Label: Tao Forms, 2020
Personnel - Matthew Shipp: piano.
With unmatched style, pianist and improviser Matthew Shipp masterminds another solo offering where his fabulous command of timbre and texture brings creative ideas to fruition. The titles of the 11 pieces that comprise The Piano Equation indicate connections with mathematics and space phenomena, containing words like equation, void, vortex, hyperspace, signal and cosmic.
The title cut opens the record like a lugubrious lullaby distorted by tense bulky sounds and angular movements on the lower register. At some point, it made me think of the standard “Like Someone in Love”, totally warped by the pianist’s expansive vision.
“Swing Note From Deep Space” has multiple and independent movements - an assortment of contrapuntal swing-based motifs, odd intervals and quizzical sequences of notes - forming spontaneous grids. Letting his imagination go beyond what is expected, Shipp creates a polyrhythmic cadence by the end, able to disconcert as much as to enchant.
Dazzlingly amorphous and moodier, “Vortex Factor” emulates particles in perpetual swirling motion. The outcome is knotty and heavy like Cecil Taylor’s music, but undoubtedly organic. The vitality felt here is matched by the short “Clown Pulse”, a much lighter piece where the pianist employs a more archetypal jazz vocabulary.
If “Radio Signals Equation” is made of danceable passages bursting with rhythm, spiraling micro-phrases interlaced with highly-coordinated strokes, and harmonic tartness, then “Land of the Secrets” is its opposite, striking a balance between the contemporary classical and the avant-garde jazz genres. Poised, enigmatic and poetic in its creative spark, this particular number left me with a sense of wonder.
Immersed in blues-bustling abstraction, “Void Equation” is an intoxicating tale that gains further momentum as it advances. Nothing compared to the closer “Cosmic Juice”, though, which is my favorite piece on the album. Initially served with a tangy, concentrated flavor and allowing both bright and dark tonalities to emerge, the tune is reshaped into something more atmospheric as a consequence of the perplexing chordal work exerted by the pianist.
The freedom of playing solo is beautiful, and that can be deeply felt here. By exploring new places within his vast musical cosmos, Shipp takes us into a journey that emboldens the listeners’ imagination.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
05 - Land of the Secrets ► 09 - Radio Signals Equation ► 11 - Cosmic Juice