Circular Temple #1 6:34
Circular Temple #2 (Monk's Nightmare) 10:12
Circular Temple #3 3:51
Circular Temple #4 26:24
All compositions by Matthew Shipp
"Circular Temple" by the legendary Matthew Shipp Trio - reissued on CD and, for the first time, on vinyl on ESP-Disk'. New cover art by Yuko Otomo
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Credits:
Matthew Shipp, piano, co-producer; William Parker, bass; Whit Dickey, drums, co-producer.
Recorded October 16, 1990 at Seltzer Sound, N.Y.C. by Carl Seltzer.
Cover art by Yuko Otomo.
Liner notes by John Farris.
Reissue produced by Steve Holtje.
Overview:
It has become clear that Matthew Shipp is the most interesting and important jazz pianist of his generation, the most continually evolving and pushing forward. (We could also say “best,” even have been known to declare that, but it’s such a loaded term.) Now that he’s in his sixties and something of an elder statesman of the art form, he’s overdue for a retrospective look at his catalog, and to help make that happen, ESP-Disk’ will be reissuing some of his great early work that’s gone out of print:
• The 1990 trio recording Circular Temple (originally self-released on Quinton, then reissued in 1994 by Henry Rollins on his Infinite Zero label) will come out this September;
• His 1994 duo album with William Parker, Zo (originally on Rise, reissued in '97 on Rollins’s 2.13.61 label), will reappear in Spring 2024.
These will both be reissued not only on CD, the format on which they first appeared, but on vinyl as well, since many jazz fans prefer that medium. Additionally, his solo piano album Zero, released by ESP-Disk’ in 2018, will be put out on vinyl for the first time, also in 2024.
Circular Temple has marked many firsts for Matthew Shipp: his first CD release, first piano trio album, first of many times on record with Parker and Dickey, first album to be reissued, and on ESP-Disk’s reissue of it, first CD-only album to finally appear on vinyl and first album to be released by three different labels. And, more trivially, the first Shipp album that current ESP head/reissue producer Steve Holtje acquired, back when the only choices were that and a 1988 LP-only duo by Shipp and saxophonist Rob Brown on the Cadence label.
Press:
"At times in '#1,' Shipp's singular union of cracked-note hammering and delicate harmonic suspense suggests a duet between Erik Satie and a very pissed off Cecil Taylor."—David Fricke, Rolling Stone