Kirk Knuffke and Matthew Shipp are rhapsodic and swinging; they isolate pure sound and spin out bent, swaggering fractals of song

Shipp has made clear that although it's a duo recording and completely improvised, Knuffke is the leader and the titles and overall scope are his. As the cornetist explains, 'I always feel like myself in different situations. I had composed music for the trio with Michael and Matthew but I decided for the duo that there would be none. I enjoy doing both or any combination of the two, though I always tend toward more improvisation even when there are compositions involved.' Given that, there's a full, gorgeous unfolding in these 11 duets that both musicians adhere to, and Knuffke's pinched, breathy cry is broad and forceful, a remarkably present billow that crackles with energized reserve and can really carry a line -- or, even if the music is gestated on the spot, a tune. Though Dixon and Lacy may make strange sonic bedfellows, the ability of each to put forth so much weight in an unaccompanied context while also generating motion and presenting an unequivocal melodic arc is certainly relevant to Knuffke's music. Surely playing duos with Stacken, a very different pianist, also prepared him for a program of duets with Shipp, wherein conjuring form without a rhythm section and focusing on narrative and event in a minefield of crashing harmonics is the session's bread and butter. The tapping of Shipp's feet, keeping loose but demonstrative time, is audible and the feel of these duets is unique -- cornet projecting with big, gauzy incisions against the rattle of piano strings or clusters dropped like boulders in a pond, and while the music is very open, there's a clearly defined jazz element to the language. Knuffke and Shipp are rhapsodic and swinging; they isolate pure sound and spin out bent, swaggering fractals of song that cascade and stretch into Monkish dots. And when they want to, as in 'Nature is Murder All Day', they can put enough force into their instruments that it feels like both will splinter into cosmic dust.

Media

Track Listing

• Shall Speak
• Dream House
• Sift and Burrow
• Heavens
• In Our Garden
• What A Soulful Thing the Sail
• Pockets and Passageways
• From Flower to Flower
• Keep Our Hopes
• Nature is Murder All Day
• So You’re Me to Music?

Additional Details

Label: RogueArt

Genre: Jazz

Language: English

Run Time: 61:11 mins

Region: 0

Release Date: 11/06/26

UPC: 3760131271546