Matthew Shipp was born December 7, 1960 in Wilmington, Delaware. He started piano at 5 years old with the regular piano lessons most kids have experienced. He fell in love with jazz at 12 years old. While Matthew Shipp was attracted to jazz, he also played in rock groups while he was in high school. Shipp attended the University of Delaware for one year, then the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with saxophonist/composer Joe Maneri. He has cited private lessons with Dennis Sandole (who also taught saxophonist John Coltrane) as being crucial to his development.
After moving to New York in 1984 he quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. He was a sideman in the David S. Ware quartet and also for Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory before making the decision to concentrate on his own music.
Shipp has been very active since the early 1990s, appearing on dozens of albums as a leader, sideman or producer. He was initially most active in free jazz, but has since branched out, notably exploring music that touches on contemporary classical, hip hop and electronica.
Shipp was a long-time member of saxophonist David S. Ware’s quartet. He has recorded or performed with many musicians, including William Parker, DJ Spooky, Joe Morris, Daniel Carter, Roscoe Mitchell, Mat Maneri, High Priest and Beans of Antipop Consortium, and El-P.
Shipp was a long-time member of saxophonist David S. Ware’s quartet. He has recorded or performed with many musicians, including William Parker, DJ Spooky, Joe Morris, Daniel Carter, Roscoe Mitchell, Mat Maneri, High Priest and Beans of Antipop Consortium, and El-P.
On September 24 Thirsty Ear Records released his seventh solo recording following the Thirsty Ear discs 4D (2010) and One (2006) and Un Piano (Rogue Art, 2008), Songs (Splasc(h), 2002), Creation Out Of Nothing (SoLyd, 2010), and Before The Worlds (FMR, 1995), entitled “Piano Sutras”.
Tracklist:
01 – Piano Sutras
02 – Cosmic Shuffle
03 – Surface To Curve
04 – Blue to a Point
05 – Cosmic Dust
06 – Giant Steps
07 – Uncreated Light
08 – Fragment of a Whole
09 – Space Bubble
10 – Nefertiti
11 – Angelic Brain Cell
12 – Silent Cube
13 – The Indivisible
All About Jazz noticed about Shipp: “There is a sort of primitivism that can be found at the edges of advanced physics and mathematics. The same sort of primitivism is at the heart of pianist Matthew Shipp’s music. Just as one can speak of the sweet science (or art) of boxing, the pianist plays with a violent beauty.”
This is a quite dark and disturbing journey, but Matthew Shipp knows how to keep his audience focused and interested, excited throughout. It’s an intriguing mixture of broken up rhythmics and weighty left-hand plays with smooth and charming, melodious right hand play, sometimes a quite esoteric dialogue, sometimes almost a fever-burnt struggling.
Probably not an easy listening, but definitively a fascinating one and once you get into this vortex of sounds and emotions, you can hardly get out from it. Smoother, blues rooted moments and hurricane like, twisted out, furious passages make this album alive and exciting throughout, it’s always a nice surprise what’s coming up next. And after a few more listening, you will start to discover its secret passages and unexpected dimensions.
Buy it or steal it!!
Matthew Shipp – Official Site
