Like his frequent collaborator Ivo Perelman, jazz pianist Matthew Shipp is almost as known for being prolific as he is for being expressive and versatile. In fact, if the website Discogs is accurate, Shipp has appeared on nearly a dozen albums since just the beginning of this decade. And yet, it’s been three long years since he took center stage with his iconic trio, a situation he’s now rectifying with their interesting and rather varied new album World Construct (CD, digital).
Back in November I was introduced to the idea of a jazz quartet being all sax players when I heard (and reviewed) the album The Circumference Of Reason by the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. Which is good because, without it, I might not have been prepared for what faced me when I started listening to (D)IVO (digital), an exceptional (and exceptionally) free jazz album by (DIVO) Saxophone Quartet, a four-piece consisting of tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, soprano saxophonist Tony Malaby, alto saxophonist Tim Berne, and baritone saxophonist James Carter.
In my never-ending quest to find jazz groups of atypical instrumentation and configuration, it never occurred to me that one possibility might be a quartet where four people play the same kind if instrument. Which may be why — despite recording three dozen albums — I’m only just now hearing about the aptly-named ROVA Saxophone Quartet, courtesy of their new album, The Circumference Of Reason (CD, digital). But if Reason is any indication of what they’ve been up the past 24 years, I have a lot of questing into their back catalog to do.
Throughout his career, saxophonist Ivo Perelman has worked with many different musicians, in many different configurations. But some of his best work has come when he’s teamed up with a piano player, be it Karl Berger (2014’s Reverie, 2016’s The Hitchhiker), Borah Bergman (1996’s Geometry), or the half a dozen he’s made with with Matthew Shipp. Which brings us to his new 9-disc boxed set, Brass And Ivory Tales (CD, digital), on which he collaborates with as many iconic piano players, most of whom are making their first appearance in his discography.
While many jazz bands take their names from their leaders and number of members — like, for example, The Miles Davis Quintet or The Red Garland Trio — there have been such exceptions as Return To Forever. But pianist Matthew Shipp apparently wants to have it both ways. Not only are the albums he’s made with horn player Mat Walerian credited both ways — their debut, Live At Okuden, was credited to both The Uppercut and the Matthew Shipp Mat Walerian Duo, for instance — but for the cover of Cool With That (CD, digital), the new album by the four-piece jazz band East Axis, he and his bandmates put their names on the cover as well. And yet, regardless of who gets the credit or the cover, Cool has the same kind of enticing free jazz adjacent music Shipp and his bandmates often make.
Whether it’s together or with other people, saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp have always displayed an ability to play different forms of acoustic jazz, be it more traditionally structured, free form, or somewhere in between, and often on the same album. Which is what you get on Amalgam (CD, digital), their latest (but certainly not last) collaboration, and newest collection of duets.
With a career that spans more than 30 years and nearly 70 albums as a leader (and about as a many as a sideman), jazz pianist Matthew Shipp has more than established himself as a singular talent.
So it’s interesting how The Unidentifiable (CD, mp3, wav), his fourth album with his current trio, has moments that recall a certain other prolific piano player’s iconic threesome, albeit while still being very Shipp.
With a name like Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn’t Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter, you might expect the new album by the Okuden Quartet — bass clarinetist / soprano clarinet player / alto saxophonist / flautist Mat Walerian, pianist Matthew Shipp, double bassist / shakuchi player William Parker, and drummer / percussionist Hamid Drake — to be pretentious or silly or a bit too much. Thankfully, the music on Every Dog Has Its Day But It Doesn’t Matter Because Fat Cat Is Getting Fatter (CD, digital) — and yes, I am going to write it out in full every time because SEO — is anything but. Instead, it’s an impressive collection of acoustic jazz that’s both moody and manic, and a worthy successor to the previous albums these four have recorded in various configurations.
On their debut album, Threads (MP3, cassette), the Caterpillar Quartet play jazz both free and traditionally with equal skill. But while they’re clearly good at playing jazz in either style, it’s how this album presents the two sides of their musical personality that may (or may not) split fans.