Equilibrium (Thirsty Ear Recordings)
Matthew Shipp
Released January 21, 2003
The Guardian Highest Rated Jazz Albums of All Time
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/browse/MPREb_Pz7IWS8sKER
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/32vv89DeqInAKuhl7f1Tq0?si=E6Apqv7vSj2dEUApikwppw
About:
Hot off the success of last years #1 CMJ Jazz record Nu Bop , Matthew went back into the studios to produce and record his most monumental recording yet, Equilibrium . Bringing together all the aspects of his previous recordings, Matthew has taken his concept to the next level with an exquisitely seamless mix of beats, hip hop, free jazz, and electronic music. What began with Nu Bop , Shipp has now achieved in Equilibrium The first of three major Shipp recordings in 2003, this album stands to break through the jazz barrier once again, as will two collaborative recordings – one with hip-hop supergroup Antipop Consortium, and the other being an ensemble production with rapper El-P. For more than a decade, Shipp has broken barriers and genre with his original style. In Equilibrium , he continues to challenge the limits and preconceptions of jazz with this explosive, beats-driven modern jazz recording. the band: Bassist William Parker takes the cue form Nu Bop and delivers some of his most stylistic playing yet. Drummer-extraordinaire Gerald Cleaver lays down delicious beats over Chris Flam s lucid/liquid synth programming, and vibes-man Khan Jamal creates warm, rich resonating tones – all this sewn seamlessly together through Matthew s unmistakably unique piano styling… in matt s own words: My new and fourth Blue Series record Equilibrium is a synthesis of what I’ve learned from all my other Blue Series albums. We are continuing to move into the future, exploring beat elements with modern jazz. But, I am also bringing to bear on this project, the goals I had on New Orbit of developing a jazz ambient music and my original goals on Pastoral Composure of exploring the elasticity of the jazz language when straight ahead jazz elements morph organically into more modern forms.
Track Listing:
1. Equilibrium (Matthew Shipp) 3:44
2. Vamp to Vibe (Matthew Shipp) 5:20
3. Nebula Theory (Matthew Shipp) 5:25
4. Cohesion (Matthew Shipp) 6:36
5. World of Blue Glass (Matthew Shipp) 5:26
6. Portal (Matthew Shipp) 1:13
7. The Root (Matthew Shipp) 5:04
8. The Key (Matthew Shipp) 4:12
9. Nu Matrix (Matthew Shipp) 4:01
Personnel:
Matthew Shipp: piano
William Parker: bass
Gerald Cleaver: drums
Khan Jamal: vibes
FLAM: synths & programming
Recorded July, 2002, at Sorcerer Sound, NY
Producer: Matthew Shipp
Executive Producer: Peter Gordon
Photography: Cynthia Fetty
Review:
Equilibrium is an album of startling contrasts. Shipp has become known for bridging the worlds of free jazz, sampling and dancefloor grooves, and this is his best resolution of the genres yet. Here he provides enough edge-of-the-seat acoustic jazz swing to satisfy those traditionalists who reach for the off-button when they hear a drum’n’bass lick, as well as a generally successful intermingling of surprisingly orthodox, linear jazzy phrasing with spare bursts of hip-hop chatter and spooky urban noise.
Shipp is partnered by two brilliant regulars in former Cecil Taylor bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver – the latter a performer who can scare you out of your socks, whether playing straight-jazz time or drum’n’bass beats. Shipp has also introduced a fascinating wild card: the largely overlooked vibraphonist Khan Jamal, who has worked with such legends of the avant-garde as drummer Sunny Murray and Sun Ra.
Jamal’s floating vibes sound, Shipp’s stormy piano variations, Parker’s percussive rumbling and Cleaver’s capricious propulsion dynamically intermingle throughout. And if Shipp’s piano improvisations over the most loop-like of episodes occasionally sound stuck compared with his ingenuity in the loose sections, the constantly moving collective energy more than compensates.
The set opens with the acoustic-jazz feel that is the anchor throughout. Jamal’s flickering vibes lines, played over hip-hop grooves, weave in and out of Shipp’s muscular, darker ones, while Parker’s bass sounds like a tree rattling against a window in a wind. Slow, abstract episodes suggest water dripping in abandoned buildings.
On the vamp-based Cohesion, Shipp sounds eerily like a wilder Chick Corea, and on the slowly sweeping World of Blue Glass he echoes Paul Bley’s impressionism. For the anxious jazzers, Parker’s walking bass and Cleaver’s lurching swing on The Key is as close to the music’s deepest roots as free jazz gets.
John Fordham (The Guardian)
