Matthew Shipp Trio, Root of Things

If you want to know what's going on, what's really critical in the piano trio zone for the very modern, so-called free jazz, avant garde jazz, whatever name you want to give it, seek no further. Or at least stop for a bit and get your ears into the new one by the Matthew Shipp Trio, Root of Things (Relative Pitch 1022).

What makes me say all that? Matthew Shipp occupies a place at the top of the piano artists of the past decade and he sounds better than ever right now. His compositions and his way of soloing are not an attempt to blow you away with sixteenth-note runs, though he has plenty of technique and he can let loose with torrents. Maestro Shipp focuses on the music, on saying in his very own way what the music can only say. This is pianism of elegance, eloquence and soul. It has tradition but it's channeled to the Shipp vision. Neither static nor automatic-pilot rocketing helter-skelter out to the stratosphere, it is music that builds inside itself and can rocket out and does, but as a product of the ground-laying and years of playing and thinking about it that Matt exemplifies. And the set on this album shows that in a beautiful way. This is a laying down, a laying back and a laying forward, all in the course of the set.

Such well-conceived and well-executed musical presence would not completely succeed without an equally inspired trio unit that understands and pulls together with ultra-sensitive, unity-in-difference interplay. This is a trio whose time is now, right now. They've never sounded better. Listen to how contrabassist Michael Bisio interacts with it all. He adds so much in a monsterously good way. The deeply flushed tone, the unexpected or reconfirming note choices, the way he can walk or be that "second horn", the impeccable touch and in-the-moment thrust, all that is here in a fantastic way.

Then Whit Dickey, who has been in the trio for a long time. The drummer's role in today's piano trio is ever more important and Whit fills the role with more than just what is needed. He cauterizes the momentum, colors the sound brilliantly and implies a swing that for the trio is lurking underneath it all and rises to the top continually if you listen closely. Whit Dickey has an awful lot to do with how it all lays out from piece-to-piece.

All this talk of three separate beings is important because it dissects the whole and helps you understand what to expect. The listening experience puts it all together of course and there has never been a more together trio--though of course there have been those that equal it in different ways.

On every level this is what "jazz" is about today. Many years of preparation from all three separately and in togetherness makes such a high level of inspiration possible. Don't take it for granted--this is a set that comes out of the highest art by three that have worked themselves hard to get into the space they now occupy with confidence and ultimate artistry.

The CD comes out next month, March 18th, to be exact. Do not miss this one if you want to know what's going on today. The Matt Shipp Trio are an indispensable part of that what. They are at their very best right now, so you'll want to be there for this!

Kasper Tom 5, Ost Bingo Skruer

Kasper Tom? That's Kasper Tom Christiansen, talented Danish drummer and composer. The Kasper Tom 5 and their Ost Bingo Skruer (Barefoot Records) is the first album to enjoy major distribution. It is a good one. It is a formidable lineup with Rudi Mahall, bass clarinet, Tomasz Dabrowski, trumpet, Petter Hängsel, trombone, Jens Mikkel Madsen, bass, and of course Kasper Tom.

You may know Rudi Mahall via his fine work with pianist Aki Takahashi. The others you may not know so well. They put together, thanks in part to Tom's arrangements/compositions, a tightly knit horn section with bass and drums of a well-healed but hard-edged sort.

Everyone can solo with imagination and does. But the collective interplay between the horns and the horns versus the rhythm has pronounced excitement going for it. If you remember some of the massed horn improvs in Ornette Coleman's landmark Free Jazz album, this may sometimes remind you of that--partially because Rudi's bass clarinet with the brass has that sound, but of course these are the notes of the present, so it's something for the now we are in.

The compositions/arrangements catapult this one to a high ranking in my mind. They are the extra push that make repeated listens to the album pay off.

The Kasper Tom 5 are up there as one of my favorite new Euro-avant outfits these days. This album is one place where you will hear why.

Deepti Navaratna, The Carnatic Voice Goes Contemporary: Ka

Deepti Navaratna is a very good Carnatic (South) Indian vocalist, an All-India Radio artist since 2000. She does a nice job combining East and West as well as Carnatic and Hindustani on her new album Ka (self released).

Her voice is magical, very nuanced in the classical tradition, and quite memorable. On this album she begins in a traditional vein with voice, tamboura and violin, then goes on to combine traditional with contemporary--arrangements of substance with a touch of polyphony, ensemble performances that sound like they may have been derived from Vedic chant, plus other imaginative touches for some groundbreaking, form creating music.

After the thirty-minute EP ends you will want more, if you are like me. This is most fascinating music by a true artist and stylistic innovator.

Howard Riley, Live with Repertoire

It's great to hear a player like Howard Riley, pianist-artist of real stature, in the course of doing these reviews. Here's somebody I knew little of before his CD (No Business NBCD 58) Live with Repertoire. I am very glad to hear him in depth, inspired as he was on this release. It was recorded live before an audience. As Howard explains, his gigs he approaches in one of three ways, with spontaneous freedom, with that and some compositional guideposts, or "with repertoire," that is, centered around songs and compositions.

The performance at hand is almost entirely of the latter sort. This is a date where Howard digs into the music by and/or associated with the evergreen Thelonious Monk. So we get "Well You Needn't" but also "Darn that Dream" and a bunch of others, as well as Howard getting in some improvisatory and compositional moments of his own where he comments on it all.

What's so nice to hear is the way Riley channels the Monk sensibility, the wonderful percussiveness, the adventures in harmony, the forward moving lines, all that went into Monk's playing. Howard, most importantly, makes something of it that is Howard Riley. It's more, then, than channeling. It's a remaking.

And it gives you an idea of how much Howard Riley appreciates, loves and has grown through the Monk way, but also how much Howard does it all by being Howard. There is originality in there. It's very much a beautiful experience digging on this album.

Monk! Howard Riley! Put yourself inside the piano and enjoy.

Chucho Valdes, Border-Free

Chucho Valdes and his Afro-Cuban Messengers blaze through one hell of a Latin Jazz set on their album Border-Free (Jazz Village). He won a Grammy last time out and this one does not flag. The Cuban piano giant comes through with some originals and in tandem with his rhythm section they burn with brilliance.

Listening, you hear the jazz roots and feel the Cuban rhythm down to your toes. His website mentions that he has been influenced by Moroccan Gnawa music and, yes, that comes through in some of the heated riffing. Flamenco also has influenced him, the site says, and, yes, there is a certain flair in phrasing that has a similar thrust. As for the rest this is Afro-Cuban jazz as a tour de force. Branford Marsalis guests on three cuts with excellent outcome.

Beyond that Chucho shows you what he is made of here. And that is thrilling!

Red Trio, Rebento

For avant modern jazz piano trio music at its free best, you can't go wrong with RED Trio. And their LP on No Business (NBLP 67) is as good a place as any to start. They give us three supercharged cuts.

Hernani Faustino's double bass cavorts, rumbles and brings in a storm from the lower depths throughout. I love his pizzicato and his arco equally and he sets up the churning excitement the band generates.

Gabriel Ferrandini has the drum dynamics covered--senses the sound colors and thrust needed at any given point and gives you the complementing sounds with subtle excitement.

Rodrigo Pinheiro plies an original and moving blend of avant garde piano that includes some bracing inside-the-piano colors and an ever-flowing note cascade that does not contain a single cliche. He and the others sense the overall mood and dynamic and follow each other collectively with near telepathic powers.

This is simply one of the best out trio dates I've heard in a long while. Don't hesitate--only 400 have been pressed. The RED Trio comes through!

John Tchicai, Tribal Ghost

The fact that the world lost saxophonist John Tchicai well over a year ago (October 2012) hadn't quite hit me until I heard the new posthumously released album Tribal Ghost (New Business LP65). It's not that I did not miss him as much as I hadn't internalized the loss.

Now that I've been living with this newly issued 2007 recording I feel it more keenly. He was to me an epitomization of the creative artists, the avant jazzman who could and did explore all kinds of territory, from the early pioneering new thing music of Shepp's NY Contemporary Five and the NY Art Quartet, to Ascension, to the post-thing Afro-exuberance of Pierre Dorge and New Jungle Orchestra, to his own varied later groups. He was not just an excellent alto-tenorist; he was a force in music.

Tribal Ghost reemphasizes that to me. It is also an excellent album. John plays tenor and a bit of bass clarinet (and chimes in with one composition), Garrison Fewell plays electric guitar and percussion (and contributes three of four compositions), Charlie Kohlhase is on alto, tenor and baritone, Cecil McBee is the bassist and Billy Hart is on drums. Now that is a group! The compositions center it all and give structure--and so this is not precisely a "free" date as it is an avant date.

The compositions and the mix of smart playing put this one in excellent territory. There is dramatic interplay, collectively, good individual performances, and a pacing and momentum that keep your ears open and attentive.

This is not the last word on John Tchicai or anybody else here. The fact that it isn't is in part why John was important. He encompassed so much. And so does everyone else on this date.

Definitely get this one if you can. It is a delight.