Though he had recorded a couple of duo albums with altoist Rob Brown before this, Points was the first disc to be released under pianist Matthew Shipp's name. At this stage of his career, Shipp was drawing many comparisons to Cecil Taylor and, in a sense, it's easy to see why: not so much in his actual piano playing, but very much so in his group conception. The lengthy opening and closing compositions, for instance, sound strikingly similar to some of Taylor's mid-'60s work with Sunny Murray and Jimmy Lyons both in their ...
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Though he had recorded a couple of duo albums with altoist Rob Brown before this, Points was the first disc to be released under pianist Matthew Shipp's name. At this stage of his career, Shipp was drawing many comparisons to Cecil Taylor and, in a sense, it's easy to see why: not so much in his actual piano playing, but very much so in his group conception. The lengthy opening and closing compositions, for instance, sound strikingly similar to some of Taylor's mid-'60s work with Sunny Murray and Jimmy Lyons both in their loose spatial feel and in Brown's plaintive, Lyons-esque phrasing. "Afro Sonic" plies a different path, Shipp's insistent piano recalling the minimalism of Steve Reich, of all things, with bassist William Parker launching some furious arco scrabbling over the top while Brown and Whit Dickey scurry along the sidelines. With "Piano Pyramid," a hornless trio, listeners are back in Taylor territory again, specifically Taylor around Unit Structures (1966), and here one can pick up a lot more overt presence in Shipp's actual playing. It's handled in a graceful and polished manner but begs the question: Why does an ostensibly avant-garde musician work in a style that was 25 years old at the time of this recording? It was interesting to realize that just as the ghost of Miles Davis' early-'60s recordings hung over the work of Wynton Marsalis and other "Young Lions," so did the work of free jazz pioneers like Taylor and Albert Ayler overwhelm many of the younger musicians castigating Marsalis for not doing something "new." Shipp would, to some extent, work his way out of this conundrum in ensuing years and fans of his work will want to hear Points at the very least for its historical value but, objectively, it's an inconsistent and not entirely original release. ~ Brian Olewnick, Rovi
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