Matthew Shipp

Matthew Shipp (born December 7, 1960) is an American pianist, composer and bandleader.

Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford Brown.

He was strongly attracted to jazz, but also played in rock groups while in high school. Shipp attended the University of Delaware for one year, then the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with saxophonist/composer Joe Maneri. He has cited private lessons with Dennis Sandole (who also taught saxophonist John Coltrane) as being crucial to his development.

Shipp has been very active since the early 1990s, appearing on dozens of albums as a leader, sideman or producer. He was initially most active in free jazz, but has since branched out, notably exploring music that touches on contemporary classical, hip hop and electronica. At the beginning of his career shipp was stylistically compared to some of his predecessors in the jazz piano pantheon but has since been recognized as a complete stylistic innovator on the piano--with all music guide referring to his unique and recognizable style and in a feature in Jazziz Magazine where Larry Blumenfeld refers to Shipp as stunning in originality. Jazziz also referred to Shipp's cd 4D as further proof of his idiosyncratic genius.

Shipp has long been a member of saxophonist David S. Ware's quartet. He has recorded or performed with many musicians, including William Parker, DJ Spooky, Joe Morris, Daniel Carter, Roscoe Mitchell, Mat Maneri, High Priest and Beans of Antipop Consortium, and El-P.

In February 2011, Shipp released a double-disc album entitled "Art of the Improviser." This release is "testament to Shipp’s achievements, yet it is also a continuation of the discovery in his developmental musical language." The Chicago Tribune called the project "monumental" and "galvanic as ever."

Shipp has been continuously improving his repertoire from touring the world, writing new compositions and currently collaborating with Washington DC multi-media artist Barbara Januszkiewicz. Together they are exploring a new territory through an avant-garde film called “The Composer with Matthew Shipp/ Barb Januszkiewicz."