bandcamp blurb: This is Knuffke’s debut as a leader for TAO Forms, following on his being elemental part of James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet’s Jesup Wagon, one of the most acclaimed jazz releases of 2021. That album was eventually voted #1 Album of the Year in the JazzTimes Critics Poll & the international Jazz Critics Poll established by Francis Davis. Accolades for the cornetist’s own recent work as leader include NPR’s Jazz Album of the Year laurel for 2017’s Cherryco, his homage to Don Cherry – a prime influence. DownBeat praised the way that album showcased Knuffke’s “nonchalant versatility and ebullient melodic gifts,” while esteemed critic Francis Davis called it “nothing short of spectacular.”
On his guiding artistic impulse, Kirk Knuffke says: “I’m concerned with making beautiful music. Beauty is always first, though not in a precious way. It can be in a rough way, too.” A prolific, lauded record-maker, Gravity Without Airs fulfills his poetic aims as well as any recording he has made. This work finds Knuffke in the rare, even unique, trio format of cornet, piano and double-bass. His partners are two ever-estimable pillars of creative music, and the work they’ve created together here brims with melody and mystery.
Regarding the album title, Knuffke explains: “I was reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius while preparing for this recording. He used the phrase ‘gravity without airs’, and it stuck with me. That’s what it’s all about! Being heavy but not putting on airs – that’s what my favorite musicians do. In these days of social media and constant hype and self-promotion, this is what we should really aspire to: do the work and study, get into your thing and avoid showing it off half-cooked. Matthew and Michael have that sort of grace. I was really touched because once we started playing, they both got excited and wanted to play more and more – that’s how we ended up with a double album,” Knuffke recalls. "I hope people can listen to it as a whole, so they can hear all the subtleties as well as the shape and flow of the album. I have to say: I’m especially proud of this one.”
Give it a squint and the title of the Matthew Shipp Trio’s latest recording reveals a double meaning. World Construct denotes a concept, an idea of how things should be that informs how the trio’s members operate. It is also a command, an ungrammatical but immediate order to make a world. The two meanings are linked by the notion that a world can be made, which is exactly what drummer Newman Taylor Baker and bassist Michael Bisio do with the piano player whose name adorns the record’s cover.
The trio has operated with this line-up since 2015, and even if it’s Shipp’s world, each of the other players is an essential component of it. Take anyone out of the mix, and the idea of what the Matthew Shipp Trio is changes. Bisio brings an expanded idea of counterpoint, one that not only includes playing a part that locks into and completes another player’s part, but also one that operates in a quasi-lunar relation to the home planet. Which is to say that even when he sounds like he’s playing around what everyone else is playing, his gravity changes the action on the surface, just like the moon influences the tides. And Baker is as much a creator of shake and structure as he is a vector of motion; the sounds issuing from his kit hang about the bass-piano conversation like a mobile being moved by a purposeful and architecturally minded breeze.
It must be admitted that the world in which this trio operates is one in which Matthew Shipp has already made a whole lot of records. He used to say he was going to quit making more, but at this point he isn’t even trying to stop; if anything, he’s grown more productive. If he said tomorrow that he was stopping, who could possibly believe him? So, for those who recognize the merits of those involved, but aren’t up for grabbing every album, why single out World Construct for attention? It presents an ensemble whose dynamics have matured, but not settled into routine. The pianist’s intimations of gravity and lyricism, the bassist’s capacity to elaborate upon his partners’ implications, and the drummer’s fantastic economy of gesture are all in peak form. Trust me, there are far worse worlds in which to spend an hour.
The prolific saxophonist Ivo Perelman rarely collaborates with vocalists, but these two sets with Fay Victor and the Czech actress turned violinist and songstress Iva Bittová are full of freeform theatrics, shared discoveries and curious folk motifs.
Equally adept with fingers and bow, double bassist Michael Bisio has a knack for the complementary gesture that makes another musician sound good. This may explain his enduring relationships with multi-instrumentalists Joe McPhee and Charles Gayle, drummer Tani Tabbal, and, most notably, pianist Matthew Shipp. But Bisio has also been a bandleader and composer since the early 1980s. For the first three decades of his career, he was based in Seattle, but even then, he often came to New York to perform and record. Beginning in the 1990s, Bisio established an enduring relationship with Joe McPhee, and in 2007 he moved to New York. Within a couple years, he had joined Shipp’s trio. But it’s as a leader that he most recently was covered by Dusted. In our 2022 Midyear roundup, Bryon Hayes said of MBefore, a quartet recording that features Karl Berger, Mat Maneri, and Whit Dickey, “the quartet is so in sync that there’s no discernable rhythm section. Equally matched, the players create the perfect storm of sound.”
Matthew Shipp Trio — World Construct (ESP-Disk)
OK, let’s get this out there upfront, I am on this recording and it’s a privilege. My relationship with this ensemble, music and artists is deep, very deep. I am in my third decade of making music with Matthew. His vision, dedication and follow through are beyond beyond. Newman Taylor Baker brings it at the very highest level, always. I hear his humanity in every note. There have been many peaks, World Construct is Mount Everest.
Charles Mingus — Mingus The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott’s (Resonance Records)
Like most other bassists, hopefully most musicians involved in this music, Charles Mingus is a primary influence. His ability to infiltrate and lift my soul is a boundless joy. This document is no exception. His direction is simultaneously in the tradition and moves the tradition forward. His writing and playing are always phenomenal. On this set his abilities as leader, musical director, and conductor (especially on the two longest tracks) are astonishing! Much of this material we’ve heard before, but this ensemble brings such energy, power and beauty to it that it’s new again… and again. Although it is a band of giants, I am especially blown away by John Foster’s connection to the bassist’s every color, whim and direction.
Gene Ammons — The Greatest Hits, Vol.1 The Sixties (Original Jazz Classics)
What can I say, this one is going to school for me… with a big smile on my face and I can’t wait for tomorrow! This curated collection is absolutely superb, each performance raises the bar. Just listen to Misters Ammons and Stitt (on alto) connect on My Foolish Heart — stunning. The ballads are especially poignant but everywhere it “floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.”
John Coltrane — A Love Supreme (Impulse)
The classic and in a class by itself. My son was born to A Love Supreme. I brought a boom box and cassette into the delivery room. Those beautiful sounds welcomed him into this world. Perfect.
“I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music.” John Coltrane
Art Farmer Quintet — The Time and The Place /The Lost Concert (Mosaic Records)
This is one of the many recordings given to me by Mike Panico, a dear friend, producer, and label owner (Relative Pitch Records), now departed. Before hearing it I honestly didn’t know what to expect. It is a live recording from MoMA’s Jazz in the Garden series, dated 1966. I was blown away by what I heard. Jimmy Heath blowing Trane, absolutely owning it, Art Farmer playing free on “Blue Bossa!”Don’t get me wrong. The music stands on its own and is remarkable, due in no small part to an ultra-remarkable rhythm section. It does however always leave me wondering where the music sans the neo wars of the ’80s might be today.
Billy Bang / William Parker — Medicine Buddha (NoBusiness Records)
A live recoding from The Rubin Museum of Art, 2009, given to me by another wonderful, beautiful friend. June 13, 2019, I played The Vision Festival. June 14, 2019, I had open heart surgery. It was not a surprise. I planned it that way. I did not want to miss this spectacular celebration. In between sets I visited with my friend, Maria, we had a wonderful conversation. She wished me well and was aware of the stresses and strains of recovery. A couple of weeks later this CD showed up in the mail with a note from Maria letting me know what good medicine this music was… It is.
Bob Nell — Soft & Bronze (Plechmo)
I am on this one as well but please don’t let that stop you from hearing it. To call Bob my friend is an understatement of gigantic proportions. The same is true of the term genius as applied to Bob. Beyond being my friend, Bob taught me almost everything I know about harmony simply by playing music with me day-in and day-out, all day, every day. By itself, that’s not a good enough reason for you to listen. But Bob’s music, artistry and spirit certainly are. You need to hear him.
Alice Coltrane — Journey In Satchidananda (Impulse)
This music is stunning, spiritual and amazing in the most joyful sense. Cecil McBee’s contribution to this music is monumental — the way he can maintain and manipulate an ostinato is beautiful. His solos are out of this world!
Charlie Haden / Hampton Hawes — As Long As There’s Music (Verve)
This one seems hard to come by nowadays. Hampton Hawes is one of my favorite musicians. His artistry is amazing! This recording documents the last time he and Charlie Haden played music together. (Side note: if you haven’t read Raise Up Off Me, do yourself a favor). Although I am not the biggest fan of the sound of the piano on this recording, the music is stellar — magical really.
To my ears Charlie Haden was born to play in the classic Ornette Coleman Quartet. Although there were other great bassists associated with OC (Scott LaFaro, David Izenzon) he defined the sound, function, spirit and language of the bass for that music. Here he redefines all those qualities in the piano/bass duo format. A very special recording.
Albert Ayler — Revelations (Elemental Music)
Albert Ayler - Revelations by Albert Ayler
There are few artists who had a bigger impact spreading the word. I can vividly remember brother Paul (a great musician, local Hendrix clone) bringing home New Grass (Impulse)… Wow! It’s about the sound! Spiritual Unity (ESP) remains monumental! (I seem to need a lot of exclamation points writing about Albert Ayler.) Yet this collection of live concerts certainly deserves its place in the pantheon of those beautiful documents. Power, energy and love are always evident. There are four great CDs in this set, all remarkable. To me disc three is the giant among giants.
Michael Bisio / Matthew Shipp — Flow of Everything (Fundacja Sluchaj)
Photo by Marek Lazarski
Flow Of Everything by Michael Bisio & Matthew Shipp
There are no strangers on this album. Bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp have worked together for over a decade and shared space nearly twenty records, including two previous duos. And if you’re listening, you’ve probably not a stranger either; you might not be on speaking terms with either musician, but you know what they do. Given the known knowns, what do you need to know about Flow of Everything?
It almost goes without saying that the two men manifest an audible rapport, but that concord is still worth celebrating. From the first minute of the first track, when Shipp digs into a static rumble while Bisio runs fleet finger-sprints, this album attests anew to their ability to simultaneously pursue their own ends and complement each other’s. And you don’t have to wait much longer — about two minutes into “Flow,” to be exact — to hear them develop a dizzyingly complex lattice from independent lines. Likewise, you might be correspondingly unsurprised to hear that they can plumb depths of dark romanticism, but that doesn’t make the path that Bisio’s keening arco takes through Shipp’s multi-linear meditation on “Bow For Everyone” any less affecting.
If you’ve been listening a while, you’ll smile with recognition at the swinging stride that launches “Of Everything.” You might still get a jolt of surprise at the precise moment that Shipp bolts for an elaborate foray, leaving it to Bisio to keep that saunter going, but you won’t be surprised at the airborne elegance of the maneuver. And the lyrical reverie of “Go Flow” will remind you, not inform you, of the pianist’s capacity for delicacy, and the calligraphic enhancement of the elaborations that the bassist draws across the Shipp’s phrases.
So, Flow Of Everything doesn’t really tell you things you don’t know. Like the new flowering of a perennial bloom, or the confirming truths of a sermon addressing concerns you already ponder, it tells you again what you need to hear. Would you pass up a chance to catch up with an old friend just because you have a good idea how the evening’s going to go? Not when you consider the good it’ll do your heart to hear what you already know deepened, enriched and elaborated upon in ways that will make you smile. If those are acceptable terms, then go ahead and give yourself up to the flow.
