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Music Reviews

Matthew Shipp, Mat Walerian, William Parker: This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People Review

Having recorded one live album on their own (2015’s excellent Live At Okuden) and a second live album as a trio with drummer Hamid Drake (2016’s also excellent Live At Okuden), the jazz duo of pianist, organist Matthew Shipp and alto saxophonist, bass clarinetist, soprano clarinetist, and flutist Matt Walerian are mixing things up again for This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People (CD, digital), their first studio album and first recording with bassist, shakuhachi player William Parker. That it took such a long sentence to explain was not intentional, but it was fitting given the music they’ve made this time out.

Categories
Music Reviews

Matthew Shipp Trio Piano Song Review

On 2015’s The Conduct Of Jazz, jazz pianist Matthew Shipp inaugurated his new trio — of himself, bassist Michael Bisio, and drummer Newman Taylor Baker — with a collection that seamlessly mixed the frantic energy of free jazz piano with more traditional and steadier jazz rhythms. But while they’re mining similar territory on their second collection, Piano Song (CD), the threesome are also veering into some different sonic realms as well.