Live In Sant’Anna Arresi, 2004 (Aum Fidelity)
David S. Ware & Matthew Shipp Duo
Released October 21, 2016
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
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About:
Live in Sant’Anna Arresi, 2004 is the 2nd volume in AUM Fidelity’s David S. Ware Archive Series, and the first release of the saxophone master in rare duo performance with fellow master of music, pianist Matthew Shipp.
Though sharing 17 years together in the legendary David S. Ware Quartet (along with bassist William Parker and a series of drummers), Shipp recalls that he and Ware performed duo concerts perhaps six times at most in that period. Thankfully, on this latter-day occasion, their work together in this form was professionally recorded.
This concert is one continuous long-form improvisation; it spans an incredibly wide range of approaches and dynamics. The ecstatic deep listening experience of free jazz performed at a highest level avails itself here in full. Their delightfully pithy “trading fours” encore to the concert is also included. Obviously the very deep levels of communion which were developed within the context of Ware’s Quartet inform this work. In equal evidence is each of them embracing the leaderless duo context, challenging and expanding their mutual language throughout.
Following David’s untimely passing in October 2012 on the eve of his 63rd birthday, it was understood necessary to continue releasing singular works of great magnitude in order to further radiate his distinctly potent sound and vision. David S. Ware’s work was a foundational inspiration of AUM Fidelity, and its mission continues strong with this essential DSW-ARC series.
Track Listing:
1. Tao Flow (part 1) 21:06
2. Tao Flow (part 2) 20:22
3. Encore 04:28
Personnel:
David S. Ware: tenor saxophone
Matthew Shipp: piano
Recorded on September 5, 2004 by Paolo Zucca at Ai Confini tra Sardegna e Jazz, Sant’Anna Arresi, Sardinia, Italy
Mastered by Michael Marciano at Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn, June 2016
Cover Photo Portrait by Sylvia Plachy
Produced for release by Steven Joerg
Review:
Subtraction won’t increase your numbers, but try pruning a tree and see how it grows. In 2004, when this concert was recorded, the David S. Ware Quartet was 15 years old. While undeniably formidable, it was a known quantity, and therefore ripe for a change. This set, which took place at a jazz festival in Sardinia, did the trick. Not only did it remove the rhythm section, but by presenting the two musicians as a duo, it shook up the quartet’s leader-combo hierarchy. Both players respond with a freshness of approach that makes one wish that they could have explored this setting further. In the quartet, Shipp provides sonic ballast and a harmonic foundation; he could also be an agent of chaos, laying waste to tunes like “The Way We Were.” But without a bass and drums to support or challenge, he is more of a builder than a destroyer, using block chords and wide screens of silence to create a rich environment for Ware, who create rivers of sound that feel like they’re doing millennia of geography-transforming work in a span of minutes. Shipp also spends considerable time under his piano’s lid, creating otherworldly bursts of pure, fragile sound that contrast most productively with Ware’s fiery blowing.
Bill Meyer (DownBeat)
