Circular Temple

Circular Temple is a suite for piano, bass and drums in four movements. The second movement, subtitled "Monk's Nighmare", is referred to by Dickey as a "bop extravaganza".Original Liner Notes by John Farris According to David Fricke, "the opening keyboard motif finds the pianist twisting a riff marriage of Bud Powell's 'Dance of the Infidels' and Thelonious Monk's 'Well, You Needn't'."[http://www.matthewshipp.com/press/55-rolling_stone/rollingstone.html Rolling Stone review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305223216/http://www.matthewshipp.com/press/55-rolling_stone/rollingstone.html |date=2014-03-05 }} by David Fricke The third movement is a duet between Parker and Dickey. The fourth and final movement begins with a piano solo section.

In his book Visions of Jazz: The First Century, Gary Giddins says "If you think there's nothing to be done with Monk but play his tunes, listen to parts two and four of Shipp's Circular Temple, in which he adduces his own Monkian theme with percussive certainty."{{cite book|last = Giddins|first = Gary|author-link = Gary Giddins|title = Visions of Jazz:The First Century|year = 2000|publisher = Oxford University Press|isbn = 0195132416|pages = [https://archive.org/details/visionsofjazzfir0000gidd/page/526 526]|url = https://archive.org/details/visionsofjazzfir0000gidd/page/526}}

{{Music ratings

| rev2 = (The New) Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev2Score = {{rating|3.5|5}}{{cite book|last = Brackett|first = Nathan|author-link = Nathan Brackett|title = The New Rolling Stone Album Guide|edition = 4th|series = The Rolling Stone Album Guide|year = 2004|publisher = Fireside|isbn = 0743201698|pages = [https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/732 732]|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/732}}

| rev1 = The Penguin Guide to Jazz

| rev1Score = {{rating|3.5|4}}

}}

The Penguin Guide to Jazz wrote that this album and the previous one, Points, "takes some clues from the avant-garde past – Taylor, Bley, and Shipp's personal favorite, Andrew Hill – while going their own way in a quite dramatic fashion moment to moment."{{cite book|last = Cook|first = Richard|author-link = Richard Cook (journalist)|author2=Brian Morton |author-link2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title = The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD|edition = 6th|series = The Penguin Guide to Jazz|year = 2002|publisher = Penguin|location = London|isbn = 0140515216|pages = 1338}}

The album garnered a lead review in Rolling Stone by David Fricke, who wrote: "Even at his most extreme, as in the tidal waves of block-chord fury in "Circular Temple #1" Shipp never resorts to cheap anarchy, preferring the rigorously sculpted discord that Jimi Hendrix aspired to on the guitar."

The 2023 reissue was received as "daringly incongruous yet hypnotically accessible."{{cite web | url=http://www.allaboutjazz.com/circular-temple-matthew-shipp-trio-esp-disk | title=Matthew Shipp Trio: Circular Temple album review @ All About Jazz | date=4 September 2023 }}

:All compositions by Matthew Shipp

1. "Circular Temple #1" – 6:26
2. "Circular Temple #2 (Monk's Nightmare)" – 10:00
3. "Circular Temple #3" – 3:47
4. "Circular Temple #4" – 25:50

• Matthew Shipp – piano
• William Parker – bass
• Whit Dickey – drums

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Category:1992 albums

Category:Matthew Shipp albums