Matthew Shipp

nice! i will have to check out that box. it's crazy how quickly the Ahmed records become $$$ collector's items ...

Shipp posted something interesting on Facebook the other day about the David S. Ware Quartet. I've reproduced it below.

So in the 16 years i was in the David S. Ware quartet there were 4 drummers. I feel blessed to have played with all 4 and think they all brought something different to the band. First — David feeds off of drummers — he needs them but is very hard on them at the same time. He hardly ever told William Parker or me what to do but was really hard on the drummers in the band — with Marc Edwards it was a little different because they were peers from years back — anyway looking back it seems like it was divine timing when each drummer left and when a new drummer entered. It did bring in different eras of the band. Also each drummer is on a record I consider a must David S. Ware album. First Marc Edwards. He and David went way back, having played with Cecil, and playing with Marc grounded me in the David S. Ware esthetic. For me it was good that my introduction to the Ware universe was with a drummer who had been a part of that reality for a while. The other interesting thing about this is that when i joined the band David, Marc and William had all been in Cecil's band and here i am a 29 year old pianist joining a band of all Cecil alumni while I was in a figurative but loud way my whole vibe was I have nothing to do with Cecil — I am 100 percent my own man. What an ambience to have my vibe in a band of all people who had played with Cecil. LOL. Anyway Marc is the drummer on "Flight of I", which I think is a foundational album in the Ware universe. Also as far as my role on the album there is a complete piano universe generated on that album and yes it has nothing to do with Cecil Taylor. Marc's playing is brilliant on this album. Next enter Whit Dickey. Ware had heard Whit on my albums "Circular Temple" and "Prism". Whit comes from a whole different mindset in the avant garde than does Marc. Whit had been in my trio and bringing Whit in the Ware quartet brought aspects of my own trio concept to bear within the other universe of Ware. The album with Whit that really did it was "Cryptology". Guess you could say Whit was a part of a whole new wave of energy in the scene that had brought me and Rob Brown to town. Next enter Susie Ibarra. Of course she represented a whole new energy field and for many reasons. William brought her to Ware's attention. She had some straight ahead chops (even though I have no idea if she had a background doing straight ahead gigs) we never got into it deep enough for me to tell if she really had that language or if she was a really good drummer who could do a decent straight ahead thing if called for in this context. Anyway the album she is on that is must Ware is "Godspelized". It is a tremendous album and Susie is tremendous on the album. Next enter Guillermo E Brown. A whole new energy field. If i remember correctly Cooper-Moore brought Guillermo to David's attention. Guillermo was a drummer who was interested in many aspects of the music — including electronica — and was a whole new generation. The album with Guillermo that I consider must Ware is our remake of Sonny Rollins' "Freedom suite". Guillermo is stunning on this. So I got something different from all 4 drummers. Looking back it all worked out great.

Bobby FUCKING Few!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXkYvD1mtCY

I need to listen to more Shipp. I've heard maybe 4-5 records under his own name, then a bunch with him playing as a sideman. A body of work that demands more of my time and attention.

thanks for the above quote, unperson - very interesting stuff. thank you. Ware is someone else, you know, I've heard a handful of his recordings and consider myself a fan but am not overly familiar w his career.

That's a great quote. There's a documentary on Youtube of the Brown era Ware band rehearsing that's well worth a watch. Shipp is already a master, but his excitement at being around Ware and Parker is very engaging.

Totally agree re Pat Thomas and the Black Mystery School. I don't know if anyone's heard his Ellington solo piano recordings (one from the Cafe Oto, the other from a gig in Newcastle - the former is longer and more out, but they're both magical) but it would be interesting to revisit them alongside Shipp's Ellington disc on Rogue Art.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1iGOSLZ-ag

I don't know why, but a lot of Pat Thomas's work just doesn't connect with me. I often feel like the reviews I read are special pleading on the part of UK critics, like they're saying, "See? We have one of those guys, too."

I'm going to need to revisit Flight of I cuz when I think of the Edwards vers of that band I always pull out the two Great Bliss volumes, def agreed on his Dickey & Ibarra choices though.

My Ibarra pick would be Wisdom Of Uncertainty--AFAIR she absolutely smoked on that one

I mean we are quibbling at this point but for me Gospelized gets a slight edge, but yeah Wisdom of Uncertainty is awesome, I frankly love all the records she did with them

Also xxxpost that Lacy record with Few & Charles is great

No special pleading on my part. Pat Thomas is a world class pianist and recognised as such by Tyshawn Sorey, Luke Stewart, Damon Smith, William Parker, Moor Mother and many others. He has the rhythmic clusters thing going on but he’s also incredibly dexterous and lyrical. Perhaps you have to catch him live to really get it - he’s yet to play the US which is a travesty when you consider the mediocre Britjazz being pushed by certain US labels atm - but he’s astonishing solo and always elevates group situations. Case in point, him taking Irreversible Entanglements to another level at Le Guess Who a few years back. Or his various sets at the London Brotzmann festival last month - incredible duos with Han Bennink and Sven Ake Johanssen. Pat isn’t just a very fine musician, he’s got that special sauce! Brilliant at electronics too - his New Jazz Jungle is incredible, Webern and Parliament chopped up over Amen breaks. His funky Braxton album on Discus is a blast - language music via P-funk, Prime Time and dub.

In other words, Pat isn’t “one of those guys”. No one else can do what he does. Straddles free jazz, free improvisation and new music, and the Sufi and Caribbean influences are crucial.

That's all fair. I haven't listened to his music in enough depth to claim to understand it — I reviewed five of his albums together for The Wire last summer, and each one was very different from the others. So yeah, he operates on a much wider canvas than Shipp or most others, but for some reason I often find myself receiving his music uncharitably.