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Drip (Remastered)

by Brad Shepik Trio

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    Out of print since a few months after it's initial release in June 2003, Drip featuring bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey along with eight Shepik originals has been beautifully remastered by Sam Minaie.
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1.
In the Weeds 05:14
2.
Balance 08:21
3.
P.M. 06:22
4.
Trails 05:52
5.
Drip 07:19
6.
7.
A Boogie 05:59
8.
Sugar Cliff 05:52

about

NPR by Tom Moon 2003
Several different musical worlds live inside the brain of Brad Shepik you can hear them slugging it out for position on a song called “In the Weeds” from his extraordinary new cd “Drip”. The initial motif is a classic hard bop scramble. Something the legendary jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery might have played. But after a few repetitions it gives way to a spry, quick stepping melody that resembles West African guitar music. For years Shepik has created wild improvisational settings from the rigid, highly structured folk songs of Eastern Europe. He continues that on Drip but also reveals a more romantic side. He’s one of those musicians who with the slightest little glide can draw you into the heart of a melody. The songs of Drip center around Shepik’s reverby mignight blue tone. But they’re not just pretty -they’re boisterous and frantic, riddled with smart compositional turns and contentious little three-way argument involving bass, Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey. The result is something that sounds classic but is also defiantly new. The jazz guitar record you’ve been missing forever.


Jazztimes by Nate Chinen 2003
Brad Shepik has largely been associated with the skittering rhythms and shifting modes of the Mediterranean region. And for good reason: Shepik’s professional career has mostly involved ethnic-leaning ensembles like Pachora, Tridruga, and the Tiny Bell and Paradox Trios. In these settings, on such instruments as the tamboura, tres and saz, he’s honed a jazz-inflected approach to Balkan, Turkish and North African music that has no close equivalent or clear antecedent.

But Shepik has equal passion and provision for the modern mainstream, as his discography quietly attests. His last solo disc, 2001’s Short Trip (Knitting Factory), debuted a straightahead trio featuring fellow travelers Scott Colley and Tom Rainey, respectively on bass and drums. Drip seems to pick up where Trip left off, with the same personnel and focus. Like its predecessor, this disc carves a distinctive path through turf that’s already been ceaselessly trod.

 Fans of the guitar-trio format will recognize some signposts on this journey. The two great Pats are clearly invoked: Martino on a brightly swinging “P.M.,” with its stop-time, hard-bop hits; and Metheny on a gently percolating near-bossa called “Trails.” The ghost of Grant Green materializes briefly as well, during Shepik’s tasty single-note phrases on the opening track. On that same track, an irresistible ditty called “A Boogie,” the band employs the sort of shift-on-a-dime groove patented in the late ’80s by Bill Frisell.

What sets this group apart-besides the shared language of virtuosity-is an unselfconscious range of appetites. They’re capable of alternating between teetering flash-bulb tirades and intimate bedtime stories, with no perceptible shift. (Actually, this all happens within one tune, the intricate and engrossing “Balance.”) Elsewhere on the album they’re adapting West African music, Indonesian music, the blues-and nothing ever sounds put-on, half-baked or insincere. In this way, the trio can hardly be seen as Shepik’s “jazz” outlet. Obviously it’s all music, each element as important as the next.

AllMusic by Rick Anderson 2003  
The problem with the Brad Shepik Trio's second album is its leadoff track. The deceptively titled "A Boogie" is written in 5/4, and the melody is so skillfully woven around the tune's unusual meter that once you realize what you're hearing and start counting along, enjoying the way the melody and its rhythmic framework interact, you're going to want to just listen to that same track over and over again. Resist the temptation; there are other delights just as quirky, intricate, and fun. The weird and lovely "Rêve Pour Louis," for example, which comes next and opens with a strange modal duet section between the guitar and bass before collapsing into a soft, almost Balinese arrangement that floats more than it moves. "P.M" balances precariously between free jazz and bebop, while the aptly titled "Drip" is a blues composition built on a slow, swinging groove that eventually disintegrates into a spare dubwise meditation. Shepik is a guitarist with impressive technique, but it's not his technique that you really notice: it's his compositional style and his ability to lead bassist Scott Colley and drummer Tom Rainey so confidently into the uncharted wilds of his compositions. The fact that they can follow him with equal confidence and poise is no less impressive. Their next album can't come out fast enough.


'Shepik's got the mind of a pioneer. The rhythmic complexity of his compositions has few parallels in jazz -or any other genre, for that matter. With all his exotic influences, and all his different axes, he makes us rethink what it means to be a guitarist and a musician. There's no telling where he'll go next." allaboutjazz.com 



“(Shepik) invests himself in measured tempos, bluesy turs-of-phrases and unassumingly beautiful, harmonically deep tunes.”   Jazziz

credits

released May 4, 2021

Brad Shepik -guitar, Scott Colley - bass, Tom Rainey - drums. Recorded May 28, 2002 by Michael Brorby at Acoustic Recording. Mixed June 28, 2002 by Michael Brorby at Acoustic Recording. Mastered by Gene Paul at db plus. Remastering May 1, 2021 by Sam Minaie at Birdfood Studio. All compositions written by Brad Shepik and published by Felijar Music (BMI).Cover photo by Caroline Mardok, Thanks to Tom, Scott, Sam, Caroline, Louis, Jack, Pat, Duane, Kristi.

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Brad Shepik Brooklyn, New York

Brad Shepik has recorded 8 albums as a leader and performed and recorded with Paul Motian's Electric Bebop Band, Joey Baron, Dave Douglas' Tiny Belll Trio, Combo Nuvo, Jamie Baum, Tom Beckham, George Schuller, Yuri Yunakov's Bulgarian Wedding Band, Pachora, Lingua Franca, Paradox Trio, Jay Clayton, Carla Bley, Bob Brookmeyer, Simon Shaheen, Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra. ... more

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