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Matthew Shipp
New Orbit
(Thirsty Ear)
Thirsty Ear started its new "Blue Series" jazz line a year ago. The series is produced by pianist Matthew Shipp. In the past year, Thirsty Ear issued interesting new CDs by Mat Maneri and William Parker as well as Matthew Shipp, who now has another release in the series, the evocative New Orbit.
The title tune is a simple and haunting song that could almost be a children's tune. Shipp has interspersed freer improvisations between four different versions of the song. He uses different combinations of the musicians—not all musicians are on all the tracks. There is excellent playing on this chamber-like recording by trumpeter Leo Smith and bassist William Parker (with some exceptional bowing bass) and Gerald Cleaver.
(I don't know if this is a trend, but there seem to have been a number of excellent chamber-like recordings released in the last year, including Mat Maneri's Blue Decco, (also on Thirsty Ear); Dave Douglas's Charms of the Night Sky A Thousand Evenings; John Lindberg's A Treefrog Tonality (also with Leo Smith); and Rob Reddy's Quttah However Humble.)
Shipp has created a meditative, spacious and spiritual work—a beautiful, quietly emotional gem.
— Alan Lankin, March 2001
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last update 15 March 2001