Steven Schick - Mathematics of Resonant Bodies - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Vienna Piano Trio - Piano Trios Opus 21 [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/07/1996

Symbol Systems occupies a special place in Matthew Shipp's discography. Originally issued in 1995 on the No More Records tag, it was at the time his sixth as a leader or co-leader, but significantly his first solo album, and as such provided us with the purest view to date of his multifaceted, indivisible improvisational/compositional concepts. Matthew Shipp was born in 1960 in Delaware. He began piano at 5 years old, and fell in love when jazz when he was 12. After moving to New York in 1984 he quickly became one of the leading lights in the New York Jazz Scene. Mr. Shipp has reached the holy grail of jazz in that he possesses a unique style on his instrument that is all his own- and he's one of the few in jazz that can say so.

?Precipitations features two composer/performers, Steven Ricks and Ron Coulter, who have cultivated sophisticated hybrid instruments that merge their respective instrumental practices (trombone and percussion) with various electronic instruments and manipulations. The spontaneous and unpredictable results are a function of but not limited by their chosen constraints, decidedly shaped by both of their omnivorous appetites for many styles of through composed and improvised music.