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Washington's pianist
Matthew Shipp (1960),
who relocated to New York in 1984, established his reputation in 1990
as a follower of Cecil Taylor's percussive style in
saxophonist David Ware's quartet along with bassist William Parker.
After ten Sonic Explorations (february 1988) with alto saxophonist Rob Brown, Shipp formed his own quartet, featuring Brown, Parker
and drummer Whit Dickey, and turned
to free jazz of the 1960s with the lengthy vehement improvisations of
Points (january 1990).
A trio with Parker and Dickey yielded the four-movement suite
Circular Temple (october 1990) and the live Prism (march 1993),
two creative sessions worthy of Cecil Taylor.
Between a stark duo with Parker Zo (may 1993),
the live solo performances of Before the World (june 1995),
the duets of 2-Z (august 1995) with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell
and the brief solo post-bop vignettes of Symbol Systems (november 1995),
all of them more indebted towards Chicago's and London's "creative" scenes,
Shipp emancipated himself from the cliches of free-jazz via
a quartet featuring violinist Mat Maneri, Parker and Dickey (who in the meantime
had also joined Ware with Shipp and Parker). Their Critical Mass (september 1994) and The Flow of X (may 1995) moved towards
abstract soundpainting of the kind practiced by electronic musicians, albeit
rooted in the tradition of jazz instruments.
While he was still a pillar of Ware's quartet, Shipp started
collaborating also with tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman (1995-96).
A String Trio with Maneri and Parker crafted the brief watercolors of
By the Law of Music (august 1996). This marked the end of the
verbose, youthful, dense, free-jazz period. Shipp adopted a more concise style
and rediscovered the "song" format. His irrational and chaotic free-jazz style
metamorphosed into a close relative that was actually both rational and romantic.
After Thesis (january 1997) with guitarist Joe Morris, The Multiplication Table (july 1997), recorded by a trio with Parker and drummer Susie Ibarra, even included jazz standards.
Another drum-less ensemble, the Horn Quartet, featuring Parker, trumpeter Roy Campbell and alto saxophonist Daniel Carter, penned the 14 solos, duets, trios and quartets of Strata (december 1997), one of his most cerebral works
and the one that revealed Shipp's debt to classical music.
Shipp's numerous collaborations, that included
Gravitational Systems (may 1998) with Mat Maneri,
DNA (january 1999) with Parker,
and the solos, duets and trios with Parker and Brown of Magnetism (january 1999),
were mere teasers and/or detours.
The real "meat" was to be found in his trios and quartets:
the trio with Maneri (on electic violin) and drummer Randy Peterson of So What (august 1998),
the String Trio of Expansion Power Release (november 1999),
the quartet with Campbell, Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver of Pastoral Composure (january 2000), one of his most romantic works,
the quartet with Leo Smith replacing Campbell of New Orbit (september 2000),
and
the trio with reed player Charles Waters and drummer Andrew Barker of Apostolic Polyphony (april 2001).
In the meantime, Dickey had formed the Nommonsemble with Maneri, Shipp and Brown that debuted with Life Cycle (september 2000), entirely compsoed by Dickey.
At the turn of the century, Shipp was ready to shift gear once more.
He began a collaboration with the electronic dance project Spring Heel Jack (2001-02), then he
experimented with hip-hop music on
Nu Bop (august 2001)
in the company of saxophonist/flutist Daniel Carter,
Parker, drummer Guillermo Brown, and
Chris Flam on synthesizer, drum machine and sampler.
That was only the appetizer, because soon Shipp was playing with
the hip-hop group Antipop Consortium (2002),
with DJ Spooky (2002) and
with rapper El-P (2003).
The problem is that Shipp never fully integrated his style with the dance
style of his partners.
The "nu bop" idea was continued on
Equilibrium (june 2002) with
Parker, Flam, Cleaver and vibraphonist Khan Jamal,
perhaps the most "sentimental" of the series,
on The Sorcerer Sessions (january 2003) with
Parker, Flam, Cleaver, clarinetist Evan Ziporyn and
violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain,
and
on Harmony and Abyss (february 2004), with just
Parker, Flam and Cleaver.
The solo-piano album One (april 2005) was also consistent with the "nu bop" program, as its short pieces echoed Thelonious Monk more clearly than it did Cecil Taylor.
Telephone Popcorn (June 2005) documents a live duet with Guillermo Brown (on zendrum, electronics, laptop).
Un Piano (july 2007)
was Matthew Shipp's second solo piano album.
A trio with Joe Morris on bass and Whit Dickey on drums released two albums, Piano Vortex (february, 2007) and Harmonic Disorder (august 2008).
SpaceShipp
(july 2006)
was a collaboration
with J Spaceman (on Vox Starstreamer).
4D (may 2009 - Thirsty Ear, 2009) contains
16 brief tracks, recorded live in his studio.
SAMA
(march 2009)
was a collaboration with Sabir Mateen
(reeds).
The double-CD The Art Of The Improviser
(Thirsty Ear, 2011) contains
a trio album and a solo piano concert.
Cosmic Lieder (october 2012)
documents a collaboration with alto saxophonist Darius Jones.
Matthew Shipp's Knives From Heaven (2011), featuring William Parker (bass), Bean (vocals) and HPRIZM (electronics and vocals), toyed with jazz-hop.
Broken Partials (february 2010) documents a collaboration with pianist
Joe Morris.
Blink of an Eye (Thirsty Ear, 2011) documents a collaboration between
Scanner and
Matthew Shipp's Post Modern Jazz Quartet (vibraphonist Khan Jamal, bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Michael Thompson).
Elastic Aspects (2012) features
Michael Bisio (bass) and Whit Dickey (drums).
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