Matthew Shipp's New Orbit
Open the tray card to Matthew Shipp's second recording in Thirsty Ear's Blue Series and you see the simply scrawled words "Cosmic Consciousness," written in the pianist's handwriting. Such simplicity brings to mind how seldom it is to have so grand a plan in place for music. Where Shipp'sPastoral Composuretook an off-kilter look at hard bop (and a gorgeous look at "Frère Jacques") with trumpeterRoy Campbellas the only horn in the quartet,New Orbitcalls onWadada Leo Smith's trumpet as the sole horn. The music delves deeply into the consciousness of improvisation, building on alternating, near-meditative piano figures and then whispering and bursting with Smith's horn. The pacing is at ease, with Shipp's intermittent solo pieces wandering into and through themselves so that they take on a slight roiling appeal, only to be joined by bassistWilliam Parker, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and Smith's loose, fat-toned trumpet--which seems connected via some cosmic dimension to Shipp's trance-triggering keyboard work. What's "cosmic" here? Perhaps it's just the idea that this foursome can come together and weave avant-garde explorations into something that, like theArt Ensemble of Chicago, rolls all jazz into a series of tunes that never veer from inspired, even visionary, brilliance.--Andrew Bartlett