Pianist Matthew Shipp—hitting Iridium alongside bassist Michael Bisio and drummer Whit Dickey in advance of a handsome 50th-birthday set, Art of the Improviser—persists as a resilient outsider, maintaining strong ties to NYC’s free-jazz community even as he assails its orthodoxies. Expect Shipp to balance thunderstorm improv with deconstructed standards and lush meditations on his somber, stately themes.
