Matthew Shipp/Equilibrium & Antipop Consortium Vs. Matthew Shipp

Two from the Blue Series

With Matthew Shipp being ‘in the news’ due to his critical analysis of Andre 3000’s solo piano meanderings, I thought about his work with Thirsty Ear Records, where he became the curator of the label’s outstanding Blue Series, recordings that incorporated jazz musicians as well as those outside the jazz box and threw them all together with an aesthetic that welcomed the mixing of organic music with technology, and didn’t much consider genre as an obstacle. I’m reprinting a couple of reviews I wrote at the time and plan to follow up with a look at how Shipp and the Blue Series helped transform British duo Spring Heel Jack from a drum ‘n’ bass electronic act into…something quite different.

MATTHEW SHIPP

EQUILIBRIUM

Thirsty Ear/Blue Series

Release Date: January 21, 2003

“Ultimately, the goal of this album is to take your mind on a trip.” --Matthew Shipp--

Matthew Shipp calls this release for Thirsty Ear’s Blue Series “a synthesis of what I’ve learned from all my other Blue Series albums.” In many ways, it does seem to represent a bit of a consolidation after the very modern way forward demonstrated on Shipp’s previous album, Nu Bop. Shipp claims that this recording, while it continues to explore the fusion of new beat and DJ elements with the language of modern jazz, also works to develop a “jazz ambient music” as well as exploring the elasticity of the music’s very language. Given that explanation and the evidence from such other Blue Series projects involving Shipp as Spring Heel Jack’s Amassed and DJ Spooky’s Optometry, I would have to say that Shipp has achieved his goals on this recording.

The goal of the Blue Series was to create and explore a signature sound, much the way that ECM records did starting in the 1970s. Like ECM, the music of the Blue Series is sometimes quiet, often much more like chamber music than the music of any mainstream jazz combo or big band. That is not to say that the music of either label does not explore less-than-pastoral sounds or that the music is not challenging; on the contrary, it is sometimes maddeningly so. Both labels are also often saddled with the observation that a great deal of the music performed by their artists is not jazz at all, even when the artists in question are jazz trained and jazz oriented. But the Blue Series has always had, as one of its goals, the creation of a new language for improvising musicians, one that fuses straight ahead and free jazz with a digital aesthetic. The result is neither fish nor fowl, and it is the music that is most purely described as jazztronica.

While Equilibrium isn’t as surprising as Nu Bop, it does seem to find a way to integrate its various components more organically than Shipp has managed previously, as though all the sounds and elements here were bacteria thrown into a petri dish and allowed to create its own ecosystem—to find its own equilibrium, in other words. The addition of vibraphonist Khan Jamal, who is wonderfully inventive, adds a great deal to the overall sound of Equilibrium, giving the ensemble a certain coolness that offsets Shipp's relentless driving and drummer Gerald Cleaver's effective bop-meets-beats drumming on "Vamp to Vibe," the album's second track.

Shipp has other goals in mind besides mixing DJ beats with free jazz: "I am also bringing to bear on this project, the goals I had on New Orbit of developing a jazz ambient music and my original goals on Pastoral Composure of exploring the elasticity of the jazz language when straight ahead jazz elements morph organically into more modern forms." And so we get the meditative title track on which Shipp plays with a variety of themes and freely improvises, sounding like Keith Jarrett on some of his projects. He is accompanied by Jamal, Cleaver, and bassist William Parker, all of whom move in their own patterns and weave around and through Shipp's playing like some kind of free, contrapuntal New Orleans band (conceptually, not soundwise), culminating in Shipp's minor cadence that seems to lead directly into the straight rock rhythms of "Vamp to Vibe." That segues very neatly into the very ambient opening of "Nebula Theory," all cymbals, tom-toms, vibes, and various percussion instruments until Parker's singing bowed bass begins to assert itself. With a third of the album gone at this point, who could say which of these is the straight ahead jazz piece? We feel that we've heard jazz, but also something like classical, rock, and avant-garde. Shipp borrows from all of these forms, and others as well, breaking down their language into elements and then reassembling those elements into something not-quite-familiar yet not without precedent.

Equilibrium does a good job of summing up the various stages that Matthew Shipp's journey through the Blue Series has taken. What's been particularly gratifying is the way that he has been able to follow his artistic muse on his own recordings while collaborating with such varied artists as Spring Heel Jack, DJ Spooky, and Antipop Consortium on the other recordings in the series. As long as Shipp and his cohorts are around, jazz seems to be in solid hands.

**** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** **** ANTIPOP CONSORTIUM/MATTHEW SHIPP

Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp

Thirsty Ear (Blue Series)

Release Date: February 18, 2003

Antipop Consortium is not just any rap group. Rappers Priest, Beans, and M. Sayyid (only Beans and Priest appear on this recording) eschew gansta rap, instead displaying a verbal pyrotechnic style that is a combination of storytelling and poetry. These guys really like words, really like language, and that provides much more for them to work with in collaborating with a group of musicians like Shipp and company. In addition, the range of musical influences displayed are much greater than that of the average popular rap group. Antipop is attempting to bring new elements into hip-hop, casting about for a new language that conveys some of the traditional hip-hop aesthetic, but without the trappings that have become part of a corrupted hip-hop vision. They are interested in technology and new ways to use it in creating music, which certainly puts them into Shipp’s orbit.

The idea that the organic musical sounds being produced by a group of musicians can be fused effectively with electronic and programmed sounds is one that many jazz musicians are exploring, with Shipp at the forefront. The aesthetic that Shipp brings to albums like Vs. and Nu Bop is one that was probably first presented to the jazz world on Miles Davis’s album Tutu. Even though the musical language of technology has changed a lot in the intervening twenty or so years, the idea is the same, and it seems to be gaining acceptance on all sides.

The opening track, “Places I’ve Never Been” starts with Shipp’s powerful block chords which are eventually joined by Antipop’s synth and drum programming along with some tasty drum work by Guillermo E. Brown. It develops into something that sounds a little like a McCoy Tyner Trident-era experiment. The next track, “Staph” shows just how much of a blend of jazz and hip-hop sensibilities this project is, with Shipp playing a post-bop piano solo over hip-hop beats interspersed with rap choruses. It’s a bit like trading solos, with Shipp, followed by drums and bass along with programmed beats, followed by some rapping. The structure is much more of a jazz structure, and it builds momentum over the course of the track just as a series of jazz solo choruses might. My only complaint is that it fades out just as the energy seems ready to explode.

The idea that once can combine jazz and rap by simply throwing some rhymes over a jazz rhythm section is finally dealt a swift coup de gras by this album. If rappers and turntablists want to play with jazz musicians and be taken seriously by other musical genres, they must approach their music with the same craftsman-like approach, developing over time and absorbing new influences. Antipop demonstrates that they are down with that idea on Antipop Vs. Matthew Shipp. Their approach to rapping is based not just on what the MC says but on how he sounds and how the sounds that he creates with words fit into the overall sound of the music that is being created. To some ears, this CD will sound like a clash of cultures, because both the free musings of Shipp, William Parker, Guillermo E. Brown, Khan Jamal, and Daniel Carter and the rapping/programming of Antipop are given equal footing in this aesthetic. The album is presented as Antipop vs. Matthew Shipp because neither aesthetic is giving any ground here. Instead, both are doing what they essentially do, but with sensitivity to the overall sound being created. What emerges is not necessarily either jazz or hip-hop, even though the component parts of both genres are readily discernible.

Probably the most effective track is “Monstro City,” on which Antipop’s poetic images are played off against a musical background that is exotic and vaguely Eastern. It’s really not quite like anything I’ve heard before, despite racking my brain for some comparison that resonates (On the Corner? Agharta?). There are other pieces that work well (“Places I’ve Never Seen,” “Staph,” and others that don’t come off quite as well (“SVP”, “Coda”), but overall the disc is a really interesting, challenging, and fine listen.

I think some folks are disappointed in the lack of a smoother combination between these two musical forms, but that is what ultimately makes this album a success. With neither side ceding territory to the other, it is still apparent that these musical forms can interact in meaningful ways. Whether listeners find it as compelling as Shipp’s work with Spring Heel Jack or his own beat-meets-bop synthesis ultimately depends on the listeners, I think. At first glance (or listen) Vs. may be a bit underwhelming when compared to its siblings in the Thirsty Ear Blue series. Give it some time, though. It might just turn out to be the On the Corner of its time—which, again, is either a recommendation or a condemnation of immense proportions. But it should help you decide which side of the fence you’re on.

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