Matthew Shipp

“I'm trying to deal with abstraction and the subconscious in a very raw way.”

“Every album I do is a statement of where I'm at in my development.”

“I'm always looking to generate a linguistic point of view with a whole other syntax and a whole other grammar.”

“For me, the trio is the classic format for the modern jazz pianist.”

“The piano is a machine, and you have to learn how to be a puppeteer with the machine.”

“The idea is to be a conduit for the creative impulse.”

“My whole thing is to generate a system, and the system is a language and a grammar.”

“Free jazz is an open space of consciousness.”

“I'm very much a product of the jazz tradition, but I'm also a product of the 20th century classical avant-garde.”

“I look at the piano as a totality of its own sonic universe.”

“I'm interested in the vibrational quality of sound.”

“Jazz is a beautiful word. I'm not a person that's ashamed of the word jazz.”

“I don't believe in practicing, I believe in playing. And the two are different.”

“The whole idea of what I do is to generate a cosmic pulse.”

“The music itself is a teacher.”