[Autonomedia UB-30] - BOOK - 6 x 9", 94 pg, perfect bound, published Spring 2025
Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings is a collection of essays and prose poems from acclaimed pianist and visionary Matthew Shipp. Downbeat magazine has described Shipp as “the connection between the past, present and future for jazzheads of all ages” and as “a musician who deserves a place of choice in the jazz piano pantheon.” Shipp has written essays for a number of fanzines, blogs and magazines over the years and this collection touches on many subjects, including jazz, sports, the psychology and spirituality of improvisation, and 1980s New York dance culture. Introducing this book, visual artist and poet Yuko Otomo places Black Mystery School Pianists and Other Writings in the pantheon of books by artists writing about their art, lauding it as “a meticulously descriptive record of his creative process’s physical/metaphysical/alchemical mystery itself seen from the inside,” with “a peculiar and unique quality which does not exist in any art writing.”
[ above text from the publisher, Autonomedia; below from back cover of book ]
“Matthew Shipp has created a beautiful testament filled with reflections, insightful analysis of his music and of the creative music scene. As every time his fingers touch the piano, he taps into the pure spiritual world from the eyes of the musician who is down in the trenches and standing on the pulpit. This book is full of personal stories and anecdotes that resonate with truth and a poetic honesty that goes beyond Jazz. It goes right to the heart.” –William Parker
“Reading Matthew Shipp is like hearing him play: one is left spellbound. The essays, poems, meditations, reflections gathered here are the work of a true polymath, a clairvoyant who understands that “mystery” neither baffles nor conceals. It illuminates. And what Shipp illuminates are the core elements of this thing we call jazz: vibrations, universal energy, breath, pulse, silence, chromosomes, logos, language, and angels. This book will forever change how we hear, see, and feel music.” –Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original