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-]
