Matthew Shipp

I heard a short piece about this jazz pianist on NPR. As a result, I bought his "Anti-Pop Consortium" CD which is a very original combination of hip-hop and jazz. I also love a solo jazz piano cut of his, "Prelude to a Kiss" from iTunes. So I was looking forward to his solo concert in San Francisco last weekend.

His recorded work goes off on tangents from time to time, but this concert was ALL tangents. He came out and played enthusiastically and loudly for 40 to 50 minutes at a clip with only a very rare nod to the melody. Like maybe there was 40 seconds of a hint of the melody in 40 minutes of, well, something. I could sort of see what he was trying to do harmonically, but it just didn't grab me.

I kept thinking of that "Bad Opera" skit they used to do on Saturday Night Live with Dan Aykroyd, only this was "Bad Jazz" and a MUCH longer skit.