Label: Fundacja Sluchaj, 2021
Personnel - Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone + Dave Burrell, Marilyn Crispell, Aruan Ortiz, Aaron Parks, Sylvie Courvoisier, Agusti Fernandez, Craig Taborn, Angelica Sanchez, Vijay Iyer: piano.
The tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, an unstoppable booster of the avant-garde jazz scene, collaborates with nine modern creative pianists on Brass and Ivory Tales, a 9-disc box release featuring an odyssey of sax/piano duets. This project, which took him seven years to conclude, provides an exhaustive listening that will please lovers of abstract sonic paintings colored in the spur of the moment.
Although the chemistry between Perelman and his guests naturally varies from tale to tale, he maintains ongoing conversations with them with live-wire abandon, creating multi-climactic melodies developed in accordance or opposition to the textures provided.
An outstanding rapport is felt on Tale One, where the veteran pianist Dave Burrell injects a lot of jazz tradition into creative textures and motions - there’s even a tango incursion during “Chapter One”. Almost telepathically, Perelman risks some folk melodies for the sake of this immediate free-spirited communion.
Another example is Marilyn Crispell. She is harmonically bright in the hymnal “Chapter One”, where the melody is king, and optimistically sublime on “Chapter Eight”. However, she can set up dusky (“Chapter Seven”) and brisker moods (“Chapter Two”, “Chapter Eight”) with the same efficiency.
The third CD pairs up Perelman with the highly rhythmic Cuban-born pianist Aruan Ortiz, who creates a variety of backgrounds - from crawly to eerie to brightly vivid, while Tale Four features Aaron Parks, an agreeable surprise since he’s not a typical astronavigator of the free jazz cosmos. He hits the mark here, responding with nuance to Perelman’s tenor cries and moans.
The altissimo range is regularly visited by the saxophonist, taking climaxing peaks on Tale Nine/“Chapter One” with Vijay Iyer and also on Tale Seven/“Chapter Five” with Craig Taborn. On the latter piece, he also dives in the lower registers with dramatic force, as well on Tale Six/“Chapter One”, in which he imposes lyrical vibratos alongside Spanish improviser Agusti Fernandez. The latter employs percussive prepared piano on “Chapter Five”.
Yet, prepared piano never sounds as dreamy here as when managed by Sylvie Courvoisier (“Chapter Three”). She begins Tale Five with a slowly-driven cadence that exudes a mix of tension and pathos but jolts you out of reverie with the off-kilter pulsation of “Chapter Eight”. All these tracks have Perelman focused on timbre and following a logic sense of phrasing.
Finally, it's Angelica Sanchez who engages in rubato conversations with Perelman, going from dreamy and fluid to fierce staccato articulations. Her chordal movement on Tale Eight/“Chapter One” arrives with elation, inviting Perelman to consider a more folksy line of action.
Whether operating in lyrical restraint or irrepressible ebullience, these duos always flow with an indefinite direction, choosing ambiguity to define every sound imprint - pure joy for followers of spontaneously created music.
B+
Favorite Tracks:
CD1/Chapter One (with Dave Burrell) ► CD2/Chapter One (with Marilyn Crispell) ► CD4/Chapter Two (with Aaron Parks) ► CD5/Chapter Eight (with Sylvie Courvoisier) ► CD7/Chapter Five (with Craig Taborn)