Presented in association with Fataka

Iconoclastic piano genius Matthew Shipp returns to Cafe OTO for three nights, continuing and expanding collaborations formed in his unforgettable first residency back in 2010, and culminating in an evening of extended solo performance.

Steeped in the history of the jazz avant-garde yet with an unmistakeably individual voice, Matthew Shipp has established himself as one of the most important figures in American creative music today. Combining an uncompromising personal language with an exemplary eclecticism, Shipp has worked with an astonishing array of musicians, including Roscoe Mitchell, David S. Ware, Antipop Consortium, William Parker, Mat Maneri, Spring Heel Jack, J Spaceman, Evan Parker, and Nate Wooley.

“Shipp’s approach to the keyboard is a study of tone, decay, muscle, and grace . . . round filigree unfolding amid monumental bell-like clangs . . . rangy attack that volleys from dense clusters that nearly distort themselves to barely perceptible skims of the keyboard . . . stark and insistent and utterly massive.” - Clifford Allen, Tiny Mix Tapes

WEDNESDAY 19 FEBRUARY
MATTHEW SHIPP WITH JOHN BUTCHER AND THOMAS LEHN

Shipp's last OTO residency featured his first meeting with saxophonist John Butcher, a highly charged, intense encounter which saw these two very different musicians achieve a remarkable synthesis. For this encounter, Shipp and Butcher decided to expand the duo, inviting synthesizer master Thomas Lehn to join them for a trio. Butcher and Lehn have worked together in trio settings before, producing recordings such as Thermal, with Andy Moor of The Ex (Unsounds, 2003) and Exta, with John Tilbury (Fataka, 2013). This new grouping with Shipp promises to be both a fitting successor and utterly different to its predecessors.

“Harmonically fulsome and burring, Shipp refuses to lay off the gas for too long and this pushes Butcher into a simply howling phase . . . it’s exhilarating, and it makes the more spacious passages that follow even more effective. Butcher’s liquid and animal sounds that emerge from near silence are extremely engaging, but best of all is the intensely complex weave of high velocity lines that close out the piece.” - Jason Bivins, Point of Departure

THURSDAY 20 FEBRUARY
MATTHEW SHIPP WITH PAUL DUNMALL, JOHN EDWARDS AND MARK SANDERS

A welcome return for a fine quartet. Bringing together American and British sensibilities, the quartet of Paul Dunmall, John Edwards, Mark Sanders and Matthew Shipp create music that covers almost the entire terrain of contemporary improvised music, from explosive free jazz to instrumental abstraction. Featuring, as it does, four very strong individual players, the group is remarkably free of ego, and shares a sensitivity to space and structure and an acute awareness of when not to play.

“Sudden change in the grain of the music happened seemingly without warning. Like a flock of wheeling birds everyone knew when to turn unprompted but in perfect synch with their neighbor. From a combination of uncanny instinct and hard-won experience, they flipped from forceful workout to restrained rectitude in the blink of an eye . . . it was clear that this was free jazz of the highest order.” - John Sharpe, All About Jazz

FRIDAY 21 FEBRUARY
MATTHEW SHIPP SOLO

The residency culminates in an evening of Matthew Shipp solo. Since his first solo outings in the 1980s, Shipp has established himself as one of the foremost solo performers. Combining original compositions, improvisation and an eclectic range of references from the jazz repertoire and beyond, Shipp's solos are elegant and powerful constructions that appear both completely self-contained and yet open to multiple possibilities. This is a rare opportunity to see him in such an intimate setting and should be an incredibly intense experience for both musician and audience alike.