Drummer Whit Dickey has said that he got into music “by accessing a vibration.” His latest effort, on his own TAO Forms imprint, is the constantly surprising and deeply intense Root Perspectives by the Whit Dickey Quartet. He notes that this album was conceived “off of a vibration” that he felt fully fifteen years ago, in a period when he was “obsessively listening” to the title track on John Coltrane’s Crescent album. That obsession has generated this bold and serious music that acts in part like a commentary on the Coltrane song but mainly as an imaginative extension. The opening track, Supernova, starts out in quietly angular fashion, rapidly growing in power over the course of eleven minutes. The piece clearly evokes the later work of the Coltrane quartet. It’s the first of four extended performances that ebb and flow in a sensually organic way. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s gruffly expressive and fluid playing is definitely influenced by ‘Trane, not in his sound so much, but more in his ever-searching and spiritually oriented attitude. Pianist Matthew Shipp has amassed many hours of playing with Dickey over the last thirty years in bands led by David S. Ware, Ivo Perelman, and Shipp’s own efforts, among others. Naturally enough, he sounds thoroughly at home here. His use of dynamics and waves of sound mirrors Dickey’s loose-limbed approach to the drum kit. Although the fourth member of the band, bassist Brandon Lopez, is a relative latecomer to the scene, his fidgety style and the complexity of his time sense make him a natural for this band. The pieces here fit together perfectly, with the individual proclivities of the musicians in uniform dedication to the exigencies of Dickey’s compositions. All told, Root Perspectives is a fascinating listen, strongly recommended.
TAO Forms TAO 12; Tony Malaby (ts) Matthew Shipp (p) Brandon Lopez (b) Whit Dickey (d); Brooklyn, NY, May 7, 2022; Supernova/ Doomsday Equation/ Swamp Petals/ Starship Lotus; 50:34. aumfidelity.com/collections/tao-forms
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