When it comes to the configurations of jazz groups, trios with a piano player, a bassist, and a drummer are as common as, well, quartets with a saxophonist, and quintets fronted by saxophonists and trumpet players.
It’s why the last thing I need is another common jazz trio.
An uncommon one, however…
This brings me to New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz (CD, digital), the new and promissory album by the Matthew Shipp Trio. Which, for the record, is comprised of Shipp on piano, Michael Bisio on bass, and Newman Taylor Baker on drums.
Recorded August 2nd, 2023…
at Park West Studios in Brooklyn, New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz presents eight new originals that clock in around 47 minutes.
Now, admittedly, New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz doesn’t really live up to the promise of its name. These songs don’t completely reinvent jazz made by the typical trio of a pianist, a bassist, and a drummer.
But New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz does, in spots, push what this particular trio can do, and in interesting ways.
Take “Primal Poem,” which opens the album. A slow and deliberate piece, it strikes a similar chamber music-like tone as the slower songs by another (albeit very different) trio: the Jimmy Giuffre 3 on their albums Fusion, Thesis, and Free Fall.
Things get even more atypical for New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz‘s second tack, “Sea Song,” which opens with the sounds of a gentle wave. It’s not entirely a new idea — Black Sabbath used the sounds of a storm to open their song “Black Sabbath” on their eponymous debut, and Pink Floyd used nature sounds on such classic albums as Animals — but it’s not something we hear a lot on jazz albums.
Well, on straight ahead jazz albums, anyway; some avant garde jazz musicians like Sun Ra could get a bit Pink Floyd-y sometimes.
And straight ahead is a good way to describe the rest of “Sea Song,” which, like “Primal Poem,” is rather chill, though not nearly as chamber-like, especially when it picks up (relatively speaking) around the middle, or when it gets somewhat dramatic towards the end.
It’s also during “Sea Song” that New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz becomes less unique. But while things may get more conventional from this point on, they remain just as interesting. And, in some cases, unique for this trio.
Such is the case for New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz‘s next track, “The Function,” a peppy and jumpy tune that sounds like something that would get the juke joint jumpin’ if they added a sassy singer dropping double entendres in a smokey voice. Though even without that, “The Function” is still a fun, hip shaker, something we don’t often hear from Shipp and friends.
The Matthew Shipp Trio continue to be upbeat, but also a bit loose, on New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz‘s fourth track, “Non Circle.” It is easily the most typical tune for them on this album, as it has the threesome occupying the jazz adjacent space they previous explored.
(Though for the record, even at their most free jazzy, Shipp’s trio never gets as aggressive as, say, John Coltrane’s Live In Japan, instead sticking more to what Trane did on Sun Ship.)
Next, New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz goes back to being slow and low for “Tone IQ,” which is as moody as “Primal Poem,” though in a more dramatic and atmospheric way. Which is why — as someone who prefers his jazz to be dark and moody — it was my favorite track on the album.
The Matthew Shipp Trio continue this moody streak for New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz‘s next track, “Brain System.” Though not as atmospheric as “Tone IQ,” it is played just as carefully and deliberately, and is all the better for it.
New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz next goes back to being a jumpy, albeit not to the same extent as “The Function,” for its penultimate track, “Brain Work.” It’s also, at just over three-minutes-long, the shortest track on the album, making it a nice quick shot.
New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz then comes to a close with its longest, most sprawling song, the nearly 12-minute-long “Coherent System.” (By comparison, “The Function” is the next longest at 7-minutes.)
While it starts off relatively mellow (though not moody), it quickly becomes as energized as “Non Circle,” with Shipp’s piano playing being especially loose, while Bisio and Baker follow his lead, only to get even more aggressive, even cacophonous in the middle, before abruptly slowing down and become relatively mellower — though more mid-tempo than slow — and then noisy once again as it approaches its conclusion.
Or, to put it another way, it’s the most free jazzy tune on this or any of the Matthew Shipp Trio’s albums; nothing adjacent about it.
Which brings us back to the title of the album: New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz. Admittedly, while this does often sound different than other albums made by the Matthew Shipp Trio, and especially on the ones since Newman Taylor Baker replaced original Trio drummer Whit Dickey on drums — i.e., The Conduct Of Jazz, Piano Song, Signature, and The Unidentifiable — it doesn’t, as I said, completely reinvent the concept of a piano-led jazz trio.
But it also doesn’t sound like most piano-led jazz trios. Sure, the threesome of Keith Jarret, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette could occasionally get stark and moody like Shipp and Co. do on “Primal Poem” (“Deep Space” from their 2013 album Somewhere comes to mind), but it was hardly Jarrett’s trio’s default position.
And nothing on New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz could ever be mistaken for something by the Red Garland Trio, or the threesome Duke Ellington assembled in 1962 to record Money Jungle (which had him team with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach).
In fact, the only jazz trio that comes close is the aforementioned Jimmy Giuffre 3, and even then they don’t really count since they swapped the drummer for a clarinetist and had him take the lead role.
No matter.
While New Concepts In Piano Trio Jazz may not fulfil the promise of its name, it does have the Matthew Shipp Trio doing something new, especially at the beginning, and — most importantly — doing something they always do: make interesting music. Which is really all we can ask.
SCORE: 8.5/10
