Jones and Matthew Shipp, Cosmic Lieder (Aum Fidelity)

In 2009, alto saxophonist Darius Jones (then in his early 30s) recruited pianist Cooper-Moore and drummer Rakalam Bob Moses (both in their early 60s) for his trio disc, Man’ish Boy (Aum Fidelity). At the time, some critics noted that along with Jones’ commanding tone, the group ignored potential generational differences for its unified sound. All of which was true, but whether or not the saxophonist intended to follow a similar intention for this duet with pianist Matthew Shipp (who recently turned 50), they maintain a remarkable harmonic and rhythmic dialogue throughout this album’s 13 tracks. However much of the disc is improvised or through-composed, their conversation never stops taking unexpected turns, like on “Bleed,” when Shipp answers Jones’ sidelong careen with just a few gentle, upper-register single-note lines; or how they skitter across the intro to “Motherboxxx.” While the album’s title indicates the galactic perceptions of Sun Ra, “Overvoid” emphasizes that Jones and Shipp’s focus is on creating the right kind of punctuation within musical space on this planet.

Article written by Aaron Cohen

Source DownBeat Magazine