East axis

What you need to know…

East Axis is a visionary improvising quartet consisting of renowned musicians Eric McPherson (drums), Kevin Ray (bass), Scott Robinson (sax) and Matthew Shipp (piano). They recently released their second album, “No Subject,” on the Mack Avenue label under the auspices of Christian McBride’s Brother Mister imprint.

One of the hottest new bands on the scene, East Axis finished 2nd in the JazzTimes Critics Poll for New Artist in 2021, after their debut release “Cool with That.” Featuring four of the most unique and creative musicians on the planet, the whole is truly greater than the sum of their considerable parts.

East Axis Is like the cumulative life experience of its members. East Axis is four men, of different styles and backgrounds, coming together to spontaneously make music that sounds like each of them, all of them, and none of them. The music is like a dream of many scenes, but one observed with precision and the deepest type of understanding. The sound of it is a running commentary on the intersection of experience and that dream; a map of places that these musicians are still trying to explore. Gerald Cleaver named the band, saying "East Axis describes these players in this particular place and time. There’s a thing that comes to mind about the name East Axis. I'm grateful for the chance to more fully realize my potential in New York. That was my dream, and the dream came true. Having now moved as far west in the continental US as is possible, I'm reminded of the need to stay charged with the energy of the place."

Matthew Shipp says: "I am always looking for new situations to renew who I am and the language I am involved with—this group has allowed me to reboot my brain. Scott is a unique figure, who is unlike anyone I play with in any other situation. Kevin has a delicious cross section of experience over several genres that gives him a different look than a bassist who might be seen as the usual in the idiom. Gerald—who I have a history with—is different now because he has had such a deep and cross section of experiences since then. The music this group makes is unique. I really enjoy playing with these gentlemen."

Scott Robinson: "Joining a pre-existing group of this kind has its challenges and rewards. Of course I want to bring "my thing" to the group (they must want that, if they called me, right?)... and yet, I am very respectful of the fact that this is already a band, with its own personality, goals and methods. I must bring "my thing" to "their thing" in such a way that it can become "our thing." But for someone who has worked with as many different bands and singers as I have, this is no great stretch. It's how I tend to approach a lot of music anyway. Our very first meeting was in the recording studio, to record an album. No prior rehearsal or get-together of any kind. I guess they trusted me! Well, it was an exhilarating two days, and once we got settled in I think we produced an impressive and engaging document of the new group, one that begins to show what is possible. I look forward to more of what's possible... (with maybe a little impossible thrown in here and there)."

Kevin Ray: "This band is both exhilarating and terrifying to play with. You never know where the music will go, just that it’s somewhere exciting, and you hope you can keep up. Scott is a master of timbre and melody, Matt is an endless font of ideas, and this rhythm section is a dream to be in—Gerald is tasteful, stunningly creative, and grooves like hell. I’m so glad to be a part of it.".

Bios…

With his unique and recognizable style, pianist Matthew Shipp worked and recorded vigorously from the late '80s onward, creating music in which free jazz and modern classical intertwined. He first became well known in the early '90s as the pianist in the David S. Ware Quartet, and soon began leading his own dates - - most often including Ware bandmate and leading bassist William Parker -- and recording a number of duets with a variety of musicians, from the legendary Roscoe Mitchell to violinist Mat Maneri, the latter another musician who began making a name for himself in the '90s. Through his range of live and recorded performances and unswerving individual development, Shipp has come to be regarded as a prolific and respected voice in creative music into the new millennium.

Born in 1960 and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, Shipp grew up around '50s jazz recordings. He began playing piano at the young age of five, and decided to focus on jazz by the time he was 12. He played on a Fender Rhodes in rock bands while privately devouring recordings by a variety of jazz players. His first mentor was a man in his hometown named Sunyata, who was enthusiastic about a variety of subjects in addition to music. Shipp later studied music theory and improvisation under Clifford Brown's teacher Robert "Boisey" Lawrey, as well as classical piano and bass clarinet for the school band. After one year at the University of Delaware, Shipp left and took lessons with Dennis Sandole for a short time, after which he attended the New England Conservatory of Music for two years.

Shipp moved to N.Y.C. in 1984 and soon met bassist William Parker, among others. Both were playing with tenor saxophonist Ware by 1989. Meanwhile, Shipp had debuted as a recording artist in a duo with alto player Rob Brown on Sonic Explorations, recorded in November 1987 and February 1988. Shipp married singer Delia Scaife around 1990. He then went on to lead his own trio with Parker and drummers Whit Dickey and Susie Ibarra. Shipp has led dates for a number of labels, including FMP, No More, Eremite, Thirsty Ear, and Silkheart. In 2000, he began acting as curator for Thirsty Ear's Blue Series. This excellent series hosted a number of Shipp's own recordings, as well as the recordings of William Parker, Tim Berne, Roy Campbell, Craig Taborn, Spring Heel Jack, and Mat Maneri.

One of today's most wide-ranging instrumentalists, Scott Robinson has been heard on tenor sax with Chet Baker, trumpet with Lionel Hampton's quintet, alto clarinet with Paquito D'Rivera's clarinet quartet, and bass sax with the New York City Opera. On these and other instruments including theremin and ophicleide, he has been heard with a cross-section of jazz's greats representing nearly every imaginable style of the music, from Braff to Braxton.

Primarily a tenor saxophonist, Scott once placed directly below the great Sonny Rollins in the DownBeat Readers Poll. Scott has been heard numerous times on film, radio and television, and his discography now includes more than 275 recordings. Scott's collaborators on disc have included Frank Wess, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, and Bob Brookmeyer, and he has performed with the Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra for more than 30 years. His releases as a leader have garnered five-star reviews from Leonard Feather, DownBeat Magazine, Wall Street Journal and other respected sources worldwide, and have appeared in many Best-of- Year lists. Scott’s recent all-tenor album Tenormore, featuring Helen Sung, Martin Wind and Dennis Mackrel, won #1 Best New Release of 2019 in the JazzTimes readers poll, and was rated “indispensable” by France’s Jazz Hot magazine.

He has performed in such diverse and prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Village Vanguard, the Library of Congress and the Vienna Opera House. His performances for dignitaries worldwide have included a U.S. Presidential Inauguration and a command performance honoring the birthday of the king of Thailand. Scott's group was selected to be the closing act at the Knitting Factory's Sun Ra Festival in New York City. Scott has also written magazine articles and liner notes, and was an invited speaker at the Congressional Black Caucus Jazz Forum in Washington, D.C. He has been a staunch advocate for creative music around the world. He was selected by the US State Department to be a Jazz Ambassador for 2001, completing an eight-week, eleven- country tour of West Africa performing his arrangements of the compositions of Louis Armstrong (later featured on his CD Jazz Ambassador). Scott has served as Artist-in-Residence at jazz festivals in Ancona, Italy and Aarhus, Denmark, and as Musical Host at the Louis Armstrong Festival in Hungary. A respected performer in all areas of jazz, from traditional to avant-garde, Scott has arrived at his own unique musical voice which, as once described in a Northsea Jazz Festival program, "combines solid foundations with great daring".

Born and raised in New York, Eric McPherson was immersed in music from birth on: Richard Davis, his godfather and an icon among jazz bassists, was present at his birth. It was Richard who suggested he be named after Eric Dolphy. Before Eric was three months old, his mother a superb dancer-choreographer deep in the jazz scene was taking him, strapped to her back, to rehearsals and performances. Her wide orbit of friends included lots of drummers, major jazz artists like Max Roach, Michael Carvin, Charles Moffett and Freddie Waits. Small wonder that Eric was beating on pots and pans before he could walk. At three, he told Elvin Jones, another household friend, that he was definitely going to be a drummer.

By the time Eric was eight, he was teaching himself to play on a drum set borrowed from Charles Moffett. At twelve, he started seven years of formal drum studies under Michael Carvin, a master drummer and a brilliant teacher. Within the year, he was jamming with another kid, Abraham Burton. Together, they started doing street performances at anti-apartheid rallies, soon to be joined by young Nasheet Waits. A year later they were performing on-stage at Barry Harris’ Jazz Cultural Theater.

About the same time, Eric was admitted to New York’s prestigious LaGuardia High School of the Arts, a school for gifted students. Soon he was selected for the New York All City High School Big Band, making his Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center debuts with the Big Band and winning several Outstanding Soloist Awards.

Upon graduating, his mentor Michael Carvin recommended Eric to Jackie McLean. That led to a full scholarship for attending the Jackie McLean Institute at the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford. While still a student at Hartt, Jackie invited Eric to join the Jackie McLean Quintet along with Rene McLean, Alan Palmer and Nat Reeves. For the next 15 years, until Jackie’s recent death, Eric was his drummer, following in the distinguished footsteps of drummers Michael Carvin, Billy Higgins, Jack DeJohnette and Tony Williams. Over those years, Eric recorded two CDs with Jackie and performed with him at major venues and festivals all over the Far East, Middle East, Latin America, Europe, the Caribbean, and the U.S.

In addition to his touring and recording with Jackie McLean, Eric has also performed with a wide range of major jazz figures, including Pharaoh Sanders, Andrew Hill, Richard Davies, Claudia Acuña, Jason Moran, Greg Osby and Avishai Cohen.

As a young man casting about for direction, critically acclaimed bassist ("able to hear around corners...", "... a wonder") Kevin Ray drifted into the New School jazz program, where he became a protege of Reggie Workman’s, a deep relationship that abides to this day. Under Reggie’s tutelage he developed an affinity for adventurous artists such as The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Henry Threadgill, The World Saxophone Quartet, Andrew Cyrille, and others. Supporting himself in the early 90s with a straight gig managing a division at Forbes Publishing, Kevin continued to study and play. Toward the end of the decade, he came into contact with one of his spiritual mentors, Andrew Hill. "Andrew gave me the confidence to be truly serious about becoming a musician," Ray explains. For ten years he played regularly with Hill and continued to expand his horizons by performing and recording with other outstanding artists such as John Hicks, Bobby Zankel, Oliver Lake, Greg Osby, John Stubblefield, Ray Anderson, Kelvyn Bell, Elliott Sharp, Hamiet Bluiett, Nels Cline, Ursula Oppens, Roswell Rudd, J.D. Allen, and Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre. He has also performed in the premieres of major works by a wide range of composers, including Lee Hyla, Joe McPhee and Leroy Jenkins. In addition, since 2012, he has been a member, along with Frank Lacy and Andrew Drury, of the collective trio 1032K.

What people are saying…

"East Axis, as a band, is reminiscent of Keith Jarrett‘s “American Quartet”, featuring Dewey Redman on tenor saxophone, Charlie Haden’s bass, and Paul Motian on drums." "No Subject brings in reed player Scott Robinson in Lowe’s place, and the choice is right on the money." "the band sounds like it is connected by a set of ingenious wires or pulleys or tubes that allow the slightest musical feint by one to be followed or complemented by the others."- Will Layman, Pop Matters

"Cleaver possesses a close rapport forged over decades with pianist Matthew Shipp, who shares the drummer’s commitment to innovation formed within the crucible of tradition, and together with bassist Kevin Ray, they pull patterns, melodies and grooves out of the air." "Robinson is kind of the group’s secret weapon, unleashing an array of horns in addition to his tenor saxophone that alternatively feeds the quartet’s engine, slows it down or contributes contrapuntal variety.""★★★★" - Downbeat

"There is a bit of irony in the title No Subject. The quartet, even adhering to an often-loose structure, are master storytellers; each tune here is compelling in its narrative… No Subject is unadulterated, creative music full of layers, shadings, and unexpected rhythms; it thrives and metamorphosizes on repeated listening."- Karl Ackermann, All About Jazz

"...the players here understand the value of narrative, and join together to tell a story whenever they pick up the tools of their trade." "No Subject astonishes with its power, grace and magnificently synergistic performances." - Michael Toland, The Big Takeover

"The term “supergroup” is so played, a catchy go-to writer label bandied about in perpetuity. But if it’s ever retired, as it should be, the mighty East Axis has earned the right to be its be all, end all." "The telepathic level and precise execution this improvisatory powerhouse demonstrates is off the scale. …deep-rooted melodicism and purely expressionistic passages rife with gorgeous subtlety…" - Brad Cohan, Rock & Roll Globe

"These four musicians were able to take notions from free jazz and more literally composed sections to coalesce and create truly intuitive music, which makes a memorable impact. This was a very well executed recording, creating exciting music that sounds fresh, the music moving forward by developing a team based and resonant sound played with a spark of the unexpected"- Tim Niland, Jazz and Blues

"No Subject is pure creativity; a respectable follow up to Cool With That (Esp-Disk', 2021), whose impact was tremendous." - Felipe Frietas, JazzTrail.net

"The twelve adventurous episodes on No Subject take on all shapes and logics with a brazen adherence to themes which are fertile with anticipation and continuity." "This is how freedom plays." - Mike Jurkovic, All About Jazz

"The album has a strange meditative beauty where the individual contributions coalesce to produce an experience that is closer to Debussy than Jelly Roll Morton with flavours of Coltrane." "Probably the best way to listen to the album is through excellent headphones while watching a sequence of paintings by abstract expressionists Mark Rothko or Janet Sobel. The pointillistic gentle collision of textures, ideas and tones is beguiling." "This is carefully presented, enjoyable free jazz for those who are wary of free jazz. It is the kind of album that open minded listeners will want to listen to again and again to search out and absorb the nuances." - Jack Kenny, Jazz Views

"The loose, ambling character of the songs, which meander seamlessly between fragmented rhythm and muscular swing, is well enhanced by the high standards of the four bandmembers as well as the creative bond between them... there is a flinty, grainy beauty that permeates pieces that playfully tease their melodic asides into life." "‘Supergroup’ can be something of a throwaway term, but this gathering has players of sufficient stature to give the description substance." - Jazzwise

"A departure for Christian McBride's Brother Mister label dealing with a hardcore improvising unit who take no prisoners, and bravo for that decision given how excellent the album is." - Marlbank.net

"This is pure, creative improvisation at its best – a myriad of textures, colors, and rhythmic patterns that you should truly get lost in." - Jim Hynes, Making a Scene

"This is not free improvisation in the usual sense. East Axis always has an intuitive plan, a way forward… possibly an unexpectedly adventurous release from Christian McBride's record label Brother Mister, but a most welcome one" - Lira

"This is a group that needs to keep on putting records out." - The Necessary Blues

"It’s the best inside-out jazz album I’ve heard so far in 2023." - Peter Margazak, Substack

"…you could call East Axis a supergroup of highly improvised jazz. But it’s more interesting to dwell on how this collection of distinctive voices use this occasion to make spontaneous music together that opens up new wrinkles in their respective approaches… Sure, everyone’s playing their asses off, but they do it while closely connecting to everyone else and making melodies on the fly… ...the rhythm section swinging like the dickens..." - Something Else