Thirsty Ear
2002
Nu Bop
About This Album
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.
Track List (try tracks 1,2 and 5)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.