Here's a twist that's full-on bent:
Matthew Shipp making funky
avant-garde jazz. It's true that, like
Sun Ra on his
Lanquidity album in the late '70s,
Shipp has decided to add programming and synths to his mix for this disc, to at least walk a tightrope between
improvisational art and the music of the street. For any of you groaning as you read this, give it up -- this disc is one of
Shipp's very best and one of the first really new things to come across on the American
jazz front in over a decade. The band is comprised of
Shipp on piano,
William Parker on contrabass,
Daniel Carter replacing
David S. Ware on saxophone and flute,
Guillermo Brown on drums, and
FLAM on synths and programming.
Shipp's methodology is one of shifting rhythmic hypnosis and
modal inquiry along scaled intervals and striated harmonic pathways that lead through the middle registers of both the saxophone and the piano.
"X-Ray" is a keen example of how
Shipp employs an ostinato line that changes itself ever so slightly in each chorus, is treated by
FLAM with tweaked programming moves that underscore the rhythmic line, and allows
Parker to roll around the changes between
Carter and
Shipp. In other places, such as on
"Space Shipp," which opens the album, the funky line sets the pace for a six-chord thematic statement by
Shipp.
Parker lays in the cut with
Brown, allowing the
funk and roll to slip dramatically into a hypnotic groove that flows into
Shipp's solo. Rather than a flurry of middle- and upper-register notes and chords,
Shipp concentrates on establishing intervallic patterns that dig deeper into the thematic material and "deepen the
funk," if you will, by modalizing its context. The disc closes with
"Select Mode 2," an angular off-minor
modal move with interplay and polyrhythmic accents by
FLAM and
Brown over a 5/8
samba figure as
Shipp and
Parker close ranks with the extensions of line and syntax in repetitive phrases that revolve around the rhythmic construct and move beyond it without leaving the groove. This is truly a new way of approaching
jazz, a new way of hearing the intricacies of rhythmic counterpoint and textured harmonics that syncopate the entire methodology of composition and
improvisation into a holistic view of the music as pulse and force.
Shipp has clearly outdone himself this time, and the
Blue Series that he coordinates on
Thirsty Ear continues to be one of the bravest and most exciting series of recordings in
jazz today. ~ Thom Jurek
![Beggars Banquet [50th Anniversary Edition]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0018771850229_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Beggars Banquet [50th Anniversary Edition]")