The Piano Equation
| The Piano Equation | ||||
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| Studio album by Matthew Shipp | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Tao Forms | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
50:58 |
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Studio (s) |
Park West Studios, Brooklyn |
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The Piano Equation (German: The piano equation ) is a jazz album by Matthew Shipp . The recordings, which were made in 2019 at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, were released on May 22, 2020 on Whit Dickey's label Tao Forms.
background
Matthew Shipp had played with drummer Whit Dickey in the David S. Ware Quartet back in the 1980s . In 2018 Shipp presented the solo album Zero . His subsequent solo album The Piano Equation contains fifteen original compositions that Shipp recorded as a piano soloist, produced with Dickey and released on Dickey's label. The title track, but also “Piano in Hyperspace” and “Tone Pocket” contained calm, sometimes pastoral melodies, not without razor-sharp underlinings, noted Karl Ackermann. On “Swing Note from Deep Space” and “Clown Pulse” Shipp combines earlier jazz influences with free forms of expression in highly structured creations. The most unconventional are "Vortex Factor", "Radio Signals Equation" and "Cosmic Juice"; In each of these pieces Shipp builds up almost impenetrable layers of sound.
Track list
- Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation (Tao Forms TAO 01)
- Piano Equation 5:14
- Swing Note from Deep Space 4:59
- Piano in Hyperspace 4:14
- Vortex Factor 4:16
- Land of the Secrets 3:29
- Void Equation 5:59
- Tone Pocket 4:41
- Clown Pulse 2:07
- Radio Signals Equation 7:39
- Emission 3:31
- Cosmic Juice 4:49
All compositions are by Matthew Shipp.
reception
According to Karl Ackermann, who reviewed the album in All About Jazz , every track on The Piano Equation is “an experience in encrypted communication. There is tension and inflammatory energy with an expansive and sophisticated [sound] architecture that holds all the complexity together. ”In his solo projects, Shipp's large-scale improvisations give the music a powerful but inviting quality, says the author. Redefining the jazz piano had been a long-time goal of Shipp , and at the age of sixty he claimed that he still had “something to say”. "He says it here in his own language."
Also in All About Jazz , Mark Corroto wrote that Matthew Shipp, like Cecil Taylor , Sun Ra or Thelonious Monk before him, is not looking for the past, but is incessantly continuing on his way. And like these respected masters, Shipp developed his own piano language, which could best be described as “the percussive decoding of his unique double helix DNA signature”. The title track is a preamble , an algebraic equation as a procession. Although we were promised that there would be no math on this test, the fact that “Shipp's music is dense and somewhat impenetrable equations are written all over the board of his sound,” says Corroto, cannot be ignored.
Mike Shanley wrote in JazzTimes that it was difficult to see him as a "gray eminence" ( elder statesman ) because his approach to the piano showed no signs of the complacency that comes with age - Shipp was born in 1960. If anything, the pianist has refined the energy of his earlier work and perfected one of the most distinctive voices on the piano today. “These eleven solo pieces were created on the fly, and offer incredible clarity of thought as they unfold and expand. Shipp is never at a loss for new solutions, never satisfied with a thought and thinking about it. ”Shanley concludes that it is good to know that Matthew Shipp shows no signs of gentleness.
Bill Meyer awarded four stars in the Down Beat and wrote that The Piano Equation could be described as the "sum of certain musical qualities". "One thing would be the clarity of his game"; Shipp articulates the theme and the elaboration of the title track with exquisite delicacy. Another would be the maneuverability that enables him to switch from a Thelonious Monk-like groove to dense, dizzying runs to "Swing Note from Deep Space". Another aspect of his practice that has become particularly enriching is "his coding of complex emotional experiences in abstract musical information", as he does in the fantasy "Land of the Secrets" derived from Duke Ellington . All of this leads to a worthwhile return to Shipp's irreducible musical environment.
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Will Layman (Pop Matters) noted that Matthew Shipp's album was a profound achievement. He has distilled his piano style into something sharp and clear - possibly the most concise and convincing statement of his pianistic sensitivity. “Shipp showed how free improvisation can lead to results that get to the point without almost wasted notes. And he made a recording that seems in the best way comparable to things like Keith Jarrett 's early Facing You or Chick Corea's Piano Improvisations Volume 1 ”; harmoniously dissonant playing and the gnarled patterns and concepts that are Shipp's own. With these eleven freely improvised pieces he produced a recording of great beauty and logic, which creates different events that are shocking and beautiful at the same time, equally classic and daring.
Jon Turney (London Jazz News) wrote that Shipp sees his compositions as cellular, and that each of the eleven short pieces in this exciting recital is a miniature measured investigation based on a different idea, but that mathematical imagination implies limitations that are otherwise not obvious . Shipp has mastered all the varied vocabulary of jazz, classical and free music and uses them as he likes. There are some trademarks of the pianist here - for example, he likes to rummage through the lower register with a strong holding pedal and in sequences of clusters that sound almost like conventional chord progressions, but are always subtly shifted - but he hardly plays any clichés. Instead, there is a pleasant variety in a set that gives a strong feeling for the search for musical sensitivity. He could be looking for things that music doesn't quite deliver - the notes and some titles allude to cosmic ambitions. For this listener, however, it would be better to put them aside and only hear these pieces as episodes to further explore the possibilities of the piano.
Critic Doug Ramsey (Rifftides) pointed out that the dictionary defines the equation as "the act of leveling." In his fascinating new solo album, the pianist Matthew Shipp creates eleven new pieces of music in which the equality of his powerful hands is important for the success of the company, but not as important as the fertile imagination that guides his music making. The titles of the pieces, for example “Radio Signals Equation” and “Cosmic Juice”, can give clues about the content of the music; but as always with Shipp, the decisive factor lies in the way in which he handles the improvisations. This collection of unaccompanied performances shows Shipp in all its kaleidoscopic variety.
According to Steve Feeney (The Arts Fuse), Shipps The Piano Equation is a brilliant solo performance, confirmation that the pianist's ingenuity remains undiminished even as he celebrates his 60th birthday in the year of publication. You might get an answer from a listener that in Shipp's ventures you come across a hybrid mixture of Cecil Taylor's abstract clusters with Keith Jarrett's immersion into romanticism, also dominated by Taylor's role model. But like any real improviser, Shipp conjures up his own vortex of distinctive ideas. So every title is a journey through the fertile thoughts of the pianist. This intoxicating mix mixes elements of jazz, both reflective and extroverted, with a range of influences: classical, blues , hip-hop and so on.
Web links
- Information about the album at Bandcamp
- Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Accessed January 1, 2020.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Karl Ackermann: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation. In: All About Jazz. April 21, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ^ Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation at Discogs
- ↑ Mark Corroto: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation. In: All About Jazz. April 22, 2020, accessed on July 7, 2020 .
- ^ Mike Shanley: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation (Tao Forms). In: JazzTimes. May 26, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ^ Bill Meyer: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation. In: Down Beat. July 1, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ^ Will Layman: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation Will Stand the Test of Time. In: Pop Matters. May 18, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ^ Jon Turney: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation. In: London Jazz News. April 30, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Doug Ramsey: Matthew Shipp: The Piano Equation. In: Rifftides. May 6, 2020, accessed on July 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Steve Feeney: Jazz Album Reviews: Matthew Shipp and Whit Dickey - Unrepentant Proponents of Free Jazz. In: Arts Fuse. June 2, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020 .