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.
Matthew Shipp Trio: World Construct album review @ All About Jazz
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