Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp - Cosmic Lieder

2011 CD release.

Cosmic Lieder, an exquisite & expansive 13-part song-cycle, is a deeply emotional & illuminated narrative by two highly attuned and intelligent musical voices commenting on an alien world's landscape as they are simultaneously creating it. The songs range from entrancingly lyrical & gentle to mercurial flows to pieces which defy common description.

This momentous duo project exists because of the mutual admiration that Darius Jones & Matthew Shipp have for one another's prodigious musical gifts, and it bridges two generations of distinctly shining lights in the jazz world. Shipp, then celebrating his 50th year on this planet, is a veteran of invention and one of the truly original pianists in jazz history. Jones is a profoundly gifted young alto saxophonist-composer-bandleader whose 2009 debut, Man'ish Boy (A Raw & Beautiful Thing), received an across-the-board wave of critical acclaim – chosen as among the best Jazz Albums of 2009 by Village Voice-Jazz Critics Poll, NPR, JazzTimes, Boston Globe, Destination:Out, and many more.