Pastoral Composure

Matthew Shipp | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 18, 2000)
• Original Release Date: April 18, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thirsty Ear
• ASIN: B00004SGX8
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #279,344 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The recording debut of Matthew Shipp's quartet with trumpeter Roy Campbell, bassist William Parker, and drummer Gerald Cleaver is the prolific pianist's most accessible recording to date. Previously, Shipp's stormy, percussive attack has invited comparisons to Cecil Taylor, but this album includes the influence of two other keyboardists: McCoy Tyner and Andrew Hill. Trumpeter Campbell's gorgeous, Iberian-tinged melodic phrases and Shipp's unusually restrained yet rhythmically insistent playing on the opening "Gesture" conjure images of the late Don Cherry. The next tune, "Visions," evokes Andrew Hill with its mixture of erudite abstraction and bluesy roots. But Shipp brings a contemporary blend of irony and commitment to the material; "Frère Jacques" might sound like a sarcastic joke, but it whirls into a high-energy cyclone. Parker, Shipp's longest-term musical partner, shifts effortlessly from aggressive bowing to in-the-pocket walking, while drummer Cleaver subtly colors the music. --Bill Meyer

Product Description

This recording is a continuation of Matthew Shipps steallr careers as master f the keyboard. Featuring Gerald Cleaver, Roy Campbell and William Parker, this is a showcase of talents and their extraordinary interplay. One in a long line of amazing albums revealing Matthew Shipps truly
mind-boggling pinao style

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Intro to Shipp, August 16, 2000

By 

John F. Howard (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pastoral Composure (Audio CD)

THE best young pianist around has developed even more. This aptly titled CD offers lush music and intense but understated playing from everyone. Campbell is particularly fresh and will be a revelation for most. Parker is his usual gigantic self creating an enormous backdrop. The real stunning aspect of this is how fresh and accessible Shipp's compositions are. Catchy and memorable, without being deriviative or simplistic. The group fleshes each song out beautifully, either speaking out in solo statements or creating sumputuous collective music. A nice mix of improv and composition. Not a classic, but HIGHLY recommended and an especially good place to start if you have been curious about Shipp.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Direction in Jazz, September 4, 2003

By 

Arsophagus Wu (Tlon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pastoral Composure (Audio CD)

Pastoral Composure for Matthew Shipp represents both his inaugural "Blue Series" recording, for which he serves as executive producer, for Thirsty Ear Records and his clearest statement to date that he is no longer just an avant-garde jazz underling. For the rest of us, it represents a modern jazz that is a tangible new sound, which while distancing itself a bit from the highly arrhythmic avant-garde, never once compromises its own art. In other words, Matthew Shipp has set his feet down and created something new, fresh, radical, and yet remains wholly accessible.

The rhythm section here, Shipp on piano, William Parker on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums return on many of Matthew Shipp?s subsequent "Blue Series" recordings, which there are now many. Featured on Pastoral Composure, is New York trumpet player, Roy Campbell (who has his own "Blue Series" recording, It's Krunch Time). The album opener, "Gesture," is a cold, stormy, landscape filled with swirling arco bass from Parker, a repetitive piano line from Shipp and a static, march-like beat from Cleaver. Campbell's solo is futuristic and Iberian-sounding, standing above the murky backdrop. After the storm clears, the album takes an unexpected turn with an upbeat, swinging tune called, "Visions." Everybody solos, and while it swings hard, the vibe is still bop filtered through a 21st century lens. Shipp then dips into his Ellington bag on the third cut, "Prelude to a Kiss." Unlike the fantastic Ellington deconstructions heard on the 1997, Multiplication Table, (www.hathut.com) Shipp's interpretation in 2000 is personal, introspective; He?s going beyond the Andrew Hill/Thelonious Monk via Cecil Taylor road and finding his own path to travel. The rest of Pastoral Composure has more swinging tunes, and more deep introspective ones as well (and an out-there version of Frére Jacques). Shipp's lines are angular, sometimes minimal, sometimes cold and furious, oftentimes thorny, but he has come quite a ways from his beginnings with David S. Ware. Get to know William Parker too -- he is a monster on the bass. And that's both bowed and pizzicato.

This album will satisfy several people: The new listener, interested in jazz more exciting and challenging that the latest Joshua Redman fare. The older listener, tired of Albert Ayler rehashed, and looking for new and fresh jazz ideas. And even the casual listener, such as your friend the underground hip-hop head, looking for something fresh and challenging, or at least that guy that made the album with Anti-Pop Consortium. Wherever you're coming from, Matthew Shipp has something very new and very original to say.

9 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars tar star of wonderous electric flow braining peonies, February 4, 2001

By 

james bmeranlz (Fort Choad, Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pastoral Composure (Audio CD)

If I could dance a chicken like a spoon through jello, I might lick the salt from Shipp's wounds. Shipp's songs, wonderous melodies of harmonious cacophonous assualt, assuage and soothe the spirits. Like a ship come home from stoooooormy seas, Shipp's newest CD proves to be one his most mature, revealing in its complicated aural offerings a picture of his growth. As I said, If I could light a kettle of fish with a worm grape I might find the pock marks on my uncle's head. Lifting riffs of music man come from Shipp.