Matthew Shipp’s music cycles like the seasons, and death and rebirth are part of the program. Piano Song is his final album for Thirsty Ear, a label he co-curates, and the second with the current lineup of Shipp on piano, Michael Bisio on bass and Newman Taylor Baker on drums. Baker’s devotion to fundamental rhythms transforms the group from the bottom up, inducing Shipp’s stark themes to swing more traditionally than they have in the past and shining light into the moss-on-bark closeness of Bisio and Shipp’s musical connection. But he’s also right there when the trio breaks things down, so that the transition between crashing chords and a throttled-back groove on “Flying Carpet” not only makes sense, it feels as inevitable and natural as the first green shoots poking out of the melting snow. If you want to hear Shipp getting everything just right, go first to his 2011 release The Art Of The Improviser. But if you want to hear him reconciling the roots of his music with a future he hasn’t found yet, this is the next fearless step into the future.
—Bill Meyer
