Singularity Codex: Matthew Shipp On Rogueart

by Clifford Allen

A chronicle of almost 20 years of collaboration between M. Shipp and RogueArt. At the end, a book about modern/avant-garde jazz in the 21st century. Book by Clifford Allen, 210 pages, in English Interviews of William Parker, Rob Brown, Whit Dickey, Joe Morris, Yuko Otomo, Michel Dorbon, Jim Clouse

Paperback

Published August 11, 2023

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Matthew Shipp since I discovered his albums on the Thirsty Ear label back in the 1990s. I have listened to a lot of his albums but not all, because he is very prolific, and i just can’t keep up. He is a muscular, creative, free jazz pianist who plays in a variety of settings (solo, duos, trios, quartets, larger ensembles) and whose sound always stands out. He is one of the most recognizable jazz pianists working today. I was fortunate to see him at Edgefest in 2022, where his performance was volcanic and cathartic,.
I was glad that I found Clifford Allen’s book on Matthew Shipp. There are parts of it I like, and parts of it I don’t. I wish that there was more there. After reading Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards’ recent "Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music"–which does a masterful job of fusing Threadgill’s biography and creativity in expository form–I have very high expectations for free jazz music writing. Singularity Codex doesn’t quite measure up.
I liked Allen’s expository essays on Shipp’s background and spirituality. The analyses were full and insightful, and I felt that I was reading something by someone who really knew Matthew Shipp. I liked the the section dedicated to Matthew Shipp’s twenty-five releases on the RogueArt label, because Allen includes with the listing of each album a short essay discussing the music, providing an analytical framework for listening to the album more acutely. I didn’t like the interviews with the others (musicians, producer, RogueArt record label owner), because they read and felt too much like the notes for essays which Allen didn’t write. I am not a fan of reading interviews. Too often I find them baggy and redundant, and the sentences and paragraphs in need of polishing. But that is to be expected, since most of the time an interview is the written transcription of an oral interaction. I read Clora Bryant’s "Central Avenue Sounds: Jazz in Los Angeles," because I wanted to learn more about the Post-WWII LA jazz scene, but I found the interview format tedious to read through. I wanted more exposition and interpretation. Likewise, for "Singularity Codex," I just wanted Clifford Allen to take the interview material and rework it into expository essays with clear and coherent interpretations and points. I wanted to know what Allen made of the material, since he is the one who wrote the book.
I hoped that by the end Allen would be able to say how and why these twenty-five albums on RogueArt were distinct among Matthew Shipp’s many other releases, but he doesn’t.