action and thick pizzicato springs to complement or encourage the pianist’s technique. One precise jagged pluck or buzzing spiccato swish can add as much as a multitude of positions from another bass man. Together, the two produce a definitive, dense climax to these tunes. Meantime, Brown’s stick rattling, cymbal shakes or tempo shifting complete the picture.

Compositional interpretations are sometime easier to grasp than the original versions and this CD should impress those who have followed Ware’s work, and those who merely tolerate it. Parker notes that Ware has written over 100 compositions for his quartet alone. If other recreations of his work are at the same high standard as PLAYS WARE, in future the saxophonist could end up like Liszt or Chopin: a performer celebrated more for his compositions than his performing.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Manu’s Ideal 2. Godspelized 3. Dinosauria 4. Lexicon 5. Reign of Peace 6. Wisdom Through Time 7. Dao Forms 8. Mystic March

Personnel: Matthew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Guillermo E. Brown (drums)

May 2, 2005

GOLD SPARKLE TRIO

Thunder Reminded Me
Clean Feed CF009 CD

CHARLES WATERS/ANDREW BARKER/MATTHEW SHIPP
Apostolic Polyphony
Drimala DR 03-347-01

Atlanta has never been known as a hotbed of creative music. Country blues may have been played there years ago -- by Blind Willie McTell and Peg Leg Howell -- and written down -- by W.C. Handy at about the same time, while popsters like Destiny Child thrive there today. But deep-dish improv has never really been welcomed by the town.

It’s no wonder then that its best-known jazzers like pianist Duke Pearson and alto saxophonist Marion Brown made their reputation elsewhere. Right now, this archetype seems to be playing itself out again with the members of the Gold Sparkle Band (GSB).

An Atlanta mainstay since 1994, two of GSB’s members -- alto saxophonist/clarinetist Charles Waters and drummer Andrew Barker -- have already made the trek to Brooklyn, N.Y. Having established contacts with like-minded players ranging from John Zorn to William Parker, neither is likely to return. Trumpeter Roger Ruzow -- arguably the group’s most singular player -- remains in the south, but CDs like these show how GSB variations are adapting to the big city.

Recorded within six weeks of one another during 2001, at the centre of the Apple’s downtown scene, at Tonic and the Vision Festival, the discs pinpoint the players’ evolution. THUNDER REMINDS ME, attributed to the Gold Sparkle Trio with Adam Roberts on bass -- as he has been on recent GSB gigs with Ruzow -- is firmly in the primitivistic early Ornette Coleman groove that is pretty standard GSB. But APOSTOLIC POLYPHONY, which links Waters and Barker with pianist Matthew Shipp, is in a more expansionist mode.

Related by Waters to the concepts of composer Olivier Messiaen, the continuous improvisation seems to touch on the interface between notation and improvisation and jazz and classical music, a POMO concern more endemic to New York’s five boroughs than Atlanta’s Five Points. It also ends with a fashionably noisy, beat-laden, electronic and static-oriented, echoy remix of one of the trio’s tracks by New York deejay Shannon Fields

Recording balance is the major drawback of the trio record: somehow Baker is too far up in the mix on every tune. That isn’t too bad when it’s his inventive stick work on show, but when he rolls with proper power, he nearly obliterates the other musicians’ work. Not surprisingly, Roberts is the main victim, though when he gets his head -- or hands -- as on the title tune and plays unaccompanied, his rhythmic conception is very slow-moving anyhow. On the positive side, as influenced by Coleman’s bands as the three GSBers may be -- one short drum solo honors Billy Higgins -- other influences show up as well.

“Cardshark”, for instance, is a riff tune firmly in the honky-tonk blues tradition, with Baker supplying some rickety-tick stick motions. And “Coronation Blues for the Memory Theatre West Coast” -- the tune with the most convoluted title -- adds straightahead drags from Baker to pseudo-Trane licks from Waters, plus a trilling alto theme that resembles “London Bridge Is Falling Down”.

On saxophone, Waters has a tendency to practically bite through his reed and lead tunes first into dog-whistle then siren territory. He’s more restrained and warmer on clarinet, breathing out cushioning accordion-like tones when he plays.

Still, expansive multiphonics characterize Waters’ work on the title track, which is based around an Ornette-style nursery rhyme head, arched and double tongued by the altoist. For a while it seems as if he’s channeling both Coleman and Eric Dolphy, retrogressing to the early 1960s in his solo, with only Roberts -- in the Charlie Haden role -- holding the beat steady. However the sax showcase finally resolves itself with some sweet Mariachi intimations, and the reminder that Coleman, while a Southerner like the GSB members is also from Texas.

Geographically, Waters and Baker hook up with Delaware’s Shipp on the other disc, which appear to be a single performance with CD tracks created at the beginning of different solos.

If THUNDER’s leitmotif is speed, then APOSTOLIC’s is pacing, although there are times when the pace gets a little draggy. Traditionalists could identify the instrumentation as that of the Benny Goodman Trio, and in fact, as on the other disc, Waters makes his most effective statements on clarinet.

“One-Three Invention” finds him playing with extended, vibrato-laden trills that slide from airy Jimmy Giuffre-like explorations to near-Dixieland chirps. Shipp occupies himself with tremolo-involved fantasias and it almost appears as if Barker is hand drumming. Obviously, this shows that despite the Goodman Trio comparison, Baker is no Gene Krupa. When he rouses himself from constrained brushwork to attention getting rolls, roughs and paradiddles though, the closest parallel is to Coleman Quartet percussionists like Higgins and Ed Blackwell, not the gum-chewing Swing Era drummer boy.

Neither would Shipp ever be confused with Teddy Wilson. On the first and penultimate tracks where he has freest range, the polite, self-editing of the Goodman collaborator doesn’t come into play. On “Part-One Invention”, with Waters, trilling away in the coloratura range and Baker whacking his heads with passion, Shipp moves from bebop dynamics to Dave Burrell-like Free Jazz clusters. Lyrical octaves flow from both hands until he begins pounding out arpeggios, shadowing the reedist’s whinnying Klezmer-Balkan inflections, with notes darting from either side of the keyboard.

Then on “Three-Two Invention”, mostly a drum-piano duet, Shipp appears to create a modified Tango rhythm, before involving himself in extended, circular, high-intensity rubato passages. Imagine Messiaen meeting “Honky Tonk Train”. As the pianisms begin to circle into themselves, Baker counters with rolling tap-dance like movements.

Because of these careful keyboard considerations, the few vibrating growls Waters brings to the proceedings don’t prod the more than 61-minute piece into excitement. But this disc does possess the organization the other should have had.

On their own and as a group, GSB members are evolving up north. So both these discs are worth investigating as indications as their progress. Combining the rawness of one with the cohesion of the other could result in a really memorable session in the future.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Thunder: 1. Naysayer 2. Thunder Reminds Me 3. For Billy Higgins 4. Coronation Blues for the Memory Theatre West Coast 5. Williamsburg Concerto #1.2 6. Cardshark

Personnel: Thunder: Charles Waters (alto saxophone, clarinet); Adam Roberts (bass); Andrew Barker (drums)

Track Listing: Apostolic: 1. Part-One Invention 2. Two-Part Invention 3. Three-One Invention 4. Part-Two Invention 5. Three-Part Invention 6. Three-Two Invention 7. One-Three Invention 8. Part-Four Invention*

Personnel: Apostolic: Charles Waters (alto saxophone, clarinet); Matthew Shipp (piano); Andrew Barker (drums); Shannon Field (remix)*

August 11, 2003

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Live from the Vision Festival
Thirsty Ear THI 57131.2

The next best thing to being there, this combination CD and DVD package offers a distillation of some of the outstanding performances from last year’s Vision Festival in New York’s Lower East Side. Lacking the name recognition of Newport, Montreux, or any other capitalist entity-associated international star festival, in its less than 10 year existence, Vision has still promulgated a unique artistic vision.

Built around the vision of bassist William Parker, it’s a place where pioneering avant gardists from the 1960s mix it up with younger players who are carrying on experimental ideals. It’s cross-cultural, national and international as well, with the musicians showcased on this session arriving from Germany, Korea, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, Valencia, Calif., New Orleans… and Brooklyn,

Substantiating his ubiquity, Parker holds down the bass chair on five of the nine tracks --in five different bands, Fellow bull fiddle masters Tyrone Brown, Reggie Workman and the late Peter Kowald are represented as well.

Longest performance, at more than 11 minutes, is “Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park”, which reunites three founding members of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Music who now reside in different parts of the country. Minneapolis-based Douglas Ewart shows up with his reed collection -- some of which are homemade -- to improvise with the woodwinds of Brooklyn’s Joseph Jarman. From California, Wadada Leo Smith adds his trumpet to the duo, and the three members of the front line are backed by the unbeatable rhythm section of Chicago’s Hamid Drake and Parker.

Perhaps it’s the strength of the go-for-broke rhythm of the bassist and drummer, but the performance is more convincing than some recent CDs by each of the front line partners. Expelling a mixture of gritty bluesiness and elegant, brassy grace notes, Smith states the theme, which is then elaborated by Jarman’s soprano saxophone. Using whistles and straining his notes sharply to make a point, the saxman turns rubato with a brief stop-time section, which is then echoed by Ewart’s tenor sax undertow and Parker’s perfectly proportioned bass line. Finally the three horns conclude triple forte, with Drake’s rolling roughs giving them enough leverage on which to soar.

The same rhythm team backs up tenor veterans Kidd Jordan from New Orleans and Chicago’s Fred Anderson. Each pushing 70, the extended multiphonics they propel from their horns often mix with a primeval funkiness, hinting at how Johnny Griffin and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis might have handled Free Jazz. At a little more then four minutes though, “Spirits Came In” is barely long enough to let everyone feel the spirit.

Almost double in length, but flashing by at supersonic speeds is “Bangart 100”, performed by unconventional fiddler Billy Bang, World Saxophone Quartet anchor, baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, and contemporary composer Jin Hi Kim on Korean komungo. With his unaccompanied attack as reminiscent of hoedown as Heifetz, here Bang’s technique keeps up with his emotionalism. Working the opposite end of his horn’s palate, Bluiett ignites basement tones, altissimo wild pig squeals and growling feline feints. Keeping this all-together fingerpicking on her multi-stringed traditional instrument is Kim.

Other highlights include the definition of “Existence” provided by the duo of Dave Burrell on piano and bassist Brown. Cognizant of jazz history, like the late Jaki Byard, Philly’s piano pride mixes several of the music’s key streams on his keyboard. Initially he outputs high frequency, percussive cadenzas that are as far out as anything practiced by the New Thing, which counted Burrell as a member for his work with Archie Shepp. Later, providing fills behind Brown’s ringing tones, he shows off his lyric side that characterized him as a “song man” when he played with David Murray.

Then there’s Kowald’s stinging, more then 10½-minute solo “Improvisation”. Sometimes appearing to make his bass talk in several voices, the German maestro wraps together pizzicato buzzing strings, vocal drone and some grating, yet impressive arco thrusts into a characteristic show-stopping display.

Running down the outstanding merits of every track would be pointless, since each offers a different perspective on modern free sounds. The weakest piece, in fact, is also the first: “Truth Is Marching In”. Not the Albert Ayler standard, this reunion tune by alto saxophonist Jameel Moondoc’s Muntu quartet, featuring trumpeter Roy Campbell, drummer Rashid Bakr and bassist Parker seems, like the composition’s title, to be more caught up in New Thing revivalism than inventing the music anew. But isn’t nostalgia one construct of reunions?

Couple the more than 70½-minutes of music with the images available on the DVD and you’ll yearn to be in attendance at the Fest next time it takes place. Making light of geography, this VISION package means you can experience some of festival highlights at home.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing:1. Truth is Marching In 2. Existence 3. Bangart 100 4. Crepuscule IV in Powderhorn Park 5. Speech of Form 6. 45 Hours 7. Synchronicity 8. Sprits Came In 9. Improvisation

Personnel: 1. Muntu: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Jameel Moondoc (alto saxophone); William Parker (bass); Rashid Bakr (drums) 2. Dave Burrell (piano); Tyrone Brown (bass) 3. Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone); Billy Bang (violin); Jin Hi Kim (komungo) 4. Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet); Douglas Ewart (bass clarinet, clarinet, tenor saxophone); Joseph Jarman (alto clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, bass flute, alto saxophone); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 5. Mathew Shipp (piano); Mat Manner (viola); William Parker (bass) 6. Rob Brown (alto saxophone); Karen Borca (bassoon); Reggie Workman (bass); Newman Taylor Baker (drums) 7. Ellen Christi (vocals); Rolf Strum (guitar); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 8. Kidd Jordan; Fred Anderson (tenor saxophones); William Parker (bass); Hamid Drake (drums) 9. Peter Kowald (bass)

June 16, 2003

DAVID S. WARE

Freedom Suite
AUM Fidelity AUM 023

Performing and recording the music of another innovator is probably the most profound challenge a jazzman can face. Especially difficult is reinterpreting a piece that brings forth memories of the originator every time it’s played; and this predicament doubles when the piece involved is programmatic, rather than just one tune.

Through careful planning and -- to be honest -- luck, tenor saxophonist David S. Ware and his quartet have avoided these pitfalls with their version of Sonny Rollins’ FREEDOM SUITE, originally done in 1958. For a start, unlike Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk -- to name three other jazz stars whose works are constantly being recast -- no one else has tried to take on Rollins’ masterwork. Additionally, although the piece itself presaged a group of equally important thematic Pan African and Black Nationalist compositions by Max Roach -- who also played on the disc -- Charles Mingus and Coltrane, the suite itself is mostly based on tone and dynamic variations, rather than definitive motifs.

By more than doubling its length to 39:24 minutes from 19:29 minutes and dividing it into four parts, the Ware quartet can then construct its variations on the major theme and go on from there to give it an individual reading. Especially salutary is the blustering tone of Ware, who was not only influenced by Rollins, but over the years has counted the older saxophonist as a mentor. He, bassist William Parker and pianist Matthew Shipp has been together for more than a decade, so their close rapport and intuitive support are even more pronounced then the interaction in Rollins’ pick up group of 1958.

In truth, as well, Parker, whose rooted time keeping and innovatory arco and pizzicato is used to good effect here, is probably an even better bassist than early bopper Oscar Pettiford who recorded on the original LP. At the same time, Shipp, who has no role model to fall back on, creates a new, dramatic part for himself, full of obbligatos, low frequencies and lots of left hand action. Only young drummer Guillermo E. Brown suffers in comparison to Roach -- who wouldn’t -- but except for some polyrhythms in the third section, he mostly limits himself to cymbal shimmers, press rolls and general accompaniment.

More ferocious in his output than Rollins was in his day, Ware’s blurred growls and buzz tones are a less conventional response to the material. But his embellishments add R&B shouting rather than the sort of extended technique that is Ware’s usual stock in trade. It’s noteworthy too that in the second section, the pianist’s andante syncopation have a Wynton Kelly cast to them and are actually the equivalent in this version to the sort of chording the later provided on 1950s and 1960s sessions. That section ends with an extended sprayed cadenza from the saxist, culminating in a fog horn cry over top of pedal-point arco ostinato from the bassist.

Moving between modal accompaniment and a version of a classical fantasia with a gentle touch, Shipp sometimes reprises the theme, but usually lets Ware build the connective tissue. Ultimately it’s the saxophonist who introduces the thematic resolution on the final track. But he does so through variations without explicitly stating the theme. Meanwhile Shipp reintroduces right-handed tremolos that serve as his version of hard- bop comping, as Parker’s tone constantly shifts and convenes any errant music. In conclusion, Ware advances a triumphant run through of the main theme using the same harsh, distinctive intonation with which he began the suite, and everyone gets in a lick or two before the end.

If there’s any downside to the quartet’s triumphal run through of this composition, is that it may encourage others with less acumen to follow suit and unsuccessfully take on other modern jazz classics. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but this FREEDOM SUITE can stand with the original through transmogrification.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Freedom Suite 1 2. Freedom Suite 2 3. Freedom Suite 3 4. Freedom Suite 4

Personnel: David S. Ware (tenor saxophone); Mathew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Guillermo E. Brown (drums)

March 3, 2003

MANERI ENSEMBLE

Going To Church
AUM Fidelity AUM 024

MAT MANERI
Sustain
Thirsty Ear THI 57122.2

Substantial slices of Maneri music, these two new CDs prove that while violist Mat Manner has internalized the quirky cogitation and execution of his father, reedist Joe Maneri, he’s not adverse to testing out some ideas of his own in different contexts.

Father-son improvisers are nothing new on the jazz scene and have ranged from boogie-woogie pianist Albert Ammons and his funky tenor saxophonist son Gene Ammons to mainstream pianist Ellis Marsalis and his progeny. But few offspring are as inculcated in his father’s music, as Mat -- born in 1969 -- who began playing music with his father when he was only seven. It’s hardly necessary to point out that Joe -- born in 1927 -- was no mainstream Marsalis. A jobbing musician for years with an interest in ethnic, microtonal and 12-tone composition as well as jazz improvisation, his talent finally got him a gig teaching theory and composition at Boston’s New England Conservatory in 1970. But his single-mindedness left him unrecorded until his belated emergence in the mid-1990s.

Initially, and probably still, a member of most of his father’s Massachusetts-centred bands, Mat moved to New York by the late 1990s and deepened his relationship with likes of pianist Mathew Shipp, bassist William Parker and guitarist Joe Morris among others.

Here, although the two CDs initially sound similar, the differences are apparent on close listening. CHURCH is almost classical in its instrumentation and orientation, while the use of electric keyboards and a domineering bassist and drummer makes SUSTAIN more tonally dense.

Secularists shouldn’t be frightened by the title on the Maneri Ensemble’s CD, by the way. No one sings any hymns or passes the collection plate. Some improvisers have said that “jazz is my religion”, and the house of worship here is a similar structure to the devotional space players like Frank Wright, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler aspired to and often inhabited.

Unlike those frenzied, ecstatic players, however, the elder Maneri’s worship is done in the context of restrained chamber improv, with even the drummer’s contribution -- from longtime Maneri associate Randy Peterson -- characterized by irregular pulses, unobtrusive rhythms and a quill-like gliding touch.

At more than 31½ minutes, “Blood and Body”, the first track, is obviously the central offering at this free jazz altar. Chief priest Joe Maneri directs the liturgy with his collection of sacred objects -- the clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone. Omitting pious solemnity, the reedist elaborates the theme at different times, keeping the congregation in the same place in the hymnbook with off-centre, elongated trills and guttural smears. At points he begins his sermons in the chalumeau register than, as he feels the spirit, raises his voice ‘way past coloratura and into squeaks, screeches and begins almost speaking in tongues.

Moving from half-valve notes to the top of his horn’s range, trumpeter Roy Campbell sometime exhibits his plunger tone as the best way to illuminate a counter motif parable. The percussionist provides some ride cymbal and ratamacue accompaniment. Meanwhile bassist Barre Phillips, a habituated true believer from his days 40 years ago with clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre up to his recent collaboration with saxist Evan Parker, sometimes allows himself the suggestion of walking bass. More frequently, though, his benediction involves guitar-like strums from the top of his strings or genuflecting arco devotion. Since the stately procession is andante most of the time, pianist Mathew Shipp’s right hand is often raised from tinkling his keys, when he isn’t suggesting a spinet’s tone or producing heartfelt ecclesiastical chords.

As for the son, his interaction with his father occurs most often with multiple forays from his five or six-string violas. His arco innovations encompass triple stopping and portamento, though at times, father and son become one as his tone merges with serpentine alto saxophone split tones. These appear to inhabit the atmosphere midway between the creations of Eric Dolphy and a viola’s singular tone.

Both remaining tunes build on the scripture articulated on “Blood and Body”. There are more Gabriel-like brass blasts from Campbell, sacramental funeral march note displays from Shipp, multiple string exposure from Phillips and the younger Maneri and pure-toned hisses and dissonant colored noises from Maneri senior, as his smearing vibrato gathers the musical supplicants together for devotion.

If two figures from the blessed Trinity are present on GOING TO CHURCH, then SUSTAIN may be said to introduce the third, the Holy Ghost, in the person of soprano saxophonist Joe McPhee.

Avoiding blasphemy, it should be noted that at 63 McPhee is old enough to have interacted with the high priests of Energy Music such as Coltrane, Ayler and Ornette Coleman. But over the years his improvising has gone from Old Testament fire-and-brimstone to the understated New Testament sound he exhibits here.

Featuring beside McPhee and the son an entirely new set of converts, this CD features four major tracks plus five tunes titled with some variation of “Alone” that are example of solo prayers. The soprano saxist, for instance, showcases forward moving legato lines that range between glottal interior horn sounds and circular breathing exercises. On his own, drummer Gerald Cleaver, whose past associates have included saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell and bassist Mark Helias, creates electronic sounding percussion sounds reminiscent of the early work of Brits Paul Lytton and Tony Oxley.

Secularism is represented here by the shimmering wah-wah keyboard excursions of Craig Taborn, who often plays with altoist Tim Berne. Avoiding Herbie Hancock-like, 1970s-style electric piano wiggles his refractive tones blend well with McPhee’s soprano. On acoustic piano though, his touch relates back to Thelonious Monk. However at one point on “Nerve”, someone, either Taborn or triple-stopping Maneri creates a constant, angled tone that seems to come straight from the mixing board, bringing with it early fusion memories of Mahavishnu’s Jerry Goodman or the Fourth Way’s Michael White. Cleaver’s polyrhythmic beat is many steps ahead of what those bands produced however, while McPhee’s pitch sliding and the frantic, nearly atonal skittering from Taborn’s keyboards proves that nothing here is an exercise in nostalgia.

Similarly no one would confuse William Parker’s deep-bottomed acoustic bass with that from a whiny electric model. Sometimes sounding as if he’s working in two clefs simultaneously, he uses his fingers to blend rhythmically with the drums and keyboards at times, or his bow to expand the string section with Maneri elsewhere.

Examined carefully, the CD is a polyphonic house of mirrors. It’s animated with sounds that encompass everything from what appears to be PVC pipe echoes, irregular drum shards, the rubbing and drone of the electric keyboard and massed strings. It’s also as much of a secular triumph for the younger Maneri as the other CD confirms the jubilant spirituality of his father.

-- Ken Waxman

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Track Listing: Going: 1. Blood and Body 2. Before the Sermon 3. Going To Church

Personnel: Going: Roy Campbell (trumpet); Joe Maneri (alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet); Mat Maneri (viola); Matthew Shipp (piano); Barre Phillips (bass); Randy Peterson (drums)

Track Listing: Sustain: 1. Alone (Origin) 2. In Peace 3. Alone (Construct) 4. Sustain 5. Alone (Unravel) 6. Nerve 7. Alone (Cleanse) 8. Divine 9. Alone (Mourn)

Personnel: Sustain: Joe McPhee (soprano saxophone); Mat Maneri (violas); Craig Taborn (keyboards); William Parker (bass); Gerald Cleaver (drums)

January 22, 2003

SPRING HEEL JACK

Amassed
Thirsty Ear TH 57123.2

Note: this CD project was done by certified professionals. Kids don’t try to replicate it at home.

That fanciful slogan could be attached on a parental advisory sticker for this disc. For despite the proliferation of less expensive computer mixing and sampling equipment over the past few years, producing a CD which melds improvised music and studio-created sounds is much more difficult than your average club remix.

But Britons John Coxon and Ashley Wells, who operate as Spring Hell Jack (SHJ), know exactly what they’re doing, as this session aptly demonstrates. Many attempts by others are embarrassing, unmusical, or both.

Coxon and Wells proved their mettle a little more than a year ago on MASSES, when they mixed and matched live solos from such downtown New York heroes as bassist William Parker, pianist Matthew Shipp, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and violinist Mat Manner with their own computer sound and sampling. A prodigious accomplishment, this disc encouraged the likes of the Chicago Underground crew, drummer Guillermo E. Brown and DJ Spooky and a host of very much lesser talents to try similar projects with disastrous results. Burying improvisation under repetitive dance beats and turntable tricks suggested that this innovation was stillborn. Appropriately it takes an originator like SHJ, to show what should be done.

This time out the cast of sampled characters, with the exception of Shipp on electric piano is strictly EuroImprov, including saxophonist Evan Parker, trombonist Paul Rutherford, bassist John Edwards, drummer Han Bennink and Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn. Added are MASSES man George Trebar on electric bass and rock band Spiritualized’s J Spaceman (Jason Pierce) on guitar. Compared to the first CD, results are mixed as well.

Perhaps it’s the presence of rocker Spaceman, or Bennink, never the most disciplined of drummers, but some tracks seem to be gilding the lily of improvisations with unnecessary effects. “Obscured”, the last track, suffers the most, with hand-clapping effects that sound as if they migrated from a Manchester rave. Add to this some pseudo Jeff Beck-like psychedelic guitar licks and snaking electric piano marathons and the tune ends up being a very long nearly nine minutes.

Also disappointing is a duet between Spaceman and Parker on soprano saxophone, whose Middle Eastern sounds no doubt suggested the clichéd “Maroc” title. The space cadet tries to match the saxman’s distinctive circular breathing, hollow reverberating line and foreshortened chirps with guitar feedback. Frankly Parker could have gone it alone. It’s sort of the same thing on “Duel”, with Bennink pardiddling and flaming drum stratagems while Parker, on tenor saxophone, creates a dark sepulchral, glottal tone --imagine E.T. bar walking. But the rumble and thunder of electronics is hardly needed. Neither is what sounds like the same note being repeated over and over again on the keyboard.

With his own electroacoustic ensemble built around sampling and treatments, Parker is quite familiar with this type of sound trickery. So on “Wormwood” and other tunes he manages to produce his distinctive tenor saxophone timbre, pushing asides the quasi-BITCHES BREW electric piano and guitar riffs and feedback that seem to date from the space explorations of the original Yardbirds and initial Pink Floyd line up. Similarly Rutherford, one of BritImprov’s veterans, goes his own way as well, bulldozing a place for himself through the dense electronic tinkling and sampled static.

Elsewhere, luckily, other musicians, especially Parker, are there to add some backbone to the ethereal work of Wheeler. Usually forced into the Miles-meets-organ-washes role, the trumpeter suddenly fires out some unexpected higher notes on “Lit”. Probably he figured that this would be the best way to counter backing that resembles someone attempting to create a Nordic jazz CD with what could be the sounds of ocean waves receding from the shore.

Together on “100 years before”, the flugelhornist’s long-lined cadences and the soprano saxophone’s spinning balladic tone combine for what should have been the best dialogue on the date. That is if Bennink, scratching away on his cymbals didn’t seem to be reading from a different fake book. Soaring over what appears to be interrupted radio broadcasts, reverberating pipe organ chords and what could be carpenter ants crunching away on a back deck, Wheeler beautifully configures and shapes his solo, which is then given added strength from Parker’s trills.

AMASSED prove that the Spring Hill Jack duo have the best handle on the bastard art of mixing improvisations and samples. This disc is an impressive companion piece to their last effort. But future efforts will be scrutinized with even more interest however, to determine when --and if -- novelty gives way to an organic musical whole.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Double Cross~ 2. Amassed+@~^ 3. Wormwood+@^ 4. Lit* 5. Maroc@ 6. 100 years before*^ 7. Duel^ 8. Obscured+!~@^

Personnel: Kenny Wheeler (trumpet and flugelhorn)*; Paul Rutherford (trombone)+; Evan Parker (soprano and tenor saxophone[all tracks but 8]); Matthew Shipp (Fender Rhodes piano)!; Ed Coxon (violins)~; J Spaceman (guitar)@; John Edwards (bass [all tracks but 4, 5, 7); George Trebar (bass and electric bass [track 8]); Han Bennink (drums)^; John Cox and Ashley Wells (all other instruments)

November 18, 2002

MATTHEW SHIPP

Songs
Splasc(H) CDH 840.2

Pianist Matthew Shipp seems to have decided to become Anthony Braxton.

It’s not that he’s about to start playing reeds -- although that might be just deserts for Braxton putting out CDs featuring his own piano playing -- it’s just that like the older man, he’s now involving himself in a panoply of -- for him -- unusual music.

Braxton has long had a reputation as a musical chameleon. No sooner did he establish an identity as a committed saxophone explorer and composer, then he began turning out albums of jazz standards. Then when fans became used to that, he released sessions filled with chamber, orchestral and operatic works that were linked more to modern so-called serious music than jazz. He’s continued to move among these genres to this day.

Shipp, who made his initial reputation as one of the figureheads of New York’s full-tilt contemporary avant garde along with bassist William Parker and tenor saxophonist David S. Ware, was initially unfairly compared to Cecil Taylor. The fact that his approach was smoother and significantly less percussive didn’t seem to dawn on those who based their impressions on superficial appearances.

He countered this -- and began exhibiting his Braxton-like versatility -- with a series of intimate string album featuring folks like Parker, violist Mat Manner and guitarist Joe Morris. Then, last year he began recording CDs in more of a groove style, featuring synthesizers and programming and even playing synthesizer himself. Now there’s this disc made up of two hymns, three jazz war-horses and four standard ballads.

Luckily he hasn’t unexpectedly become Brad Mehldau or Keith Jarrett. If anything, his arpeggio rich readings, heavy on multi-note virtuosity, remind you of the treatments of similar standards by acknowledged keyboard variation masters like Art Tatum or Phineas Newborn Jr. Contrast these performances with how Taylor played standards in the early 1960s and CT begins to resemble Count Basie with his minimalist approach.

Nearly every composition here is re-harmonized, with most surviving changes in tempos, emphasis and attack. Fervently two-handed, with many, many bass notes on display, repetition is also used when it’s most needed. Lounge-style ballads such as “Angel Eyes” and “There Will Never Be Another You” benefit most from slow deconstruction, with themes gradually revealing themselves after chiseling their way out of a thicket of variations. Piano bar frequenters will likely be frightened.

Heads of jazz classics like Milt Jackson’s “Bags’ Groove” and Sonny Rollins’ “East Broadway Run Down (sic)” appear earlier when he tackles these tunes. But then again Shipp has stronger material -- and fewer associations -- with which to work. The only performances which are a bit problematic for jazzers are the rather straightforward renditions of “We Free Kings” and “Almighty (sic) Fortress Is Our God”. Shipp played church music as a child and one supposes that he felt that while he could change the hymns slightly, he couldn’t take as many liberties with the religious material as with the other songs.

The pianist has surely proved his versatility and originality with this set. It probably won’t win over diehard Bill Evans or Oscar Peterson followers, but open-minded contemporary piano fans should welcomed it.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1.We Free Kings 2. There Will Never Be Another You 3. Almighty (sic) Fortress Is Our God 4. Con Alma 5. Angel Eyes 6. On Green Dolphin Street 7. Bags’ Groove 8. Yesterdays 9. East Broadway Run Down

Personnel: Matthew Shipp (piano)

June 29, 2002

MATTHEW SHIPP

Nu Bop
Thirsty Ear THI 57114.2

NU BOP certainly gives pianist Matthew Shipp the forum with which to explore his inner Herbie Hancock. The question is why?

No one is saying that Shipp -- who has had to put up with enough unwarranted Cecil Taylor comparisons during his career as a free jazzer -- has to stick to a certain style. He’s certainly shown his versatility with standard bass-and-drums trio projects, string-centred groups and work with saxophonists like Rob Brown, Roscoe Mitchell and David S. Ware. Plus the music on this disc is more than standard jazz-tinged electronica.

But why suddenly have such distinctive stylists as monster bassist William Parker and multi-reedist Daniel Carter been shoved into groove-based tunes and subordinated to the synthesizers and programming of FLAM (Chris Flam)? Consciously or not, as well, the pianist appears to be limiting himself to a fixed number of notes and tones throughout. This session’s executive producer says observing the session was like “witnessing a 21st century Ramsey Lewis at work.” Does Shipp really yearn to be part of “The In Crowd”? Certainly the sound may be “nu bop”, but that’s the only kind of “bop” it is.

In truth, the only musician who seems most at ease on this session is drummer Guillermo E. Brown, who is part of Ware’s band with Shipp and Parker. Often though, his playing turns overbearing and takes on the professional gloss of a so-called urban music studio percussionist like Bill Summers or Ndugu. There are times, in fact, when Shipp introduces some lighter, more contemporary free jazz clusters that are nearly buried under the constant bang-bang-bang from Brown.

“ZX-1” and “X-Ray” appear to be the only respite from this relentless big beat collection of finger snappers and themes that seem to have escaped from Gen X cop shows. On the first, the pianist’s notes turn uncharacteristically angular and Monkish in this unhurried tune, which might upset the jam band types. An acoustic instrument is also definitely featured here unlike some other tracks where (over) amplification turns the acoustic piano into something that could be an electric harpsichord.

“X-Ray” is also a potential beats-per-minute turn off as Carter’s deep toned flute and Parker’s rock hard acoustic bass leisurely explore the tune -- or at least with the leisure they have in slightly less than 3½ minute.

Perhaps the most instructive track is the beat-heavy “Rocket Shipp,” which is also the longest. A real foot tapper, featuring more than six minutes of a repetitive bass pattern, simple percussion shuffles and recurring piano fills, the music finally dissolves at the end, and following an upfront bass run, there’s a snatch of dialogue from someone -- probably Parker. “Give me some more,” he says. “It took a minute for my brain to go dead, but once that happened I was in it”.

While the raucous laughter following the statement indicates that he was just joking around, it’s hard to imagine that statement on any other disc involving Parker, Carter or Shipp.

For a CD by groove-based, pop-oriented jam band jazz, NU BOP is a superior product and it would be rated even higher if it came from an unknown. But Shipp has proven in the past that he’s capable of so much more, that a patina of disappointment overlays the praise. Keep experimenting in other ways, Matthew. There’s still a lot more you can do.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Space Shipp 2. Nu Bop 3. ZX-1 4. D’s Choice 5. X-Ray 6. Rocket Shipp 7. Select Mode 1 8. Nu Abstract 9. Select Mode 2

Personnel: Daniel Carter (alto saxophone, flute); Matthew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Guillermo E. Brown (drums); FLAM [Chris Flam] (synthesizers and programming)

March 1, 2002

MATTHEW SHIPP

Nu Bop
Thirsty Ear THI 57114.2

NU BOP certainly gives pianist Matthew Shipp the forum with which to explore his inner Herbie Hancock. The question is why?

No one is saying that Shipp -- who has had to put up with enough unwarranted Cecil Taylor comparisons during his career as a free jazzer -- has to stick to a certain style. He’s certainly shown his versatility with standard bass-and-drums trio projects, string-centred groups and work with saxophonists like Rob Brown, Roscoe Mitchell and David S. Ware. Plus the music on this disc is more than standard jazz-tinged electronica.

But why suddenly have such distinctive stylists as monster bassist William Parker and multi-reedist Daniel Carter been shoved into groove-based tunes and subordinated to the synthesizers and programming of FLAM (Chris Flam)? Consciously or not, as well, the pianist appears to be limiting himself to a fixed number of notes and tones throughout. This session’s executive producer says observing the session was like “witnessing a 21st century Ramsey Lewis at work.” Does Shipp really yearn to be part of “The In Crowd”? Certainly the sound may be “nu bop”, but that’s the only kind of “bop” it is.

In truth, the only musician who seems most at ease on this session is drummer Guillermo E. Brown, who is part of Ware’s band with Shipp and Parker. Often though, his playing turns overbearing and takes on the professional gloss of a so-called urban music studio percussionist like Bill Summers or Ndugu. There are times, in fact, when Shipp introduces some lighter, more contemporary free jazz clusters that are nearly buried under the constant bang-bang-bang from Brown.

“ZX-1” and “X-Ray” appear to be the only respite from this relentless big beat collection of finger snappers and themes that seem to have escaped from Gen X cop shows. On the first, the pianist’s notes turn uncharacteristically angular and Monkish in this unhurried tune, which might upset the jam band types. An acoustic instrument is also definitely featured here unlike some other tracks where (over) amplification turns the acoustic piano into something that could be an electric harpsichord.

“X-Ray” is also a potential beats-per-minute turn off as Carter’s deep toned flute and Parker’s rock hard acoustic bass leisurely explore the tune -- or at least with the leisure they have in slightly less than 3½ minute.

Perhaps the most instructive track is the beat-heavy “Rocket Shipp,” which is also the longest. A real foot tapper, featuring more than six minutes of a repetitive bass pattern, simple percussion shuffles and recurring piano fills, the music finally dissolves at the end, and following an upfront bass run, there’s a snatch of dialogue from someone -- probably Parker. “Give me some more,” he says. “It took a minute for my brain to go dead, but once that happened I was in it”.

While the raucous laughter following the statement indicates that he was just joking around, it’s hard to imagine that statement on any other disc involving Parker, Carter or Shipp.

For a CD by groove-based, pop-oriented jam band jazz, NU BOP is a superior product and it would be rated even higher if it came from an unknown. But Shipp has proven in the past that he’s capable of so much more, that a patina of disappointment overlays the praise. Keep experimenting in other ways, Matthew. There’s still a lot more you can do.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Space Shipp 2. Nu Bop 3. ZX-1 4. D’s Choice 5. X-Ray 6. Rocket Shipp 7. Select Mode 1 8. Nu Abstract 9. Select Mode 2

Personnel: Daniel Carter (alto saxophone, flute); Matthew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Guillermo E. Brown (drums); FLAM [Chris Flam] (synthesizers and programming)

March 1, 2001

MATTHEW SHIPP

New Orbit
Thirsty Ear THI 57095.2

As pianist Matthew Shipp's recording career goes into its second decade, he's starting to reveal hitherto concealed sides of his playing. In fact, those who only know him as a member of David S. Ware's high-energy quartet will probably be quite surprised by this session.

For rather than going hell for leather as he must with Ware, this disc and PASTORAL COMPOSURE, his earlier Thirsty Ear CD, highlight his reflective, meditative playing as well as his composing. Folks forget, after all, that Shipp has long insisted that he was influenced by Bill Evans as well as Cecil Taylor.

Not that this is one of those ballads-and-cocktail-shakers ruminations that seem to obsess most Evans' followers. Powerful bassist William Parker -- who has "Orbit 3" all to himself -- and subtly inventive drummer Gerald Cleaver are along to make sure no one mistakes repose for somnolence, after all. But, if his earlier Thirsty Ear quartet outing, could be heard as a modal session, than this one could easily attract the crowds that turn out for Keith Jarrett's keyboard reflections. Unlike some of Jarrett's CDs, though, there are no self-indulgent pianisms here. Since 10 tunes are packed into little more than 39 minutes, that's not surprising.

Still Shipp manages to make compositions like the title tune, "Syntax" and "Orbit 4" breathe with semi-classical flourishes. Plus he even plays what sounds like a harpsichord or a prepared piano on "Pardox", for some unusual, though anything-but-upsetting sounds.

Contributing to the overall mood is veteran brassman Wadda Leo Smith, who long ago decided that mindless swing was not the end-all of improvised music. A perfect interpreter of Shipp's compositions, listen to how he elaborates "Maze Hint", spinning it out as a muted mini-trumpet concerto, backed only by Parker's shimmering arco stylings. Then there's "U Feature" a bass-drums-trumpet opus which shows that experienced musicians can hit hard and fast without having to reference the blues or rhythmic alter every note.

Those who have followed Shipp's multi disc career will probably find even more to like in this outing. Some, whose reference point is Glenn Gould as well as Jarrett and Evans, will no doubt be impressed as well. Still others, who have an outdated view of the so-called avant-garde, may be taken in by the muted refinement here.

They should realize, though, that there's no guarantee that the pianist's next disc will resemble this one. Nor should it.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. New Orbit 2. Pardox X 3. Orbit 2 4. Chi 5. Orbit 3 6. U Feature 7. Syntax 8. Maze Hint 9. Pardox Y 10. Orbit 4

Personnel: Wadda Leo Smith (trumpet); Matthew Shipp (piano); William Parker (bass); Gerald Cleaver (drums)

January 1, 2001