Armadillo Music

Reviews:

Too often, attempts at fusing jazz with hip-hop and electronic music have eitherbeen awkward (Miles Davis’s Doo-Bop), lite-headed (Guru’s Jazzmatazzprojects), or watery (Ben Neill’s Tryptical). One reason Nu Bop,the newest from New York pianist Matthew Shipp, who also plays in David S. Ware’squartet, works as well as it does is that despite its (rather dumb) title, themusic never forces the issue. The newest in indie label Thirsty Ear’s forward-lookingBlue Series, whose M.O. is jazz-electronic fusion, Nu Bop findsShipp holding steady to the tonal and rhythmic possibilities of the acousticpiano (after switching to Korg synthesizer on Ware’s Parallels & Corridorslast year) and letting a subtle array of electronic textures and beats cometo him.

The textures arrive courtesy of synth player, programmer and co-producer FLAM[*CQ], particularly on “D’s Choice,” where he sends an in-and-out-of-focusfiltered swoosh through the air as Shipp plays a simple vamp with slight variationsand lets the rhythm carry all the action, squiggling and darting around thepiano’s solid center. Bassist William Parker and drummer Guillermo E. Brown(both of whom also play with Shipp in Ware’s group) slam decentered funkpatternswith flair; “Space Shipp” keeps leaning off the rails untilit finally collapses in free-piano formations, while setting a fast, near-drum& bassish beat on “Select Mode 1” (complete with occasional backward-hi-hatflourishes), while Shipp leans hard on the keys and Parker shadows him withthick, almost thuggish bass playing. Best is “Rocket Shipp,” whereShipp forms single-note cobwebs over a hypnotic pulse before, five minutes in,reverting to more straightforward comping—and jumping out of the mix andgrabbing your attention.