Exploiting the unique qualities of the Fazioli with Matthew Shipp.

There's something about the term "piano player" that's a little misleading.

To many, a "piano player" is someone who plays repertoire on a piano.

Take Angela Hewitt, who has made a name for herself performing the

music of Bach (among others) on the piano--the Fazioli in particular.

My sense is that Angela Hewitt could play Bach on a honky tonk piano

with tacks on the hammers and still make it sound beautiful.

Naturally, it wouldn't sound as stunning as Bach on the Fazioli, but

in terms of accurate rendering and artful interpretation of music from

the Baroque era, there's nothing to suggest that Ms. Hewitt's talent

could be constrained by the piano-as-tool.

The constraint (if you can call it that) is in the repertoire it self.

There is a right way and a wrong way to play Bach (and Beethoven and

Chopin, etc.)  Bach put those notes on that paper in a specific order

to be played in that specific order, regardless of world events,

weather, audience, the mood of the instrumentalist or quality of the

piano.

While Bach himself was one of the great improvising musicians, sadly

there are no recordings of Bach's improvisations. We are the poorer

for not knowing Bach as improviser--as it is improvisation that is the

fountain head and starting point for all composition.  Said another

way, "composition" is the crystallization, the freeze drying of that

living music known as improvisation into a symmetric, reproducible

commodity.

As a machine operator--as one who presses buttons on the piano machine

in order to generate music--Matthew Shipp is no less fluid, dynamic or

invested in the craft of piano playing than Ms. Hewitt, François Joel

Thiollier, Martha Argerich, Chucho Valdes, Michelle Camillo, Herbie

Hancock or any of the great artists of our day who we associate with

the Fazioli.

Yet unlike all the afore mentioned pianists (or most pianists today)

Matthew Shipp has embraced "freedom" as his musical compass.

Unbeholden to repertoire or class convention, Shipp musicality "frees"

him to utilize the totality of the instrument and all its harmonic

sonic capabilities therein in order to realize his musical concept.

"Free improvisation" is all too maligned as savagery--musical

"illiterates" simply banging away without consciousness or aesthetic.

While this couldn't be further from the truth, (especially in the case

of Matt Shipp) so what if it was?  Sound is sound, right?  Can the

Fazioli make a "bad" sound?

Ms. Hewitt herself said about the Fazioli  "The Fazioli is a creative

piano--it let's you do all you want with the piano."

In that instance, the demands a musicians who's creativity and musical

wants embrace the infinite.  If the musical context calls for a 50

note cluster to be played FFF with both forearms--a sound that has

been firmly enconsed in our musical vocabulary since the middle of the

20th century--what better piano to play said 50 note cluster than the

Fazioli?

A contemporary piano like the Fazioli, designed and built in the late

20th century, deserves, nay, demands the music of our time.  One has

to wonder if Bach or Chopin would have written the same music if they

had a Fazioli with which to work out their musical ideas.

With Shipp, unbound by century old harmonic conventions, the totality

of the Fazioli's tonal are fair use.  A piano as capable

and "creative" as the Fazioli deserves a pianist capable of creative

exploiting the unique qualities of the Fazioli as Shipp.

Kickstarter page  support this project here :The composer.