Matthew Shipp (born December 7, 1960) is an American pianist, composer, and bandleader.

Early life and education

Shipp was raised in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Unami language, Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North ...

, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter

Clifford Brown Clifford Benjamin Brown (October 30, 1930 – June 26, 1956) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. He died at the age of 25 in a car accident, leaving behind four years' worth of recordings. His compositions "Sandu", "Joy Spring", an ...

. He was strongly attracted to jazz, but also played in rock groups while in high school. Shipp attended the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 ma ...

for one year, then the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with saxophonist/composer Joe Maneri. He has cited private lessons with

Dennis Sandole Dennis Sandole (29 September 1913 — 30 September 2000) born Dionigi Sandoli, was an American jazz guitarist, composer, and music educator from Philadelphia. He was John Coltrane's mentor from 1946 until the early 1950s, introducing him to musi ...

(who also taught saxophonist

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

) as being crucial to his development.

Later life and career

Shipp moved to New York in 1984Archived a
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and has been very active since the early 1990s, appearing on dozens of albums as a leader, sideman, or producer. Before making a living playing music, Shipp worked in a bookshop as an assistant manager. He was fired, he threw some books at his boss, and he decided he would not look for a day job anymore. He was initially most active in

free jazz Free jazz is an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventions, such as regular tempos, tones, and chord changes. Musicians duri ...

but has since branched out, particularly exploring music that touches on

contemporary classical New Classical architecture, New Classicism or the New Classical movement is a contemporary movement in architecture that continues the practice of Classical architecture. It is sometimes considered the modern continuation of Neoclassical archite ...

, hip hop, and

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

. At the beginning of his career Shipp was stylistically compared to some of his predecessors in the jazz piano pantheon but has since been recognized as a complete stylistic innovator on the piano – with

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

referring to his "unique and recognizable style"; and Larry Blumenfeld in ''Jazziz'' magazine referring to Shipp as "stunning in originality." ''Jazziz'' also referred to Shipp's CD ''4D'' as "further proof of his idiosyncratic genius." David Bowie, when a guest on Courtney Pine’s Jazz Crusade on BBC Radio 2 in 2005, praised Shipp, specifically ‘Rocket Ship’ from the album ''Nu Bop''. Punk-rock icon

Henry Rollins Henry Lawrence Garfield (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as Henry Rollins, is an American singer, writer, spoken word artist, actor, and presenter. After performing in the short-lived hardcore punk band State of Alert in 1980, Rol ...

wrote in 2010, ″Matthew Shipp and his work have fascinated me since I first heard him many years ago. His originality and approach sometimes stretches the limits of what is considered Jazz music yet at the same time, describes perfectly the fierce freedom of it. … Matthew is not only a brilliant Jazz pianist, he is a true artist and visionary." Shipp was a longtime member of saxophonist David S. Ware's quartet with bassist William Parker and a series of drummers ( Marc Edwards,

Susie Ibarra Susie Ibarra (born Anaheim, November 15, 1970) is a contemporary composer and percussionist who has worked and recorded with jazz, classical, world, and indigenous musicians. One of SPIN's "100 Greatest Drummers of Alternative Music," she is kn ...

, Guillermo E. Brown,

Whit Dickey Whit Dickey (born May 28, 1954) is an American drummer. He has recorded albums with David S. Ware and Matthew Shipp. Biography His first album as a leader was ''Transonic (album), Transonic'', in 1998. Two years later, Wobbly Rail issued his '' ...

). The group recorded for Homestead (2 albums), Thirsty Ear (2), AUM Fidelity (4), Silkheart (2), Columbia/Sony (2), and DIW (4, one picked up by Columbia but not counted as a Columbia release here). In addition, the rhythm section of Shipp, Parker, and Brown recorded Ware compositions without Ware in 2003, released by Splasc(H) Records as ''The Trio Plays Ware'', and Shipp and Ware performed as a duo, recorded in concert and released by AUM Fidelity as ''Live in Sant'Anna Arresi, 2004''. Critic Gary Giddens, writing in ''The Village Voice'' in 2001, declared, “The David S. Ware Quartet is the best small band in jazz today.” After Ware’s death, Shipp wrote, “Some have compared our unit to the classic Coltrane quartet, but the members of our group all brought something to the table that only someone playing now could bring—resulting in a gestalt that is of its time and does not look back. When free jazz seemed like a spent force, he brought something new—and greatly beautiful—to it.” Shipp's other dues-paying sideman relationship came as a member of

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figures ...

’s Note Factory, which Shipp said “could be seen as an extension of some post-Coltrane concepts, but in Roscoe’s hands it is extended technique with multiple pulses.” Shipp went on to write, “I think the one thing that struck me the most about Roscoe the years I worked with him was his insistence at all times of transcending cliché.”< Shipp has recorded or performed with many other musicians, including High Priest and

Beans A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes thr ...

Antipop Consortium Antipop Consortium is an American alternative hip hop group. The group formed in 1997, when Beans, High Priest, M. Sayyid, and producer Earl Blaize met at a poetry slam in New York City. They are notable for their stream-of-consciousness lyric ...

Michael Bisio Michael Bisio (March 4, 1955 Troy, New York) is an American jazz double bassist, composer, and bandleader. Since 2009 he has been the bassist for the Matthew Shipp Trio. Bisio appears on over 100 CDs, leading on 12 CDs and co-leading on anothe ...

, Daniel Carter, DJ Spooky, El-P, Mat Maneri, Joe Morris, Ivo Perelman, Mat Walerian,

Allen Lowe Allen Lowe is a composer, musician, music historian, and sound restoration specialist. He plays alto saxophone, C-melody saxophone, and guitar and has recorded with Julius Hemphill, Marc Ribot, Roswell Rudd, Don Byron, Doc Cheatham, and David ...

, and Chad Fowler. He has also co-led the group East Axis, with bassist Kevin Ray, drummer Gerald Cleaver, and saxophonists Allen Lowe (first album) and Scott Robinson (second album). In February 2011, Shipp released a double-disc album entitled ''Art of the Improviser''. This release is "testament to Shipp's achievements, yet it is also a continuation of the discovery in his developmental musical language." The ''Chicago Tribune'' called the project "monumental" and "galvanic as ever." Shipp has been continuously improving his repertoire from touring the world, writing new compositions and, since 2011, has been collaborating with Barbara Januszkiewicz. Together they are exploring new territory through an avant-garde film called ''The Composer with Matthew Shipp / Barb Januszkiewicz''. On September 24, 2013, Thirsty Ear Records released a solo piano CD by Shipp called ''Piano Sutras''. Will Layman, writing for PopMatters, described it as:

the kind of record we talk about and play for each other decades later... This is music that frames up a whole history: of an artist, of listeners, of the artists who formed the history of the art form, of the culture and time that allowed this art to flourish.

Shipp’s relationship with Thirsty Ear ended in 2015 with ''The Conduct of Jazz'', the first album by his current trio lineup with bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker. Since then he has worked most, as a leader, with three other labels. His work with the France-based

RogueArt RogueArt (also written Rogueart and Rogue Art) is a French independent record label based in Paris. It was founded by record producer Michel Dorbon in 2005 and specialises in jazz and improvised music. History RogueArt was founded by record p ...

imprint began with the 2006 album ''Salute to 100001 Stars: A Tribute to Jean Genet'' by the group Declared Enemy ( Sabir Mateen, Shipp, William Parker, and Gerald Cleaver), but until two 2015 albums, only one RogueArt release, ''Un Piano'', billed Shipp as leader. Including those two 2015 releases, through 2022, RogueArt put out six albums with Shipp as leader and another nine on which he was co-billed with, among others, Mark Helias, Nate Wooley, William Parker, Mat Maneri, John Butcher, and

Evan Parker Evan Shaw Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British tenor and soprano saxophone player who plays free improvisation. Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free ja ...

. Shipp began working with ESP-Disk’ with the Shipp/Mat Walerian duo album ''Live at Okuden'', billed as The Uppercut. Issued in 2015, it was the last new release approved by ESP-Disk’ founder

Bernard Stollman Bernard Stollman (July 19, 1929 – April 19, 2015) was an American lawyer and the founder of the ESP-Disk record label. Biography He was born to a Jewish family in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and grew up in Plattsburgh, upstate New York, where hi ...

. All four of Walerian’s albums with Shipp have been released on ESP-Disk’. Shipp’s first ESP albums as leader were a quartet album, ''Sonic Fiction'', and a solo album, ''Zer0'', both issued in 2018. Since then, his releases as leader have all been with his trio with Michael Bisio and Newman Taylor Baker: ''Signature'', ''The Unidentifiable'', and ''World Construct''. The latter was called “a career-defining album” and awarded five stars by critic Mike Hobart in the ''Financial Times''. In 2022 a duo album by Shipp and Ivo Perelman, ''Fruition'', was released by ESP, with NPR’s Nate Chinen stating in his review, “The freeform alchemy between Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman and American pianist Matthew Shipp is by now a proven fact: rarely do two musicians achieve a higher flow state in real time.” Longtime Shipp collaborator Whit Dickey started a label named Tao Forms in 2020 that as of January 2023 has released two Shipp albums, ''The Piano Equation'' and ''Codebreaker'', both solo releases, and four further albums on which he collaborates.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

As sideman

Bibliography

* ''Logos And Language: A Post-Jazz Metaphorical Dialogue'' (RogueArt, 2008) with

Steve Dalachinsky Steven Donald Dalachinsky (September 29, 1946 – September 16, 2019) was an American downtown New York City poet, active in the music, art, and free jazz scenes. He wrote poetry for most of his life and read frequently at Michael Dorf's club th ...

References

External links

Official siteCulture Catch Music Salon & Dusty Wright Interview with Shipp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shipp, Matthew 1960 births Living people Free improvisation pianists Free jazz pianists Post-bop pianists University of Delaware alumni New England Conservatory alumni African-American jazz pianists African-American jazz musicians Musicians from Wilmington, Delaware Avant-garde jazz pianists 20th-century American pianists American male pianists 21st-century American pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians Thirsty Ear Recordings artists RogueArt artists Cadence Jazz Records artists 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American musicians