Matthew Shipp: The Data

Music is communication, and jazz, especially jazz improvisation is the purest form of expression of one's intercourse. Think of this in terms of the contrast between Buddy Bolden, who is believed to be the very first jazz musician and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. Bolden began playing Gospel, blues, and marching band music, but his performance was not limited (critics have debated whether he could read music) to the notes on the page. Nonetheless, Bolden improvised, changed tempos, and made his music an expression of his identity. The Stones, having consumed American blues, created an enterprise by repackaging the music as rock-and-roll. The difference between Bolden and Jagger is the divergence of listeners' expectations. Concertgoers demand The Stones' music sound just like it does on the albums and just the opposite expectations for a jazz performance.

Making it new and original is the beauty and genius of The Data, the solo recording by pianist Matthew Shipp. His discography of nearly 300 recordings includes an apprenticeship with the legends David S. Ware and Roscoe Mitchell, duos with William Parker, Joe Morris, and Ivo Perelman, his quartet, and dozens of piano trio sessions. It is though, with the solo outings, listeners get the raw essence of Matthew Shipp. Beginning in 1995 with Before the World (FMP, 1997) and Symbol Systems (No More Records, 1995) reissued in 2018 on hatOLOGY, Shipp has released a dozen-plus solo recordings. Recorded at Merkin Concert Hall in New York on a Steinway grand piano in June of 2021, he is gifted with ideal conditions. Shipp is given a blank canvas in which to paint upon. The seventeen tracks, each individual points of "The Data" are spontaneous exclamations, even (dare we say, ejaculations from his mind.

Like Bolden, we are presented with the essence of Shipp. The music is raw data and each track is the datum that makes up his concepts. His decades of practice and performance yield a sound that is part advanced math and part passion. He can weave improvised chamber music with the animating principles of Thelonious Monk and Horace Tapscott. Those comparisons do not do justice to the original sounds generated by this 21st-century master improviser. Connoisseurs of Shipp's music will recognize phrases, expressions, and other fragments of datum from his illustrious career, all prologue to this inspiring performance.

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