PAPER Magazine
"If this is the future of jazz, then I'm in." -Steven Blush

CMJ New Music Report
"New York City's Other Dimensions In Music improvise with an undiluted sense of passion and adventure. These are a generation's masters at the very height of their powers."
- Tad Hendrickson

ALTERNATIVE PRESS July 2000 Rated 5/5
< Brilliant all-out improvisation from five masters >
Other Dimensions in Music are one of New York's best kept musical secrets, barely known after 20 years together. What this says about the majority jazz audience and about label heads is not pretty. Fortunately, AUM Fidelity is doing the world the great service of releasing ODIM's music. Where the last album, 1998's Now! was a (barely) reined-in studio session (and one of the best albums of that year), this disc documents a single evening's performance from December 1997. There are no "solos" in ODIM pieces; rather a solid, continously evolving whole. Trumpeter Roy Campbell and reedman Daniel Carter hurl shimmering comets of sound back and forth, while bassist William Parker and drummer Rashid Bakr hold their own, tangential but vital musical conversation beneath. Pianist Matthew Shipp, not usually a group member, willingly allows himself to be hurtled along as the group find their way into, around and through the music. The result is a truly oceanic sound, swirling and mixing almost too fast to focus on individual elements. The listener is left with a feeling of being almost over-full of joy, of energy, of life. This music charges the heart and soul. -Phil Freeman

AllAboutJazz.com review #1
On "Other Dimensions in Music-Special Quintet w/ Matthew Shipp," the band explores the outer realm of jazz improvisation along with an elevated degree of expressiveness and emotion that could easily parallel the trials and tribulations of everyday life. To borrow from "The Beatles", the band takes the listener on a "Magical Mystery Tour" of free-jazz with this fine outing titled, Time Is Of The Essence Is Beyond Time! Track titles are listed in numerical sequence so it is up to the imagination to deduce the intentions and grasp the vast concepts exhibited throughout these seven pieces. On track "1", renowned bassist William Parker's fervent articulations assists with the tone, pulse and flow while drummer Rashid Bakr and Shipp create somewhat of a garrulous undercurrent for lead soloists, trumpeter Roy Campbell Jr. and woodwind specialist/trumpeter. Throughout, the musicians explore undulating rhythms, brash statements, peaks and valleys while displaying the utmost in solidarity and communicaton. At times, the band's music invokes that of a crowd in protest. Trumpeter Roy Campbell Jr. sounds as though he's bestowing a dissertation atop Parker's circular passages on track "4" while Shipp's swirling chord clusters along with the ferocious rhythmic help launch the overall proceedings into the sonic stratosphere. Essentially, there is more than enough going on here to sustain interest, not to mention a vivid sense of adventure via multidimensional frameworks. Time Is Of The Essence is Beyond Time is brimming with innocence, harmony, crisp dialogue and passion as the musicians pursue a cavalcade of themes and motifs in consolidated fashion. Simply put, this striking convergence of astute musical minds does indeed convey...."Other Dimensions In Music".....Highly Recommended - 5 Stars.
- Glenn Astarita

AllAboutJazz.com review #2
ODIM. Five master improvisors, each with the accumulated grasp of decades of jazz history. Five musicians who know the rules yet choose to break them. Most strikingly, five individuals who constantly interconnect, wrapping musical tentacles around each other, playing as one. Time is free jazz in the most abstract sense.

The implications of the title convey the two guiding principles of this recording: urgency and spirituality. The music conveys these ideas even better. Rarely does the pace or flow sag. And constantly underlying the music on Time is a sense of humility and searching.

Time, the second disc from ODIM, features the original quartet lineup plus the added sonority of pianist Matthew Shipp. It presents a coherent extension of the first ODIM recording, Now!: not for the squeamish, and certainly not for anyone reluctant to experience intensity. Trumpeter Roy Campbell and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter twist and trade lines in the upper register while Shipp punches and thrusts his way through the midline. Meanwhile, bassist William Parker performs his usual role as rock-solid center, the electrical ground of the group, a great unifier. Rashid Bakr, drummer and colorist, is largely freed by Parker from the role of time-keeper, allowing him to splash his way across the cymbals and twist time into a knot on the drums.

ODIM moves fluidly through terrain that few groups even attempt to cover. The intensity of this group comes from a celebration of melody, a profound respect for the vibrations of the universe. It's not the fierce piercing intensity of Albert Ayler and his modern disciples -- instead, a more delicate and sensitive process of discovery and transformation. - Nils Jacobson

DOWNTOWN MUSIC GALLERY e.LIST
This amazing contemporary free/jazz offering was recorded live at the Knit in December of '97 and is only the third release by this downtown all-star quartet who been around for over a decade. Each member of the quartet is both a leader and powerful improviser in their own right, with a couple of decades experience under each of their belts. The frontline is Roy Campbell on trumpets and Daniel Carter on saxes/flute/trumpet also from the equally amazing Test, plus wonder-bassist William Parker who leads numerous great ensembles and drummer Rashid Bakr who has played for Cecil Taylor. Each and every gig that I have witnessed by Other Dimensions has been tremendous, but adding piano giant Matt Shipp pushes their energy even higher to the heavens! Right from the opening, the cosmic energy is flowing through currents and washing over us in waves - spirits connecting with each other on a telepathic level, often busy and bursting with ideas or solos which erupt out of the swell of the storm arising. Both Roy's & Daniel's horns swirl around each other and often explode with intensity, while the ever-probing piano gladiator Mr. Shipp balances the densities and textures between the free-flowing horns and rhythm section. This cd is one entire concert that moves in natural-sounding waves between mountains & valleys, oceans & ponds. The many years experience of playing has paid off, with connections being made on various levels, the shifting of densities moves together planet to planet, events unfolding in layers until the purity of intent shines through. The cd cover art/picture is also well chosen - an MC Escher-like building that inter-connects on an infinite looking number of levels, reminding us of how well this music also inter-connects! This is cosmic music of the present, for the special time in which we now dwell. - Bruce Gallanter

MAGNET June/July 2000
Other Dimensions in Music 's last album, Now!, was damn close to perfect. The quartet improvised from the ground up for more than an hour and created an original and spiritual music that demanded lengthy and repeated attention. Building on the ideas of Ornette Coleman's early-'60s quartet, ODIM surged and swayed, playing a music as full and infinitely varied as the depths of the ocean. Little wonder, then, that Matthew Shipp, one of the most consistently fascinating pianists in jazz , was struck by the group's sound and wished to collaborate with them, resulting in a series of live dates documented on this release. Rather than disrupting the group's organic, collaborative dynamic, Shipp adds a great deal to the proceedings. His intuitive bond with William Parker is well-known and demonstrated amply here; Parker's throbbing lines underpin Shipp's pointillistic piano and trumpeter Roy Campbell's brilliant, effervescent high-note runs. Saxaphonist/flautist/second trumpeter Daniel Carter's work (also heard in Test) is similarly excellent, as is the never overbearing, always complementary work of drummer Rashid Bakr. With this album, Other Dimensions in Music is cementing the foundation of what will be a formidable, evolving, and startingly beautiful music.