Whenever Matthew Shipp sits down in front of a piano to record a solo album, I doubt he ever does so with a theme decided beforehand; the theme takes form during the recording or sometimes only becomes clear after the sessions are done. The latter is the case for Shipp’s latest solo piano offering Codebreaker, about which he reveals he was “actually shocked at how introspective the album was when I listened back to it.” And when discussing introspective piano, it’s hard not to mention the master introspective pianist, Bill Evans.
That makes Codebreaker a sort of an accidental paean to Evans and perhaps his forbear, Bud Powell, though Shipp doesn’t consciously try to sound like another piano player. When creating on the fly as Shipp typically does, the influences like Evans (or Mal Waldron) buried deep in his being will naturally spill out as well as his state of mind — thus, the inward-looking bent of these set of performances that defy convention and embrace every moment.
For tracks like “Codebreaker,” “Disc” and “The Tunnel,” the chords slowly march up and down, dwelling in the mid-to-lower registers as Shipp is apt to do, but there’s a certain deliberative motion not typical from him. Amid the tightly packed notes of “Spiderweb” are interludes of melodic prettiness. “Raygun” dashes forward with nary an open space, but almost hidden in the endless cluster of notes is an interesting melodic development. “Mystic Motion” could very well pertain to the mysterious movement of this tune, not adhering to timekeeping but mimicking the motion of thoughtful spontaneity.
Though the mood is somewhat different, the usual hallmarks of Shipp are present. You hear the clipped chords on numbers such as “Code Swing,” where he also forges a staggered path but always with a sense of knowing where he’s headed. Shipp hits the keys on “Letter From The Galaxy” in a mildly percussive manner, turning melody and rhythm into one. The notes just tumble out on “Green Man,” but Shipp hold interest by varying the density and freely vacillating between chords and single-line patterns to the point where they’re virtually indistinguishable.
Listening to Matthew Shipp create on unaccompanied piano is like peering into the soul of a man. Codebreaker exposes the soul of an artist absorbing decades of accomplishment but still capable of decades more.
Codebreaker is now on sale, courtesy of Tao Forms.
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