Label: Tao Forms Records, 2021
Personnel - Whit Dickey: drums; William Parker: bass; Matthew Shipp: piano.
In a tribute to New York City’s Lower East Side and 30 years of musical collaboration and friendship, the trio co-led by drummer Whit Dickey, bassist William Parker and pianist Matthew Shipp puts out Village Mothership, a collection of six improvised pieces that explores many shapes and forms, both abstract and tangible.
The album begins with “A Thing & Nothing”, whose initial reflective mood soon develops and expands. The piano goes from fluidly atmospheric to sparse (with incisive low notes) to pressurized mechanical motions. The bass lines feel like delicate, abstract brushstrokes that trail a path on a colored canvas but are not averse to casual vigorous plucks. The drum playing can shift from understated polishment to a bright swinging pulse. These indefatigable artists work on these fluxes and dynamics with a rapport enhanced by their broad history in the avant-garde and free jazz movements.
“Whirling in the Void” is cosmic jazz that starts almost with no gravity. We are gradually pushed into the earth through a mix of jazz radiance, contemporary classical mesmerism, folksy melodies and a concluding avant-rock pulsation.
“Nothingness” arrives with a sheer melodicism that condone with silences and occasional brisk attacks. It gets playful at times, then serious again, and then reflective before reversing this order. The trio is fond of experimentation in a freewheeling fashion but sometimes we are mislead to think the opposite, such is the cohesiveness and ease they play with each other’s ideas and sounds.
One of my favorite pieces is the title cut, “Village Mothership”, which, introduced by Dickey, soon acquires a bare bass pavement that helps to sustain exhilarating piano rides and chordal explosions. Shortly after Parker's bass walks begin on top of an insistent hi-hat route, it all becomes lushly jazzy and swinging with the return of Shipp. The piece fades with active bass and quiet drums.
The cinematic tension of “Down Void Way” toggles between eerie and dramatic, with Parker employing his bowing attributes, giving the piece its best possible mood.
Shipp, Parker and Dickey are constantly searching. They possess a range of resources in their playing that many musicians would like to have. This also applies to their unblemished teamwork.
B+
Favorite Tracks:
01 - A Thing & Nothing ► 04 - Village Mothership ► 05 - Down Void Way