Ivo Perelman - Seven Skies Orchestra

January 29, 2024

Label: Fundacja Sluchaj, 2023

Personnel - Ivo Perelman: tenor sax; Nate Wooley: trumpet; Mat Maneri: viola; Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello; Joe Morris: bass; Matt Moran: vibes.

Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman stands as an unwavering improviser who refuses to tread standardized paths. His open-mindedness and creativity are mirrored in an extensive discography of duos and trios, but his latest release, Seven Skies Orchestra, is a chamber improvisational work that offers a rare opportunity to hear him leading a larger ensemble of fantastic sonic painters. He pairs up with trumpeter Nate Wooley in the frontline, having vibist Matt Moran providing sinuous harmonic context, and a trio of string players - violist Mat Maneri, cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, and bassist Joe Morris - designing a multitude of paths with color and detail. The double album comprises ten improvised expositions, but for the present review, I’m going to focus on disc one.

In “Part One”, Moran’s transcendent vibes sets the stage, later backed by Morris’ loose foundation over which Perelman and Wooley engage in a dialogue with unccpompromised freedom. It’s like listening to a superbly articulated conversation whose intensity ebbs and flows whimsically. The protagonists change, dialoguing often in pairs, with logic and abandon. By the end, we are presented with nicely robust and exquisitely shapeless passages.

“Part Two” commences with expert slides and glides, with Wooley infusing sinuous phrases and Perelman responding with contrasting low-register blows, circular patterns, and thrilling staccatos. This occurs while Maneri and Lonberg-Holm instill a folk innuendo into the avant-jazz setting, and the piece becomes almost collectively mantric, in an expression of unity that goes beyond improvisation.

The introductory interplay of “Part Three” stems from the cogitation of the instruments clashing and acquiescing in a positive manner. It’s a pondering piece that builds to a peak with a tenor improvisation over bass and vibes, in a more contemplative demonstration of the group’s capacities.

The music constantly lives of dynamism and mood shifts, and “Part Four” is here to prove it. It can be busy and tumultuous one minute, hushed and cool the next.
Perelman always considers new collaborators to explore fresh sounds and expand musical horizons. Seven Skies Orchestra stands as a singular entry in his extensive body of work.

Favorite Tracks (CD1):
01 - Part One ► 02 - Part Two ► 04 - Part Four

Ivo Perelman / Ray Anderson / Joe Morris / Reggie Nicholson - Molten Gold

March 16, 2023

Label: Fundacja Sluchaj, 2023

Personnel - Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Ray Anderson: trombone; Joe Morris: bass; Reggie Nicholson: drums.

The intrepid, unstoppable tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman along with the master trombonist Ray Anderson bring keen improvisational acumen to this expressionistic quartet complemented by the rhythm section of bassist Joe Morris and drummer Reggie Nicholson. The two frontmen, who had never recorded together before, play around with both perceptible melodic figures and alternative terminologies in Molten Gold, a frequently striking new double-disc outing.

They pursue deeply intuitive excursions in this engagement, starting with “Warming Up”, the first of four extended free improvisations (all four tracks pass the 20-minute mark). Insistent short attacks are delivered by the horn players in a tart, impassioned manner. The slyly witty chanting patterns of Perelman disclose his strong folk influence, while Anderson responds with terse interjections, helping to create dynamism in their unrelieved probe of intensities and moods. By the last segment, Morris and Nicholson fortify the architectural backbone by locking into an open-ended cycle leveled with a certain marching quality.

“Aqua Regia” turns up surreptitiously, creating mystery through the combination of arco austerity, brushed decoration, and melodic figures that repeat, evolve, and transform into new ideas. After amusing us by going from a temporary balm to a jarring commotion, the group seems to immerse itself in a dance that prolongs until the piece's denouement. Perelman, who often juggles with shrilling rises and sliding descends, ends “Gravity” by doing this dancing. He has plenty of support as Morris and Nicholson hold the fort. This track, darker in tone but no less compelling, wraps up a particularly satisfying session of infectious free jazz.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Warming Up ► 03 - Aqua Regia

Ivo Perelman - Brass and Ivory Tales

December 16, 2021

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.

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)

Ivo Perelman & Arcado String Trio - Deep Resonance

October 19, 2020

Label: Fundacja Sluchaj, 2020

Personnel - Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Mark Feldman: violin; Hank Roberts: cello; Mark Dresser: bass.

Ivo Perelman, likely the most prolific and one of the most extroverted saxophonists working today, surfaces here with the Arcado String Trio, whose members are bassist Mark Dresser, violinist Mark Feldman and cellist Hank Roberts (here credited as William H. Roberts).

Perelman has been recording with strings lately - Strings 1-4 (Leo Records, 2019) and Strings & Voices Project (Hundred Years Gallery, 2020) - but none of these works match the classy tones in Deep Resonance, an exquisite concentration of modern classical elements, improvised chamber music and free improvisation. The four tracks on the album feature a bevy of twists and a great deal of inventiveness within the explorative group interplay. We can easily spot poetically sculpted cadences, intensive polyphony, gracious balletic movements, propulsive and effusive dances, as well as droning machinations all around.

Engaging in multifarious atmospheres, the musicians are most definitely up to something here, toggling their posture between dedicated commitment and casual dangling. Sometimes tight, sometimes loose, the music is the result of their keen musical instincts and communication. It may take you to places filled with understated charm and artful subtlety or invite you to daring itineraries marked by interesting rhythmic fluxes.

On “Resonance 2”, Perelman generates vortices of energy via animated phrases that, at times, attempt to dovetail the repeated inducements instigated by violin and cello. His attentive ears remain alert to the surroundings, with the volatile framework depending on Dresser and Roberts' architectural sculptures. On “Resonance 3”, their percussive dark tones precipitate Perelman and Feldman to discourse. They search for unity and share the same language, even though their movements are autonomous. By the end, a slightly ominous atmosphere emerges via Dresser’s deep bowed notes.

Initiating proceedings with plucked strings, “Resonance 4” elicits empathy through an elegant rhythm that sustains piercing saxophone notes and dissonant violin scratches.

Excellent participation from all four musicians throughout, and a new favorite in Perelman's massive discography.

Favorite Tracks:
03 - Resonance 3 ► 04 - Resonance 4

Flash Reviews - Sunjae Lee / Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp / Fredrik Lindborg

May 21, 2020

SUNJAE LEE - PULSE THEORY (GhettoAlive Records, 2020)

Personnel - Sunjae Lee: tenor sax; Eunyoung Kim: piano; Dayeon Seok: drums.

50 minutes of continuous improvisation are squeezed into a sole track in the new digital outing from South Korean saxophonist Sunjae Lee, a free jazz practitioner who is also an acupuncturist and an oriental brush painter in Seoul. Extended iterative segments eventually expand in energy and body, always under the controlled conduct of the bass-less rhythm section comprised of pianist Eunyoung Kim and drummer Dayeon Seok. The music was captured live at GhettoAlive in Seoul and was mastered by New York-based bassist, composer and producer Eivind Opsvik. The communication between the threesome feels effortless throughout and the group explores textural variety by embarking on occasional duo sections. You’ll find what is expected from a free jazz session - dedicated interplay with contrasting moments that usually evolve from stable to temperamental and from imperturbable to livelier. Freed of tempo and form concerns, the trio takes most of the time exploring circularity, fragmentation and texture with casual pointillism. Yet, the quiet lyricism of the last five minutes was what grabbed me the most. [B-]

IVO PERELMAN & MATTHEW SHIPP - AMALGAM (Mahakala Music, 2020)

Personnel - Ivo Perelman: tenor sax; Matthew Shipp: piano.

Amalgam is the latest improvisational tour from saxophonist Ivo Perelman, who celebrates 30 years of a profuse career, and pianist Matthew Shipp, his regular collaborator since 1996. This 12-track program follows their uncontrollable appetite for music created in the spur of the moment. The limitless possibilities lead to passionate, often intellectual dissertations with oneiric atmospheres (“Part 1”); motivic developments forming shapely mosaics supported by intrinsic lyrical sophistication rooted in classical music (“Part 10”); frisky avant-jazz dialogues professed with rugged textures and brave contrapuntal moves (“Part 11”); unpremeditated percussive propagations (“Part 12”); inventive delineations represented with a mix of entanglement and contemplation (“Part 4”); and introspective yet ruminative exercises - sometimes with fair doses of assimilative melody and piano strings vibrations (“Part 3”), and other times with the addition of enigmatic depth (“Part 8”). The thing is: the discography of the duo is so vast that it's hard to say if this recording is better or worse than its predecessors. It’s certainly authentic. Question: will their unstoppable creativity come to a halt with the current pandemic crisis? [B+]

FREDRIK LINDBORG - A SWEDISH PORTRAIT (Prophone Records, 2020)

Personnel - Fredrik Lindborg: baritone, tenor and soprano saxophones; Martin Sjöstedt: bass; Daniel Fredriksson: drums; Daniel Migdal: violin; Henrik Naimark Meyers: violin; Yivali Zilliaous: viola; Amalie Stalheim: cello.

Saxophonist/composer Fredrik Lindborg blends mainstream jazz with melancholic folk music from Sweden, traversing genres with ease while maintaining his musical personality intact. For this record, a 14-track program with music of baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin, he incorporated a string quartet to further enrich the music of the trio he leads. I dare to describe it as a feel-good retro jazz glee with intelligently crafted string arrangements, giving the traditional a new look that is not devoid of eclectic essence. The opener, “Mazurka”, was arranged exclusively for strings (by Gullin himself) and carries poignant classical tones; “Har Nagon Sett/Baritonome” boasts a gentle Latinized percussion to be mixed with efficient swinging passages and chamber jazz sections; “Decent Eyes” forced me to imagine George Gershwin dancing the tango; while the wildly swing of “Galium Verum” evokes Mulligan and Webster’s unforgettable collaboration. The cheerfulness of “I Min Small Sang” brings to mind the standard “How About You”, while “Igloo” conjures up “Caravan”. You’ll also find malleable waltzes and heartfelt ballads. Lindborg blows soulfully and deserves wider recognition. [A-]

Ivo Perelman - Strings1 + Strings2

December 20, 2018

Label: Leo Records, 2018

Personnel - Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Mat Maneri: viola; Mark Feldman: violin (Strings1); Jason Hwang: violin (Strings1); Ned Rothenberg: bass clarinet (Strings2); Hank Roberts: cello (Strings2).

Ivo Perelman’s transformation here has nothing to do with the art of improvisation, which he continues to dominate effortlessly, but rather with the new-found sense of compelling narrative expressed entirely in the company of strings on Strings1, and side-by-side either with bass clarinet or cello (and sometimes both) on Strings2. As has been common in his groups, the music is made in the spur of the moment, and the musicians have no preconditions whenever they set foot in the studio.

Following a variety of modern classical ephemera, the first track on Strings1 (all the tracks are untitled) dances unorthodoxly throughout, presenting collective cries and finishing with saxophone punctuations in the form of altissimo squeals and occasional popping sounds over the solid high-pitched curtain created by violist Mat Maneri, a longtime associate, and violinists Mark Feldman and Jason Kao Hwang, a new addition and a re-encounter, respectively.

At some point, “Track 4” introduces some Eastern fragrances in its pointillism, also conveying a breezy insouciance in Perelman’s rambles, which come garnished with sporadic air notes and reiterated phrases. Open to textural flexibility, the quartet keeps defining surfaces and changing densities in a constant fluctuation of ideas and sounds. “Track 6” captures Perelman plunging into a sea of violins with the contrasting timbre of his instrument, whereas the energized “Track 8” seems to use ritualistic ways to emulate capoeira music.

Strings2 is naturally darker in tone due to the fortunate addition of bass clarinetist Ned Rothenberg on four tracks and cellist Hank Roberts on six. The drone-imbued “Track1” feels circumspect in nature in opposition to the brazen “Track2”, where agitated activity leads to serious turbulence. The recording lives from contrasting timbres, becoming candidly atmospheric through wails and laments, and sometimes resolutely rambunctious with incisive lines bursting in color.

To me, the great surprise arrived when Perelman and Rothenberg set up a spontaneous groove on “Track4”, later diluted in the swiftness of Maneri’s circular movements. This particular moment, together with the capoeira incursion (deliberate or not) proved that the concept of groove could be further explored without compromising Perelman’s unguarded passion for timbre, texture, and free improvisation. A possible next step?

Favorite Tracks:
Strings1 - Tracks 1, 4, 8
Strings2 - Tracks 1, 2, 4

Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp - Oneness

June 12, 2018

Label: Leo Records, 2018

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano.

The telepathic articulation between tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp, two free spirits in the art of music-making, is quite obvious and grows stronger on Oneness, a triple album with 33 improvised tracks, which all together, offer more than two hours of searching music. In this sonic adventure, the interactions never feel a debate, but rather a well-reasoned conversation. The nature of the pieces often become visual, stimulating our imagination for mysterious interplanetary routes or energizing earthy expressions defined by an organic blend of avant-garde jazz, art-folk elements, and contemporary classical incursions.

The duo always finds new ways to surprise, reinventing lines and textures through spontaneous ideas. They not only have a staggering control of their instruments but also find an easy comfort with each other's craft and forms of expression.

The first tune of CD1 suggests an odd tango-ish mood until falling into a free ramble, in which Perelman’s sinuous moves exalted by deep-toned notes with a rich vibrato. In a variety of atmospheres along the way, the cohesion of the duo is felt through free-form approaches and effortless suppression of time while shaping, sometimes angular, sometimes curved geometric figures with an inner pulse of creativity. The timbral range is also a crucial factor in their aesthetic reality, with Shipp’s off-center chordal adventurism, always intricate and stunning, becoming a great vehicle for Perelman’s elliptical threads and asymmetrical zigzags. Ambiguity is also brought into their subliminal interplay, no matter which direction they decide to take - it may be tranquil, lyric and dreamlike but also tense, restless and provocative.

The extemporizations sometimes hinge on an initial idea or just flow briskly with refractory intervallic leaps and opportune chromaticism. No hesitation. No redundancy. No preconception. Pure exploration and inspiration.

The album reflects what these longtime collaborators and wonderful musicians can do. One saxophone, one piano, and oneness of mind and purpose are everything they need.

Favorite Tracks:
01 (CD1) - Track 1 ► 11 (CD1) - Track 11 ► 06 (CD2) - Track 6

Ivo Perelman - The Art of Perelman-Shipp

August 17, 2017

Label/Year: Leo Records, 2017

Lineup - Ivo Perelman: saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; William Parker: bass; Michael Bisio: bass; Whit Dickey: drums; Bobby Kapp: drums; Andrew Cyrille: drums.

I don’t know any musician as much prolific as the Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman. In the course of the last three years, he has released 24 albums with formations that keep changing according to a well-defined set of habitual collaborators. Namely pianists Matthew Shipp and Karl Berger, bassists William Parker and Michael Bisio, guitarist/bassist Joe Morris, violist Mat Maneri, and drummers Whit Dickey and Gerald Cleaver. Among them, one may say that Shipp, a top-notch avant-garde pianist of limitless ambidexterity, is his musical soulmate, and nothing better to celebrate that kinship than seven volumes of The Art of Perelman-Shipp.

Not all the musicians cited above contributed to the sessions, which were recorded between August 2015 and November 2016, but the duo added two drummers whose presences are not so recurrent: the heavyweight Andrew Cyrille and the undisclosed Bobby Kapp.

Each volume got the name of a moon of Saturn except for the sixth, a pure Perelman-Shipp duet, which was identified as the planet Saturn itself, the core in which everything comes into being, develops, and returns.

On Volume 1: Titan, the duo invites the sturdy bassist William Parker to join their creative arena, and creativity is something he doesn’t lack. The trio starts by walking on flat ground with Perelman almost whispering hushed murmurs, but after a short period, there’s a deflection into rugged territories, where his saxophone timbre switches from bright to dark. Both Shipp and Parker follow him by equally plunging into a mystery, hardening the ecstatic axis while stirring dynamics around it.

I found Tarvos, the second volume, slightly more pugnacious than the first. You may think of David S.Ware’s prayers interweaving with Albert Ayler’s eventful strolls, ending in purgative agitation and overwhelming fire. However, on “Part 6”, the introspection takes over, and I was able to spot a few scrupulous melodies delineated with lots of motifs and outcries encircling them.

Volume 3: Pandora, featuring a quartet with William Parker and Whit Dickey, has a strange appeal and exhibits impertinent postures in cleaner environments. As usual, the band plays with the mutability of tones, timbres, and moods, but in a more controlled, lyrical way. Shipp’s influences of classical music are quite noticeable here as he transforms creative ideas into wholehearted dances.

Michael Bisio, who draws a superb round sound from his bass, plays on the next two volumes Hyperion and Rhea. The latter also features Dickey in the drummer’s chair, and his percussive chops inject some more robustness. “Part 6” was particularly entrancing with inspired blows by Perelman, sometimes carrying some folk in the melody, and striking sonic gusts that made my feet come out of the ground. The adventures are quite elliptical, full of sweeps, contortions, and stretches.

The literal art of the duo can be enjoyed on Volume 6: Saturn, which comprises ten short pieces. “Part 9” is a highlight that brings beseeching melodic contours and highly percussive piano.

The great Andrew Cyrille joins for Volume 7: Dione, soloing upfront in the opening tune. The hosts adhere to the visitor’s suggestions in a triumphant point of entry and embrace an agitated asymmetry that drifts volubility from then on. The trio is on the same page and there are plenty of ravishing moments to be discovered.

Every different lineup offers different possibilities within the same line of approach and the seven volumes form a valid and meritorious body of work. My advice is: for a better absorption, don't listen to the seven volumes in a row. Doing so, you'll dig more precious details in the cathartic creativity of Perelman-Shipp.

Favorite Tracks:
03 (Vol 1) – Part 3 ► 09 (Vol 6) – Part 9 ► 01 (Vol 7) - Part 1