When tenor sax boss Rich Halley got together with the Matthew Shipp Trio for last year’s Terra Incognita, it was instant chemistry between two avant-jazz forces residing on opposite ends of the USA, yet coming “from creative forces residing in the same spiritual space.” This worked out so well, they quickly decided to do it again, with their second recorded encounter The Shape of Things.
This second encounter is just as good as the first, if not better. “Tetrahedron” shows just how much the chemistry between Halley and the Matthew Shipp Trio has intensified. Halley is explosive and taking no quarter, but the Shipp’s band is right there with him and it still sounds as a single, solid-state unit. Very subtly, the Michael Bisio/Newman Taylor Baker rhythm section hints at swing during Shipp’s feature but stops short of fully committing to it, keeping proceedings going with an air of mystery. The enigma is furthered by the sudden softness the tune takes after Shipp’s commanding piano solo and though timekeeping is suspended, the group never loses its sense of direction.
Shipp initially sets the pulse on “Vector” but Bisio and Taylor Baker soon pushes that into a swing cadence and Halley happily revels in it. Shipp patiently waits for the right spots to jump and make Halley sound even better. Shipp himself jumps deep into that pocket and Bisio later gets a bass spotlight that also effortlessly swings like hell. Halley and Shipp conjure up a reserved, noir mood for “Spaces Between” but Bisio’s persistent thrumming adds a touch of tension to the proceedings.
Halley, Shipp, Bisio and Taylor Baker get “Oblique Angles” moving like a runaway train, while for “Lower Strata,” Halley reads and reacts to Taylor Baker’s drums prior to the rest of the guys entering the fray and filling out the harmonics. Shipp has his lengthiest spotlight here, raining down his signature dramatic, heavy chords. The relentless “The Curved Horizon” caps off the record with a Bisio/Taylor Baker parley forming the high point of this performance.
The Shape of Things became available on November 4, 2020 via Pine Eagle Records.
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