The business of where a sound comes from, the influences, the inspirations, the impetus is not always obvious. It can also be totally transformed in translation from human to human. Take listening to pianist Matthew Shipp, for instance, whose brilliant 'Void Equation' has been streaming recently, various pianists and a number of styles spring to mind where Shipp is concerned although Shipp is always uniquely Shipp. The obscure ''Cool school'' pianist Sal Mosca never figures as an obvious source.

Shipp, however, if you fancy a little musical archaeology rooting around in the musical mind of a free-jazz genius, noted this, in an interview in the online publication Point of Departure:

''I have been inspired by so many artists in my life. But I guess at 60 you can try to figure out who the major inspirations are who have been throughout. As far as music goes, I would have to say they are: Bud Powell; Monk; Sal Mosca; Albert Ayler; my teacher Dennis Sandole; and Charlie Parker. I pick these people as opposed to tons of others whose music I love and who have influenced me because of a purity and an angelic quality that I get out of them that I aspire to.''

Mosca is pretty much forgotten approaching 13 years since his death. Who was he? Salvatore Joseph Mosca, was a pianist and teacher, born to first generation Italian immigrants in Mount Vernon, New York state on 27 April 1927 and who died of complications from emphysema on 28 July 2007. As a youngster he liked James P. Johnson and Fats Waller and began taking lessons well before puberty but was soon gigging in his local neighbourhood. After wartime service in an army band he enrolled at the New York College of Music, studied classical composition and trawled the 52nd Street clubs by night eventually meeting Lennie Tristano who he became an acolyte of. Mosca recorded firstly in 1949 with Lee Konitz (who died just recently) and Warne Marsh and the three made a number of recordings together over many years.

I've picked out a mini-Mosca playlist. Have a listen above. That ''purity and angelic quality'' Shipp refers to so eloquently is certainly there. But does listening to Mosca mean you understand Shipp more? Possibly not. And certainly the Mosca link needs to be considered in context with those other names Shipp mentions quoted above and even then how do you hear a blend of such disparate sounds? Surely Albert Ayler trumps everything? And I do wonder about the absence of Cecil Taylor in the list. However when you listen closely to Shipp and pick out the sections that aren't necessarily ''free'' it's interesting what is hidden there. And that may be a Salutary experience after all. What is even more is how individual the Shipp vision is and how his inspirations sit on one mountain, his own sound safe on another summit where only eagles dare.