feature photo: Anna Yatskevich
The Matthew Shipp Trio is the centerpiece of Matthew Shipp’s bold musicworld and for some thirty-five years it has sought to redefine the whole piano trio jazz concept. They’ve gone changing the game from what’s come before them to changing up even their own approach. Most of the time, those changes are incremental but occasionally, there’s a step change. Certainly, William Parker swapped out for Michael Bisio at the bass chair was a disruptor, as was Newman Taylor Baker replacing Whit Dickey behind the drum kit.
Compared to its immediate, 2022 predecessor World Construct, New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz (April 5 2024, ESP-Disk) further obliterates the line between composed and cursive, allowing for prettier melodic development while retaining all the element of surprise.
At the same time, New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz doesn’t dispense with what has long set the Matthew Shipp Trio apart from other piano trios. The rules of the roles of each are completely fluid; they change from song to song and even shift during a song. It’s just that this current configuration of the group has been together for about eight or nine years now and they’ve reached a critical point where the telepathy is firing at full potential.
An opening motif from Shipp ushers in “Sea Song,” Baker sensitively contributes with brushes and Bisio carefully picking his spots to add to the sound. The song doesn’t stay in one place, though, it evolves, and it feels like a through-composed piece. Sure, Shipp brings concepts to the studio, but it’s up to him and his two partners to mold that clay into a coherent song as the tape is rolling and they created something that months of heavy contemplation couldn’t have possibly conceived.
Melody matters a lot to Shipp and “Primal Poem” opens up with a pretty one; as the title suggests, it’s poetic and non-complicated. But Bisio’s shadowing of the pianist is another indication that something is going on beyond the accepted concept of a piano jazz trio.
The way the three interact with each other is unlike what you will hear from any other piano trio. “The Function” begins with a walking bass line; Shipp dances around it, but so does Baker, both frolicking around the fringes as Bisio stays at the center point. Shipp deftly manipulates the spaces between the notes and brings his unique percussive feel to bear, throwing off hints of both classical and the blues. Shipp also dances around Baker’s complex drum figure during the first part of “Non Circle,” but instead of riding on top of it, he actively engages it. Later on, he establishes his own time signature and Baker is in turn artfully maneuvering beside it.
“Coherent System” plays almost like suite: a pensive section bursting out into a brief free swing section followed by a march temporarily disrupted by Shipp and Bisio scurrying through notes in perfect sync and harmony. A constant throughout is how everyone shares equally in the load for both harmony and rhythm, a hallmark of this group.
“Tone IQ” is dark, contemplative, nicely topped off by Bisio’s lonesome arco bass and “Brian System” seems to begin right where “Tone IQ” left off, with Bisio continuing to saw away poetically and Shipp spinning out the underlying harmony with his usual grace. “Brain Work” is three minutes of Shipp by himself, taking a sketch and moving it wherever his instincts take him.
Starting with the first trio release Circular Temple back in 1990, the Matthew Shipp Trio has sought — and succeeded — in taking a conventional setting to unconventional heights, and New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz has attained a new height in this long-running quest.
Pre-order/order New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz from Bandcamp.
Matthew Shipp Trio CD’s on Amazon:
New Concepts In Piano Trio
The Unidentifiable
Signature
The Multiplication Table
The Root of Things
World Construct
Circular Temple
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