Pianist Matthew Shipp has carved out a versatile career as one of the most innovative stylists on his instrument in contemporary music. He first came to prominence as a member of tenor saxophonist William S. Ware’s highly regarded quartet, beginning in 1989, with which he toured the world for seventeen years. Shipp has thrived in closely interactive contexts, most often in duos and trios, with many longstanding relationships, most significantly with tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, with whom he has released almost forty duo recordings since 1996. While always forward-looking, he has a keen knowledge of jazz history and sometimes reimagines the past, most recently restructuring the classic piano trio (and their first recording 30 years ago) on the just released Village Mothership, a collaboration with William Parker and Whit Dickey, and on Music Frees Our Souls, Vol. 1, which came out last month, with Parker and Francisco Mela. At the same time, he has developed his own take on the solo piano recital, one that reveals a style that is both emotionally exuberant and cerebral at the same time, laced with intellectual rigor, high energy, romanticism, and sly humor. Unabashedly modern and open to all kinds of music, he has studied and absorbed much of the pianistic jazz tradition – what he refers to as vibration — while managing to sound like no one else.

New York-born bassist and composer Michael Bisio spent thirty years on the West Coast, where he was deeply involved with a wide range of musical styles, learning from masters of modern music such as James Harnett, William O. Smith, and Stuart Dempster at the University of Washington. In the early eighties he gained invaluable experience as a member of trumpeter Barbara Donald’s band Unity that included and saxophonist Carter Jefferson, with whom he first appeared on a recording, and worked with many others, including Wayne Horwitz and Vinny Golia. Bisio began to work with others in the east, beginning with Charles Gayle, and he would make long-lasting associations with people such as Joe McPhee and Joe Giardullo. Seventeen years ago he moved to the East Coast. In 2009 he joined the faculty of Bennington College and a year later began his collaboration with the Matthew Shipp Trio, which continues to this day.

Percussionist and composer Newman Taylor Baker began his drumming explorations as a child in the context of Virginia State University, where both his parents were professors. He grew up to study formally with classical and jazz percussion teachers. This extensive education prepared him for a career that has encompassed many different artistic contexts, from Ahmad Jamal to Henry Threadgill, dance companies, symphony orchestras, educational projects, and Broadway shows. He is one of the few jazz drummers to focus on solo performances: since 1995 he has been presenting his Singin’ Drums work. In 2010 he discovered the washboard while working with the Ebony Hillbillies and this led to a new project, WashboardTX that explores various contemporary approaches to the instrument. In 2014 he joined the Shipp trio, and, as observed by reviewer Michael Nolte, they “could not have made a better choice than welcoming the experienced Newman Taylor Baker as partner in crime. When Bisio and Baker lay down the rhythm for Matt’s improvisations, they punctuate his tunes so adeptly that it becomes almost impossible to distinguish between the three artists.”