An intimate and warmly recorded studio session between long-time collaborators and masterful improvisers — pianist Matthew Shipp and drummer Whit Dickey — the album opens with a beautifully placid dialog, evolving into a well-balanced collection of expressive, energetic, and startlingly exciting exchanges, from "Moon Garden" to the intensely forceful title track.
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Sample The Album:
Matthew Shipp-piano
Whit Dickey-drums
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Label: Burning Ambulance Music
Catalog ID: BAM76
Squidco Product Code: 30431
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Park West Studios, in Brooklyn, New York, on March 12th, 2019, by Jim Clouse.
Matthew Shipp has managed his way through the 2020-2021 pandemic nicely, thanks in part to a substantial cache of excellent material. Free-jazz drummer Whit Dickey has been working with Shipp for decades, beginning with David S. Ware's quartet. Since 2012 Shipp and Dickey have worked frequently with Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman. Dickey has been part of Shipp's trio and, in 2020, the pair teamed for a duo/trio release, Morph (ESP Disk). The duo debut was half of a double-disk set that featured Nate Wooley in the trio formation. Reels is the exploratory successor to that album.
The album opens with "Lattice," a mesmerizing composition with the feel of Satie's "furniture music," meeting idiosyncratic rhythm. Taken with the closing piece, "Icing," the two serve as bookends for some agitated improvisations. The daggers come out with "Cosmic Train" and "Hold Tight," angular studies which see Shipp and Dickey putting fine points on their synergistic passages. Moods vary, as evidenced by the obsidian "Moon Garden" and "Fire Dance," where Shipp and Dickey send notes flying like musical shrapnel. Throughout "Vector," "Silent Ice," and the title track, Shipp and Dickey alternate between intricate and dense; free improvisation and classical influences.
Shipp and Dickey embody the gray area where free jazz, avant-garde, and lyricism meet. These ten intriguing pieces push the scope of resonance and language for a piano-drum formation that occupies that undefinable space. The duo invites the listener to a momentary, alternate universe with the backdrop of powerful performances, fractured rhythms, melodies, and gripping concepts."- Karl Ackermann, allaboutjazz.com
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Matthew Shipp "Matthew Shipp was born December 7, 1960 in Wilmington, Delaware. He started piano at 5 years old with the regular piano lessons most kids have experienced. He fell in love with jazz at 12 years old. After moving to New York in 1984 he quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York jazz scene. He was a sideman in the David S. Ware quartet and also for Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory before making the decision to concentrate on his own music. Mr Shipp has reached the holy grail of jazz in that he possesses a unique style on his instrument that is all of his own- and he's one of the few in jazz that can say so. Mr. Shipp has recorded a lot of albums with many labels but his 2 most enduring relationships have been with two labels. In the 1990s he recorded a number of chamber jazz cds with Hatology, a group of cds that charted a new course for jazz that, to this day, the jazz world has not realized. In the 2000s Mr Shipp has been curator and director of the label Thirsty Ear's "Blue Series" and has also recorded for them. In this collection of recordings he has generated a whole body of work that is visionary, far reaching and many faceted." ^ Hide Bio for Matthew Shipp • Show Bio for Whit Dickey "Whit Dickey (born May 28, 1954, New York City) is a free jazz drummer. He has recorded albums as a bandleader, with David S. Ware, Matthew Shipp and others. Free jazz drummer Whit Dickey first stepped into the spotlight as a leader with the release of his Transonic album from Aum Fidelity in 1998. Two years later, Wobbly Rail issued his Big Top release. Previously, he was best known for his solid work with Matthew Shipp and David S. Ware, with whom Dickey split in 1996. Early the following year, the drummer began composing the works that would be included on Transonic. Dickey penned all but two songs, "Kinesis" and "Second Skin," on the collection, and he even had a hand in those with the help of his fellow musicians on the album. The original compositions give a nod to the influence of "Criss Cross" and "Off Minor" from the legendary Thelonious Monk. Dickey recorded the album with the aid of Rob Brown on flute and alto saxophone, and Chris Lightcap on bass. In 2001, Dickey recorded half a dozen of his compositions with Mat Maneri, Shipp, and Brown under the name Nommonsemble, and put out Life Cycle through Aum Fidelity. Whit Dickey made a name for himself as the former drummer of David S. Ware's famous quartet. Since then Dickey's musical contributions have gone well beyond his work as Ware's drummer. He is capable of tremendous power and yet has the ability for subtle gesture. Dickey is a composer as well as a drummer and his music has reached new heights in his recent small group work, with a coterie of great musicians including alto saxophonist Rob Brown. He has been performing with Matthew Shipp since 1991 and continues to play and record with Roy Campbell Jr., Mat Maneri, Chris Lightcap and many others. Since 2007 Dickey has been focussing on developing an integrative improvisational style while working with Shipp's Trio. Daniel Carter and Dickey recorded an album pianist Eri Yamamoto in 2008. The album Art of the Improvisor from The Matthew Shipp Trio received much critical acclaim and was listed as one of the year's best of 2011. Dickey has started a cooperative unit with Sabir Mateen & Michael Bisio, which is another example of post- Coltrane integral unity, and is call Blood Trio. Shipp, Bisio and Dickey have also been working with Ivo Perelman in various configurations." ^ Hide Bio for Whit Dickey
11/5/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
11/5/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Lattice 5:41
2. Cosmic Train 6:09
3. Hold Tight 8:27
4. Moon Garden 5:09
5. Fire Dance 2:42
6. Vector 6:20
7. Magma 5:06
8. Silent Ice 4:52
9. Reels 7:08
10. Icing 3:25
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
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