Matthew Shipp Trio

Grdina/Helias/Shipp
Pathways
Attaboygirl Records ABG -5

While no creative improviser is ever really established in the music business sense, since he’s been recording since 1988, it would appear that New York pianist Matthew Shipp is now entrenched enough. He’s able to maintain a regular trio with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker and work with many other innovators. World Construct is the newest illustration of his flexible arrangement with Bisio and Baker, while Pathways is a date with local bassist Mark Helias and Vancouver guitarist/oudist Gordon Grdina which also recorded in trio form in 2019. While Shipp had never recorded with the bassist or guitarist before that, both have extensive experience in varied improv contexts.

All instant compositions, Pathways’s path from “Palimpsest” is blazed with lower-case piano rumbles, resonating plucks from the bassist and vibrating guitar frails. Along with excursions into expressive stretches, a swelling harmonic surge is always present. Throughout the nine selections ferocious and distinctive strategies are brought forward, including knife-sharp guitar runs, scratchy pedal point strokes from the bassist and forearm keyboard smashes. Warmth and harmonies are also part of the expositions though. “Synapses” is an example of this as Shipp’s percussive pace emphasizes dynamics and pressure at the same time as Helias’ detouring plucks challenge string vibrations. Grdina’s  power plucks set up an intersectional dialogue with both, leading to a defined swing sequence. As well, the instruments’ string-affiliated identity is always present. The guitarist’s string plucks and slurred fingering are often emphasized. So are measured stops and up-and-down string slithers from the bassist. As for the pianist, his responses or challenges to the other’s actions not only involve resounding clips and clatters on the keys but also vibration of the instrument’s inner string set to create soundboard colors. Furthermore for every screechy string pluck or sul ponticello flange  which Grdina and Helias produce on a track such as “ Pathways”, the pianist puts aside metronomic pounding to emphasis a flowery romantic pattern making the group’s triple variations simpler and softer as well as substantial and steady.

This ambidextrous ability to switch between sequence simplicity to searching and back again is even more pronounced on World Construct, but this trio’s world view is also constructed with a Blues emphasis. In fact a tracks such as “A Mysterious State” builds up from paced drum backbeats,  a walking bass line and a take on Blues chording from Shipp. Ending with the sort of righteous swing expected from any modern trio after the Bop era, the trio interject more advanced motifs with percussive keyboard slaps and descending bass pumps even as the tempo shifts from andante and allegretto and to more elevated pitches.

Shipp, Bisio and Baker are familiar enough with each other’s moves that the 11 tracks don’t follow the commonplace motif of keyboard as melody provider and the others as accompanists. Dramatic scene setting is also done via andante thump and pops or spiccato thrusts from Bisio, or in one case with a slow burst of cymbal chiming. During the narratives roles shift as well. So while Shipp pumps out a continuum, for instance, the bassist and drummer bunt the theme between them with string stops and almost delicate brushing on drum tops. The bassist’s string command is such that in one instance a solo evolves with dark drama as he slowly climbs the scale stretching each individual tone so that it reflects back on the paced motion, with the climax a tsunami of double and triple stopping. This doesn’t mean that Shipp’s contributions are secondary and he’s certainly capable of exploding into a paroxysm of thick, almost opaque polyrhythms. Yet this showiness is tempered with rhythmic sophistication that interjects syncopation to an exposition that would otherwise be presto piano runs, string pops and drum crunches. Personalization of these strategies is confirmed in the  concluding, extended title tune. Mid-range and bouncy, sound motif pass among the three. When the andante theme toughens just before the mid-way point, energy is injected from drum rebounds, repeated keyboard patterns and arco business from the bassist. Eventually as Ship emphasizes a light treble interface, Bisio counters with a descending string strategy.

Still at the height of his improvisational skills, as long as he has associates such as these, Shipp will regularly turn out  admirable sessions.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Pathways: 1. Palimpsest 2. Deep Dive 3. Pathways 4. Trimeter 5. Amalgam 6. Flutter 7. Ossicles 8. Synapses 9. Sanctum

Personnel: Pathways: Matthew Shipp (piano); Gordon Grdina (guitar and oud) and Mark Helias (bass)

Track Listing: World: 1. Tangible 2. Sustained Construct 3. Spine 4. Jazz Posture 5.  Beyond Understanding 6.Talk Power 7. Abandoned 8. A Mysterious State 9. Stop the World 10. Sly Glance 11. World Construct

Personnel: World: Matthew Shipp (piano); Michael Bisio (bass) and Newman Taylor Baker (drums)