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That group, which featured Parker and a succession of drummers (Marc Edwards, Whit Dickey, Susie Ibarra, and Guillermo Brown), was distinguished by pianist Matthew Shipp, an imposing improviser who prodded Ware to monumental heights. Together they created wildly dense fabrics of sound–brooding, roiling, violent–whose twin coils of improvisation were so packed with melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ideas that each performance left the listener both exhausted and exhilarated. I remember listening to albums like Flight of I and Godspelized over and over to come to terms with their intensity, and with each spin I heard new details.
And Ware himself often uses a gentler touch in this lineup, since his bandmates leave room for such an approach. Of course, he still sometimes reaches down into the tenor’s gut-wrenching lower register or spits out wild but sustained harmonic shouts, working over simple phrases with maniacal focus. Shakti is a dynamic piece of work, just like you’d expect from Ware, and this new quartet seems capable of growing together in exciting directions.
