# CD review: Matthew Shipp Trio and Nicole Mitchell – All Things Are 2019: Video, CD cover

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/04/07/cd-review-matthew-shipp-trio-and-nicole-mitchell-all-things-are-2019-video-cd-cover/
- Published: 2019-04-07T21:38:42+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**This collaboration between Matthew Shipp’s trio and flutist Nicole Mitchell might
better be described as a confab or parley. Each party is testing out new ground 
and finding a mutual comfort zone on All Things Are. **

Of course that comes in the job description of an improvising musician. Shipp’s 
partners, bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Newman Taylor Baker, work together as
a conversant trio. Mitchell is the wildcard here that perks the ears.

The now-Californian (by way of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians) artist released music under her own leadership in Nicole Mitchell’s Black
Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Ice Crystal, Sonic Projections, and contributed
to the collectives Frequency and Indigo Trio that includes the luminaries Hamid 
Drake, Harrison Bankhead, and Tomeka Reid. She has also collaborated, as has Shipp,
with saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell. That connection is vital to this recording.

The four musicians explore territories mostly free from song form, a seeming requirement
when they possess the creativity and music making ability to power a mid-size city.“
Elements” opens the session with a commanding impetus. Newman Taylor Baker’s cymbals
signal drama, as Michael Bisio’s bass chews up huge swaths of land. If Shipp and
Mitchell chose, they could have pushed this recording into the thunderous land of
free jazz. Instead, they opt to meet in the ethereal worlds, mining a delicacy and,
at times, an eggshell-like fragility of sound. Mitchell’s vocalese must be the answer.
She can frame her sound as both wispy or hard-boiled. Minus Shipp on “It,” Mitchell
turns up the quiet before polishing off some energy clusters. Is she doing her best
Matt Shipp imitation here? The most accessible and, maybe the signature piece here
is the grooving “Void of Ground.” With an infectious pulse, both Shipp and Mitchell
are freed to unchain their inner beasts.

 1.  Elements (07:25)
 2.  Well Spring (05:12)
 3.  It (06:12)
 4.  Hidden Essence (05:19)
 5.  Void Of Ground (06:29)
 6.  Water And Earth (05:50)
 7.  Fire And Air (05:42)
 8.  Blossom (05:49)
 9.  All Things Are (08:40)

**Personnel: Matthew Shipp: piano; Nicole Mitchell: flute, alto flute; Michael Bisio:
double bass; Newman Taylor Baker: drums.**

![Image result for Matthew Shipp Trio & Nicole Mitchell - All Things Are](https://
i0.wp.com/roguart.com/assets/userfiles/2019/01/31-new-all1things1are4.jpg?w=640&
ssl=1)

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