Dna

William Parker, Matthew Shipp | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 1999)
• Original Release Date: May 4, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thirsty Ear
• ASIN: B00000IP3U
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #307,592 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After 14 discs in less than a decade, pianist Matthew Shipp has announced a midcareer "retirement", claiming his "opus is complete." For fans of Shipp's dense, angular piano impressionism, DNA signals an artistic halt from the pianist of the avant-garde. For his swan song, Shipp has chosen to record with his longtime collaborator, bassist William Parker, whose sympathetic playing has graced a number of Shipp's projects. On DNA Shipp vaults into the fray with an odd, strident rendition of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." While Shipp plays the tune fairly straight, Parker saws away like mad, adding to the tune's schizophrenic feel. Even amid the most bombastic low-end fist-clusters, Shipp's playing has always maintained a rough undercurrent of the blues (seen here on "Cell Structure," and "Orbit") while also displaying a deep understanding of post-Schönberg classical piano. But aside from this deeply rooted and wide-ranging improvisational ingenuity, much of the joy in experiencing Shipp is (was?) the visceral pleasure of bearing witness to his string-busting intensity. Shipp loves to bang around on the deep, rumbly end of the piano ("Orbit" is played entirely with thundering exclamations), and he plays with astonishing force, sculpting a sonic landscape that's both sturdy and writ large. But instead of producing a thick, cumbersome musical flow, DNA excels at illustrating Shipp's lightning-quick thought process and the surprising agility and precision of his note pounding. All of these special talents converge on DNA, allowing brief lightning flashes of insight into Shipp's musical world that are equal parts revelation and astonishment. DNA closes as oddly as it starts, with Shipp playing a somber, straight version of "Amazing Grace." This time, Parker bows a reverent, swaying bass line, signaling, perhaps, the knowledge of what Shipp has helped continue, and also what he is putting aside. --S. Duda

From Jazziz

When the secret history of jazz in the 1990s is finally written, DNA will be revealed as a milestone: a work of exceptional refinement in which two of the decade's most subversive sonic architects gather their resources to take things to the next stage. Trouble is, that kind of high-falutin' description makes this album - pianist Shipp's 15th as a leader since 1990 - sound more imposing than it is. The charms of DNA, which Shipp insists marks an official sabatical from the recording studio, are often quite subtle, inscribed in the breathlessly fluid microdynamics of two marvelously sympathetic performers.

Some at this spring's Vision festival had to stifle a laugh when Shipp began to pound out the chords to the album's opener, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." But there was also the thrill of recognition: It's the closest this reflexive iconoclast has ever come to acquiring a "hit single" for his repertoire. And it's not corny for long: as the pianist reaches deep into the tune's harmonic guts to find a stirring gothic grandeur, Parker's buzzing bow-work answering the "straight" readings of the chorus like crickets singing in the swampy Southern night. With that perversely audacious start, DNA slips into a suite-like exploration whose pleasures are as much derived from Shipp's spidery light touch and subtle blues connotations ("Cell Sequence") as from the rhythmic thrust with which Parker lifts off into hyperspace. Parker buoys the circular, minimal motifs Shipp conjures on "Orbit" and "Mr. Chromosome," the duo's intense, steady focus helping to create a parallel universe where Mal Waldron and Morton Feldman could be funk soul brothers. "Amazing Grace," offered as benediction, is played without heroics: Its spare dignity implies a moment of humble reflection made by a pilgrim at the close of a long, rugged journey.

--- Steve Dollar, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The MOST dynamic duo in Jazz today, May 15, 1999

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This review is from: Dna (Audio CD)

Over the last decade Mathew Shipp has tirelessly produced a significant amount of work both in the recording studio and in live peformance. So much so that he has set himself apart as one of the more important improvisors on the scene, esspecially when one takes into account his role as an instrumentalist. When one undertakes to master the piano, there is a staggering ammount of history to assimilate and carry on one's shoulders. The modern piano keyboard has served as the periodic table for Western tonal theory for the last few hundred years so when one embarks to make music lacking Western conventionality, one might make it easier on one's self by choosing a more recent instrument like the saxophone. This does not mean to imply that people haven't succeeded in redefining the piano and how it is played. Such results were achieved by many jazz greats: Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Andrew Hill, Paul Bley... but the last person to pioneer the piano has been Cecil Taylor. Since the sixties Taylor has monopolized a great deal of what could, can and has been expressed on the piano in the context of improvisation. And everything that has come after him has always, perhaps out of necessity, resembled him. Mathew Shipp is an exception to this trend. Perhaps it is also out of necessity that Mr. Shipp is the first pianist of note to construct improvisations on the piano that do not detectably reference themselves to Taylor's aesthetic. On this release Shipp is joined by bassist, William Parker. (Incidentally enough, Parker served as the bassist of choice in many incarnations of the Cecil Taylor Unit over the course of several years.) Parker in recent years has made quite a name for himself as a composer, band leader, organizer and instrumental virtuoso of the highest calibre. It can be said that these two men go back. Both recorded as members of Roscoe Mitchell's Note Factory and served as half of David S. Ware's quartet. Parker has always been present in the various groups that Shipp has assembled and even recorded an album of duets previous to this date. ("Zo" Rise Records 126) The first track on DNA, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is a comparable demonstration of skill being that the selection is a traditional one and yet, in the hands of masters, can be negotiated in such a way that conjures a completely new face without sacrificing its recognizability. Five other dialogues commence afterwards. Shipp is agile without being anxious... subtle with contrast, authoritative with delivery... Parker's pizzacato is nimble. His arco penetrates all the appropriate spaces. His placement is deliberate and unselfconcious. The final piece closes this date with another traditional, "Amazing Grace" perhaps to show that the miraculously paradoxical first track was no accident. The music is overall frightening and beautiful, sudden and deliberate, accountable at all times. If this album is an argument, then it is defended formidably and well. If it is simply just a statement, then it is said with matchless elloquence and grace.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dense, profound, funny and brilliant, February 3, 2006

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Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dna (Audio CD)

With stunning use of lower end of piano, with clusters of dark sounds, Mr Shipp I fel sure is also quoting one of the masters of that end, Lennie Tristano, in particular, TURKISH MAMBO on Genetic Alphabet. ORBIT also suggests Mr Tristano. The vocalising? by Mr Parker or is JUST arco bass, is eerie and effective. A brilliant program of music.