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TAO 012CD
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"Drummer Whit Dickey guides a formidable new quartet through deep waters on Root Perspectives. As he states, 'I get into music not just by playing but by accessing a vibration.' This work gets to the heart of what he means by that elliptical phrase. It is the latest recording from his TAO Forms label, which since its 2020 founding has released some of the freshest material in recent memory, including James Brandon Lewis' poll-winning Jesup Wagon, and Dickey's own highly inspired works, Expanding Light and Astral Long Form: Staircase in Space. On Root Perspectives -- recorded the day after releasing Astral Long Form in May 2022: 'I conceived this album off of a vibration that I felt while obsessively listening to the title composition of Coltrane's Crescent,' he recalls. 'I tried to rhythmically anticipate each instrument of the classic quartet while keying into the central mantra/vibration. I began to hear how each instrument embodied the mantra in subtly different ways. On this album, my plan was to tap into the drum part of that mantra, and let the quartet rise from there.' The sound and energy of a tenor-based quartet was a logical choice, and this presents the first encounter between Dickey and saxophonist Tony Malaby -- who brought determined grit and fire to the session, along with Matthew Shipp -- one of Dickey's closest associates, and the youngest of the group -- agile and inventive bassist Brandon Lopez. By deeply tuning in to cosmic vibrations, the Tao, and the players assembled around him, Dickey has found a musical center that grows more profound with each passing year."
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TAO 010LP
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Double LP version. Gatefold sleeve; includes download card. "The exemplary and well-traveled cornetist Kirk Knuffke here introduces a bold new trio -- with bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp -- on an intimate and expansive double album. Gravity Without Airs features the three world-class musicians on both Knuffke compositions and in open form, creating a tour-de-force of poetry and verve. This is Knuffke's debut as a leader for TAO Forms, following on his being full part of James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet's Jesup Wagon, one of the most acclaimed jazz releases of 2021. That album was eventually voted #1 Album of the Year in the JazzTimes Critics Poll, the international Jazz Critics Poll established by Francis Davis, and the (soon to be announced) DownBeat Critics Poll. Accolades for the cornetist's own recent work as leader include NPR's Jazz Album of the Year laurel for 2017's Cherryco, his homage to Don Cherry, a prime influence. DownBeat praised the way that album showcased Knuffke's 'nonchalant versatility and ebullient melodic gifts,' while esteemed critic Francis Davis called it 'nothing short of spectacular.' Davis also wrote the liner notes for Gravity Without Airs, noting the allure of Knuffke's instrumental aplomb: 'Kirk plays as if his cornet is a part of him -- he plays with it, not just on it.' On his guiding artistic impulse, Kirk Knuffke says: 'I'm concerned with making beautiful music. Beauty is always first, though not in a precious way. It can be in a rough way, too.' A prolific, lauded record-maker, Gravity Without Airs fulfills his poetic aims as well as any recording he has made. This work finds Knuffke in the rare, even unique, trio format of cornet, piano and double-bass. His partners are two ever-estimable pillars of creative music, and the work they've created together here brims with melody and mystery, intimacy and dynamism. Regarding the album title, Knuffke explains: 'I was reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius while preparing for this recording. He used the phrase 'gravity without airs', and it stuck with me. That's what it's all about! Being heavy but not putting on airs -- that's what my favorite musicians do. In these days of social media and constant hype and self-promotion, this is what we should really aspire to: do the work and study, get into your thing and avoid showing it off half-cooked. Matthew and Michael have that sort of grace. I was really touched because once we started playing, they both got excited and wanted to play more and more -- that's how we ended up with a double album,' Knuffke recalls. 'I hope people can listen to it as a whole, so they can hear all the subtleties as well as the shape and flow of the album. I have to say: I'm especially proud of this one.' Liner notes by Francis Davis." "Rhythmically precise, New Orleans funky and full of grace, Kirk Knuffke's music is a reflection of his multifaceted personality: part musical sage, part jazz philosopher, a self-taught musician with wide interests, endless curiosity and an abundance of good humor." --DownBeat
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TAO 010CD
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"The exemplary and well-traveled cornetist Kirk Knuffke here introduces a bold new trio -- with bassist Michael Bisio and pianist Matthew Shipp -- on an intimate and expansive double album. Gravity Without Airs features the three world-class musicians on both Knuffke compositions and in open form, creating a tour-de-force of poetry and verve. This is Knuffke's debut as a leader for TAO Forms, following on his being full part of James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet's Jesup Wagon, one of the most acclaimed jazz releases of 2021. That album was eventually voted #1 Album of the Year in the JazzTimes Critics Poll, the international Jazz Critics Poll established by Francis Davis, and the (soon to be announced) DownBeat Critics Poll. Accolades for the cornetist's own recent work as leader include NPR's Jazz Album of the Year laurel for 2017's Cherryco, his homage to Don Cherry, a prime influence. DownBeat praised the way that album showcased Knuffke's 'nonchalant versatility and ebullient melodic gifts,' while esteemed critic Francis Davis called it 'nothing short of spectacular.' Davis also wrote the liner notes for Gravity Without Airs, noting the allure of Knuffke's instrumental aplomb: 'Kirk plays as if his cornet is a part of him -- he plays with it, not just on it.' On his guiding artistic impulse, Kirk Knuffke says: 'I'm concerned with making beautiful music. Beauty is always first, though not in a precious way. It can be in a rough way, too.' A prolific, lauded record-maker, Gravity Without Airs fulfills his poetic aims as well as any recording he has made. This work finds Knuffke in the rare, even unique, trio format of cornet, piano and double-bass. His partners are two ever-estimable pillars of creative music, and the work they've created together here brims with melody and mystery, intimacy and dynamism. Regarding the album title, Knuffke explains: 'I was reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius while preparing for this recording. He used the phrase 'gravity without airs', and it stuck with me. That's what it's all about! Being heavy but not putting on airs -- that's what my favorite musicians do. In these days of social media and constant hype and self-promotion, this is what we should really aspire to: do the work and study, get into your thing and avoid showing it off half-cooked. Matthew and Michael have that sort of grace. I was really touched because once we started playing, they both got excited and wanted to play more and more -- that's how we ended up with a double album,' Knuffke recalls. 'I hope people can listen to it as a whole, so they can hear all the subtleties as well as the shape and flow of the album. I have to say: I'm especially proud of this one.' Liner notes by Francis Davis." "Rhythmically precise, New Orleans funky and full of grace, Kirk Knuffke's music is a reflection of his multifaceted personality: part musical sage, part jazz philosopher, a self-taught musician with wide interests, endless curiosity and an abundance of good humor." --DownBeat
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TAO 009CD
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"Drummer-percussionist Whit Dickey channels ecstatic cosmic vibration together with a stellar quartet on Astral Long Form: Staircase In Space, his second album as a leader for TAO Forms. The album also features alto saxophonist Rob Brown, violist Mat Maneri and bassist Brandon Lopez. 'The interaction between players is perfect. Entrances, exits, the space between sound and silence, all meeting at the right moment. This is great human music that will stand up to any dark forces in any universe.' --William Parker, in his liner notes for the album. Since his launch of the TAO Forms label in 2020, Whit Dickey has curated a remarkable series of releases showcasing some of the most astonishing voices in modern jazz & creative music. Among them was/is James Brandon Lewis' Jesup Wagon which topped several year end 'Best of 2021' lists, including #1 in JazzTimes Critics' Poll and the coveted top spot in the 2021 international Jazz Critics Poll established by Francis Davis. TAO Forms has also provided an outlet for Dickey's own vital work -- first with 2020's breathtaking trio date, Expanding Light, featuring his 30+ year colleague, maestro alto saxophonist Rob Brown & young firebrand bassist Brandon Lopez. Those same musicians return in quartet here -- joined by violist Mat Maneri, another virtuoso with whom Dickey shares a long history. Astral Long Form is without doubt one of the drummer's most adventurous & fully realized works to date. These five conceptually interwoven pieces as performed by this intuitive quartet may well come to be considered his masterwork -- one of them, at least. There is a sustained, enrapturing mode that unites its five parts. In keeping with the drummer's yin/yang view of musical balance -- exemplified not only by the name of the label, but in the duality of Dickey's previous quartet release, Peace Planet / Box of Light, this album opens immediately into a heretofore under-explored expanse. Staircase in Space luxuriates in open space and atmospheres, untethered from the common notion of time. Regarding the album title, Dickey explains: 'It's a long form in the sense that the music stays in a long vibration ringing throughout its rhythmic underpinning. These vibrations form a growing staircase and the phenomenon goes on ad infinitum.' He continues, 'I was looking for something more relaxing, where I could ground myself, the way I can when I hear Cecil Taylor or John Coltrane. I like that feeling where everything seems to float -- it's comfortable.'"
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TAO 008CD
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"This Michael Bisio Quartet is a new kindred-spirit assembly featuring the veteran bassist alongside Mat Maneri (viola), Karl Berger (vibraphone) and Whit Dickey (drums). Their melodiously alluring debut album, MBefore, features the four virtuoso improvisers communing on a set of original compositions by Bisio & Berger, plus a free-minded take on the standard 'I Fall in Love Too Easily'. Michael Bisio has earned just praise for his textured solo performances as well as collaborations with the likes of veteran multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee. But it's perhaps his 13-year membership in the Matthew Shipp Trio that has earned him widest renown, having toured on both sides of the Atlantic along with recording numerous albums with the pianist. Cadence magazine marveled over the way Bisio's playing 'seems to be produced by sorcery.' From the liner notes by Matthew Shipp: 'Michael Bisio is one of the greatest bassists on the planet -- but this album isn't about his bass playing. It's about his humanity. Bisio is a thoughtful group leader who has a knack for bringing the right people together and setting them up in such a way that they feel at one with the group dynamic.' MBefore is about the ensemble and its collective consciousness -- it's about the group aesthetic, with the resulting sound having a transparent quality. With vibes and viola, there's a sonic clarity, even a kind of sweetness. That clarity and transparency allows the contrapuntal quality of the music to be fully revealed -- you can hear everyone's lines at once, and the subtle harmonies created by the crossing of those individual lines. On that clarity and transparency... there's no more compelling improviser on a stringed instrument than Mat Maneri, and his viola sings darkly with light throughout MBefore. As for Karl Berger -- the illustrious octogenarian vibraphonist who brought two new compositions to this album as well -- he remains profoundly on top of his game. Bisio has worked with him regularly since moving a decade ago from NYC up to Berger's neck of the woods in the Hudson River Valley. As Shipp notes, Berger is 'a master of space, a master of restraint, a master of melding his sound in the sonic ambient.' TAO Forms is honored to present his very latest work as performer and composer here on MBefore." "This is a banquet, a true feast. It was created by people who gave themselves over to the concept and reveled in the generation of beautiful sound." --Matthew Shipp
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TAO 007LP
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LP version. Includes insert and download card.
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TAO 006LP
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LP version. Includes insert and download card. "Drummer Whit Dickey, bassist William Parker, and pianist Matthew Shipp present a wondrous collective creation, their first new studio recording since Shipp's classic 1992 trio debut, Circular Temple. This is also their first assembly since their work together in the revered David S. Ware Quartet. 'Everything is melody.' --Whit Dickey on the mantra of the music. In the late 1980s/early '90s, pianist Matthew Shipp and drummer Whit Dickey were young musicians taking part in the cultural ferment happening on New York City's Lower East Side, a place where free jazz, avant-rock and all manner of creative arts and political causes were colliding and combining to further the area's legacy of progressive action. William Parker -- although just two years older than Dickey -- had been part of that progressive action since the mid-70s, and was already a world traveler. As Shipp has noted on numerous occasions, a key aim in his moving to NYC was to make music with Parker. The sound and sensibility of that vintage East Village milieu informed Shipp's very first trio album, the striking Circular Temple. Although the three have worked together in important configurations in the decades since (vitally, in the revered David S. Ware Quartet), they are now releasing their first trio studio album together since that original classic: Village Mothership, its title in homage to the rich environment that fed the artistic development of these artists. This brand new work together re-ignites this trio's profound creative pulse, with 30 years of devotion to the music since then clearly evident. 'We created this album in the moment as a trio,' Dickey explains. 'The atmosphere of this session was warm and fun, and it was a deep, wondrous experience with the three of us. To me, everything is melody. And the melodies manifest out of the mantra of our playing, the rhythms radiating multi-directionally out of those melodic vibrations. Mystical stuff was happening.' Both formats feature extensive liner notes by Steven Joerg & vintage photographs by Sylvia Plachy, then staff photographer at the Village Voice."
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TAO 007CD
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"Matthew Shipp takes an introspective turn on his latest solo piano album, continuing to discover new territory for his singular cosmic pianism. Codebreaker encrypts rich harmonies, cloud-like clusters, and the unlikely confluence of Bill Evans and Bud Powell. Within the voluminous catalogue that pianist Matthew Shipp has created over the last three and a half decades, his solo piano work has charted a unique and compelling pathway for the evolution of the instrument's vocabulary. On his latest album, that path finds Shipp in an uncharacteristically meditative state of mind. Though the language is unmistakably his own, the usual attacks, dense clusters and insistent circularity are more often replaced by harmonic nebulae that luxuriate in the mysterious resonances which Shipp conjures from the keyboard. 'I was actually shocked at how introspective the album was when I listened back to it,' Shipp admits. 'If I try to dissect my motivations, which are not always conscious and which just happen on their own, I see myself really basking in harmony. I'm interested in trying to wring all of the harmonics from the piano that I possibly can, and with that in mind, any set of harmonics has a set of melodic fragments that are implied.' Given that investigative impulse, Shipp himself could be viewed as the Codebreaker of the album's evocative title. There's a wry humor to the name, as Shipp imagines a parallel between a World War II secret agent doggedly racing to crack an enemy cypher and himself sitting at the piano, puzzling over the music's infinite enigmas. But the idea seems profoundly serious when considering the singular sonic vernacular he's coined, making him one of the most distinctive pianists of his generation. The album title also continues a career-long investigation into the ways that his subversive approach to the piano connects with the instrument's storied lineage. While the likes of Cecil Taylor and Sun Ra have been constant touchstones in critical writings on his work, one name that emerges when listening to Codebreaker, perhaps for the first time in Shipp's discography, is that of Bill Evans."
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TAO 006CD
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"Drummer Whit Dickey, bassist William Parker, and pianist Matthew Shipp present a wondrous collective creation, their first new studio recording since Shipp's classic 1992 trio debut, Circular Temple. This is also their first assembly since their work together in the revered David S. Ware Quartet. 'Everything is melody.' --Whit Dickey on the mantra of the music. In the late 1980s/early '90s, pianist Matthew Shipp and drummer Whit Dickey were young musicians taking part in the cultural ferment happening on New York City's Lower East Side, a place where free jazz, avant-rock and all manner of creative arts and political causes were colliding and combining to further the area's legacy of progressive action. William Parker -- although just two years older than Dickey -- had been part of that progressive action since the mid-70s, and was already a world traveler. As Shipp has noted on numerous occasions, a key aim in his moving to NYC was to make music with Parker. The sound and sensibility of that vintage East Village milieu informed Shipp's very first trio album, the striking Circular Temple. Although the three have worked together in important configurations in the decades since (vitally, in the revered David S. Ware Quartet), they are now releasing their first trio studio album together since that original classic: Village Mothership, its title in homage to the rich environment that fed the artistic development of these artists. This brand new work together re-ignites this trio's profound creative pulse, with 30 years of devotion to the music since then clearly evident. 'We created this album in the moment as a trio,' Dickey explains. 'The atmosphere of this session was warm and fun, and it was a deep, wondrous experience with the three of us. To me, everything is melody. And the melodies manifest out of the mantra of our playing, the rhythms radiating multi-directionally out of those melodic vibrations. Mystical stuff was happening.' Both formats feature extensive liner notes by Steven Joerg & vintage photographs by Sylvia Plachy, then staff photographer at the Village Voice."
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TAO 005LP
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LP version. "Jesup Wagon is the astonishing new work from the fertile creative mind of ascendant tenor saxophonist-composer James Brandon Lewis. Voted Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in the 2020 DownBeat Magazine International Critic's Poll, for his ninth release (and his TAO Forms debut) he leads the Red Lily Quintet, an exceptional inter-generational ensemble assembled specifically for this project. The album speaks eloquently to the forever-evolving continuum of the jazz tradition. Essentially a collection of tone poems -- or, as Duke Ellington might have called them, "tone parallels" -- Duke being the instigator of this type of programmatic jazz. Jesup Wagon is an evocative appreciation of the life and legacy of turn-of-the-19th century African-American musician-painter-writer-scientist George Washington Carver. Sustainable agriculture was a key component of Carver's prescient thoughts into action; his Jesup Wagon was a part of that. The album consists of seven pieces that create a portrait of stunning clarity and depth. Jesup Wagon marks another remarkable step for James as player and composer. Helping him get it all out on this release is the Red Lily Quintet, anchored by the tectonic rhythm section of bassist William Parker and drummer Chad Taylor, and rounded out by cornetist Kirk Knuffke and cellist Chris Hoffman. The album also features liner notes by the great American historian Robin D.G. Kelley, who in 2009 released the definitive Monk biography, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. His notes contain much historical detail about Carver, particularly as they relate to the tunes."
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TAO 005CD
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"Jesup Wagon is the astonishing new work from the fertile creative mind of ascendant tenor saxophonist-composer James Brandon Lewis. Voted Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in the 2020 DownBeat Magazine International Critic's Poll, for his ninth release (and his TAO Forms debut) he leads the Red Lily Quintet, an exceptional inter-generational ensemble assembled specifically for this project. The album speaks eloquently to the forever-evolving continuum of the jazz tradition. Essentially a collection of tone poems -- or, as Duke Ellington might have called them, "tone parallels" -- Duke being the instigator of this type of programmatic jazz. Jesup Wagon is an evocative appreciation of the life and legacy of turn-of-the-19th century African-American musician-painter-writer-scientist George Washington Carver. Sustainable agriculture was a key component of Carver's prescient thoughts into action; his Jesup Wagon was a part of that. The album consists of seven pieces that create a portrait of stunning clarity and depth. Jesup Wagon marks another remarkable step for James as player and composer. Helping him get it all out on this release is the Red Lily Quintet, anchored by the tectonic rhythm section of bassist William Parker and drummer Chad Taylor, and rounded out by cornetist Kirk Knuffke and cellist Chris Hoffman. The album also features liner notes by the great American historian Robin D.G. Kelley, who in 2009 released the definitive Monk biography, Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. His notes contain much historical detail about Carver, particularly as they relate to the tunes."
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TAO 004CD
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"A rather exquisite new communion between these three master improvisers. One of the most exhilarating qualities shared by great improvising musicians is the ability to bring one's immediate situation -- the joys, sorrows, fears and desires of the day -- into each unique performance. What made this most recent convening of the Ivo Perelman Trio so singular was the fact that not only were all three musicians -- prolific saxophonist Ivo Perelman, pianist Matthew Shipp, and drummer Whit Dickey -- immersed in the same present-day miasma, so was every potential listener, wherever they might be. Garden of Jewels was recorded in June 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic raged across the globe. On the day that these three longtime collaborators warily (albeit safely) entered the studio for the first time since the virus forced us indoors, the un-precedented circumstances provided the trio a profoundly urgent source of inspiration. At the same time, the country was in the midst of a series of turbulent protests that added an additional layer of vitality to the proceedings. While Garden of Jewels is only the second time that Perelman, Shipp and Dickey have recorded as a trio -- the first, Butterfly Whispers, was released in 2015 ? all three share a long and rich history. Shipp and Dickey, of course, worked together as integral members of the David S. Ware Quartet & in Shipp's own Trio, while the pianist and Perelman have spent the last decade creating one of the most well-documented partnerships in improvised music history. The trio entered the studio without having discussed what might transpire at the session -- the eight tracks that resulted provide vivid evidence of the band's deft spontaneity, kaleidoscopic versatility and deeply felt camaraderie. It's also the latest glimpse of the ongoing evolution of their collective identity. 'We're like scientists dealing with sound,' Perelman says. 'Each recording is a means to check our development.' 'There was a dark energy surrounding all of us, counterbalanced by the sheer power of creation. We had to become an antenna to capture the angst and anxiety of the times and transform it into art and catharsis. There was a social function to that music, not just for us but for anyone who might hear it one day. I left the studio with a new soul.' Featured on the inner panels of the digipak are luminous track-by-track poetic responses by a woman of strength and vision, Mia Hansford, who provided similar notes to Matthew Shipp's The Piano Equation, and will again on future Tao Forms releases."
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TAO 003CD
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"Now Then, by Tani Tabbal Trio, is the vital third release on Tao Forms, and we are honored to present this brand new work from the master drummer-percussionist. Tani Tabbal is known for his extensive performing and recording career with Roscoe Mitchell, Geri Allen, James Carter, David Murray, Sun Ra, and Faruq Z. Bey / Griot Galaxy. Following a series of self-released recordings over the past decade (including two by this trio), Now Then will be his first internationally distributed work as a leader. Tabbal -- who came of age on Detroit's fertile jazz scene -- has always looked for colleagues with fresh ideas, big ears, and adventurous souls. He found them again in veteran bassist Michael Bisio and next generation alto saxophonist Adam Siegel. Now Then is an exceptional album of charismatic communications by three musicians who breathe as one. The compositions -- six by Tabbal, four by Bisio -- define specific materials and moods that the trio develops with patience and a subtle variety of textures and dynamics. Melodic riches abound, wielded with both controlled fire & giving tenderness, while the joy of prolific communication and illuminated creation permeates the album. It's a beauty!"
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TAO 002CD
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"Free improvisation is as much an act of discovery as of creation. On their breathtaking debut, Expanding Light, the brand-new Whit Dickey Trio shines their collective illumination into the heretofore unexplored darkness between them. The album teams the drummer with one of his most long-standing collaborators in saxophonist Rob Brown & for the first time with the young firebrand bassist Brandon Lopez, in what is certainly hoped will be an ongoing communion. The light and the dark, intimate friends and fresh relations -- these are a few of the dualities embodied by the new recording label Tao Forms (launching May 1, 2020 with The Piano Equation, a cosmic solo piano outing by Matthew Shipp). This second release by the label continues the remarkable creative renaissance which Dickey embarked on with his stunning and widely acclaimed 2019 double-album by the Tao Quartets, a Yin and Yang pairing of two distinct ensembles. Expanding Light is an exercise in going full-bore Yang. The result maintains a visceral ferocity even at its most abstract and more gentle moments, a sonic territory that the drummer refers to as 'free grunge,' influenced as much by Nirvana at their finest as by the holistic experimentation of Dickey's mentor, Professor Milford Graves."
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TAO 001CD
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"Further honing a singular cosmic musical language, Matthew Shipp begins celebrating his landmark 60th year with this new work for solo piano. The Piano Equation is also the inaugural release from Tao Forms, a new label devoted to enlightened and elevated free jazz. Over more than half of his lifespan, Shipp has built up an unparalleled body of work and a wholly original musical language that only becomes more hyper-focused and distinctive with the passage of time. Shipp's abstract eloquence is on vivid display throughout The Piano Equation, which presents Shipp alone at the piano, brilliantly solving his higher-order musical mathematics, approaching each new unknown from unexpected vantage points as in some form of cubist algebra. Shipp builds his solo music in a cellular fashion, formed like the building blocks of human life out of disparate elements that combine and evolve in ever-unique and fascinating forms. 'There are billions of different human beings on the planet, all constituted with the same genetic material but all completely different,' he says. 'All of these pieces can be generated with a different mother/father idea and the basic cellular material can unfold in billions of ways.' Stride, swing and the avant-garde collide like so many elemental particles, the aftereffects radiating outward in increasingly complex and intricate formations. The scientific, the personal, the political and the fantastic co-exist throughout Shipp's work, melding in the radical vocabulary that the pianist employs on the album, which speaks with its own alien yet familiar logic. Fragments of melody coalesce and transform, dissolve or shatter into kaleidoscopic reveries."
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