High Water is an album by hip hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 artist El-P, released on March 9, 2004 through Thirsty Ear Recordings.

Made in conjunction with jazz pianist Matthew Shipp

Matthew Shipp

Matthew Shipp is an American pianist, composer and bandleader.Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford Brown....

 and the group for which he is artistic director, The Blue Series Continuum, the album is a striking departure from El-P's usual style, almost completely eschewing conventional ideas of hip hop in favour of electronically

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

-tinged jazz fusion

Jazz fusion

Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 collaborations.

The album was created by the Blue Series Continuum improvising to original compositions by El-P, which he then manipulated and restructured. It enjoyed generally very favourable reviews from both the hip-hop and jazz worlds, as well as from more mainstream critics independent of both scenes. The album is part of an already extensive series of such collaborations (the "Blue Series" of the name) on the part of the jazz group.

One track, "When the Moon Was Blue", features vocals from El-P's father Harry Meline, also known as Harry Keys, himself a jazz pianist.

Track listing

1. "Please Stay (Yesterday)" – 2:37
2. "Sunrise Over Bklyn" – 10:33
3. "Get Your Hand Off My Shoulder, Pig" – 6:34
4. "Get Modal" – 5:06
5. "Intrigue in the House of India" – 6:33
6. "Something Is Wrong" – 4:09
7. "When the Moon Was Blue" – 6:42
   • Vocals: Harry Keys
8. "Please Leave (Yesterday)" – 1:51

Personnel

• Bass – William Parker
  William Parker (musician)
  William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...
  
  
• Drums – Guillermo E. Brown
  Guillermo E. Brown
  Guillermo E. Brown is a free jazz drummer who has performed or recorded with Matthew Shipp, David S. Ware, George Lewis and others. In 2008 his work "Electro Prayer 5.0" was included on the compilation album Crosstalk: American Speech Music produced by Mendi & Keith Obadike.- References :...
  
  
• Piano – Matthew Shipp
  Matthew Shipp
  Matthew Shipp is an American pianist, composer and bandleader.Shipp was raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and began playing piano at six years old. His mother was a friend of trumpeter Clifford Brown....
  
  
• Reeds and flute – Daniel Carter
  Daniel Carter (musician)
  Daniel Carter is an American free jazz saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s...
  
  
• Trombone – Steve Swell
  Steve Swell
  Steve Swell is an American free jazz trombonist and composer.Swell studied at Jersey City State College before moving to New York City in 1975 where he began his musical life, playing in top 40 bands, salsa bands, big bands and performed on Broadway in Bob Fosse's "Dancin""...
  
  
• Trumpet – Roy Campbell
  Roy Campbell, Jr.
  Roy Campbell, Jr. is versatile trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, though he has also performed rhythm and blues, bebop and funk at times during his career. Born in Los Angeles, California in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York. At age fifteen Campbell began learning to play trumpet and...
  
  
• Synthesizer, producer – El-P

Charts

Charts (2004)	Peak position
U.S. Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels...	46