Matthew Baker

Storytelling and making – craft and narrative, and the ways in which they are both enabled and complicated by the presence of music – lie at the heart of Matthew Kaner’s compositional world, as revealed on this debut album devoted to his work.

Bach's St Matthew Passion is almost always described as a double-choir composition for two choirs and two orchestras. Two large ensembles play in dialogue, and the score presents a symmetrical structure. The scoring of the two groups of singers and players is identical, and each ensemble has four soloists for the arias. On the stage one often sees two equal groups of singers, and an orchestra likewise divided exactly into two. The Evangelist and Jesus are often the only exceptions to this impressive symmetry.

Starting in the bebop era, the piano-bass-drums lineup has been the most classic jazz format in which the piano is featured, accumulating the weight of history and critical expectations. In this setting, a non-mainstream player such as Shipp can infiltrate Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and other Establishment bastions in a familiar format and then unleash his ideas on audiences that might not normally be exposed to his style. Thanks to hearing it in the communal language of the piano trio, they can better understand the message the Matthew Shipp Trio has to deliver – “Mr. Shipp’s predilection for finding fertile ground between accessibility and abstraction,” as Larry Blumenfeld wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

Starting in the bebop era, the piano-bass-drums lineup has been the most classic jazz format in which the piano is featured, accumulating the weight of history and critical expectations. In this setting, a non-mainstream player such as Shipp can infiltrate Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and other Establishment bastions in a familiar format and then unleash his ideas on audiences that might not normally be exposed to his style. Thanks to hearing it in the communal language of the piano trio, they can better understand the message the Matthew Shipp Trio has to deliver - "Mr. Shipp’s predilection for finding fertile ground between accessibility and abstraction," as Larry Blumenfeld wrote in The Wall Street Journal…

This group evolves in leaps and bounds. We guarantee you've never heard a jazz piano trio sound like this album–not even this band on its previous album, the much-praised World Construct. That said, there is a through line from the first Matthew Shipp Trio album, 1990's Circular Temple (reissued in 2023 on ESP). The adventure continues!

Matthew Shipp Trio invites Nicole Mitchell - All Things Are (2019) {RogueArt ROG-0088}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 310 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 140 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 2019 RogueArt | ROG-0088
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Modern Creative

A tremendous pairing of two of the most unique talents in the avant jazz spectrum – pianist Matthew Shipp and flautist Nicole Mitchell – both coming together here in a wonderful way! The cover bills the set as somewhat of a meeting between Mitchell and Shipp's trio with Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums – but the music feels more as if it's resonating strongly between the darkly melodic depths of both Nicole and Matthew – piano and flute working together in ways that are very different than the usual effort of its type – especially from Mitchell, who seems to pull out all these new raspy, earthy tones that are completely wonderful! Nicole plays both alto and standard flute – and Shipp continues his tremendous new rebirth of recent years.