The New Revolution Series Presentation
“Shipp’s…classic piano trio…ranks among the pre-eminent units in modern jazz.”—New York City Jazz Record
Since the 1980s, pianist Matthew Shipp has been the Platonic ideal of an original improviser. With his unique and electrifying style, Shipp is now recognized as a living legend of the avant-garde.
A New York downtown-scene fixture, Shipp has combined forces over the years with the likes of AACM cofounder Roscoe Mitchell, D.C.-born punk legend Henry Rollins, and iconic bassist William Parker. But his most consistent vehicle has been his trio.
About Matthew Shipp
Matthew Shipp arrived on the New York scene in the 1980s, playing alongside William Parker and David S. Ware (two veterans of iconic pianist Cecil Taylor’s bands) and eventually joining Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory band. In Shipp’s unbounded piano style, the influence of Cecil Taylor has always felt undeniable – but he has also said that it could more accurately be heard as “an abstraction of Bud Powell, Monk, Tristano and McCoy Tyner.” While often associated with free jazz, Shipp is far too capacious to be tied to any one school or aesthetic. He has a famously percussive attack, but is also known for his moments of startling, rhapsodic lyricism and his love of open space – as his 2023 solo album, The Intrinsic Nature of Shipp, attests.Michael Bisio has been Shipp’s regular bassist for almost 15 years, and he has repeatedly proved to be an ideal partner due to his deep sensitivity and his intuitive affinity for the leader’s oblique methodology. In Newman Taylor Baker, Shipp says, he has found a drummer who offers him “absolute freedom.” The trio’s 2024 release, New Concepts in Piano Trio Jazz, was described by Burning Ambulance as delivering “some of the most audacious free swing you’ll ever hear.”
