IVO PERELMAN & WALT DICKEY - Tenorhood
Leo Records – CDLR 714
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Whit Dickey, drums
IVO PERELMAN & MATTHEW SHIPP - Callas
Leo Records – CDLR 728/729
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp, piano
IVO PERELMAN/MAT MANERI/JOE MORRIS - Counterpoint
Leo Records – CDLR 730
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Mat Maneri, viola; Joe Morris, guitar
Leo Records – CDLR 714
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Whit Dickey, drums
IVO PERELMAN & MATTHEW SHIPP - Callas
Leo Records – CDLR 728/729
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp, piano
IVO PERELMAN/MAT MANERI/JOE MORRIS - Counterpoint
Leo Records – CDLR 730
Ivo Perelman, tenor saxophone; Mat Maneri, viola; Joe Morris, guitar
The Free Jazz rebellion was booted-up by Ornette Coleman with his The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959) and was soon followed by John Coltrane and My Favorite Things (1960). Born a year later in Sâo Paolo, Ivo Perelman first became a classical guitar wonder before finally dedicating himself to the tenor saxophone. He went to Boston’s Berklee College of Music and stuck to conventional tenor influences, but picked up on improvisation then on the likes of Ayler, Brötzmann and Coltrane. Soon after his first recording he moved to New York, an alluring milieu for free improvisation. He has never looked back and nor have we, as evidenced by these three, simultaneous releases on Leo Records.
Tenorhood, recorded in March 2014, may seem from its devotions to negate the artist’s commitment to freedom in his music, but it is clear after listening that the names are attached after the event of their recording, that there was no devious plan to suborn the pureness of his mind-set. The deployment of Whit Dickey on the album and his employment of polyrhythmic constructions against the saxophonist’s perverted and confounded, dissonant harmonies bear witness to the profoundly free nature of this music and the obligation of both musicians to press their instruments and themselves to their absolute maximum.
Undeniably, Perelman created a problem for himself in this regard. Integral to much of his music is his extensive use of the high altissimo, notes which sit above the ‘normal’ range of his instrument, overtones really. Each actual fingering allows several notes achieved by adjusting the aperture permitted by the throat muscles, rather than the embouchure. His command of this upper register took its toll and he had to put the tenor aside last year while he embarked on schoolings in breathing techniques and voice control. It seems that vocalists, especially opera singers may have the same difficulties. So he listened to a lot of Maria Callas’ recordings, hence the production called Callas, recorded in March 2015 after his recovery, as was Counterpoint, which follows later.
Tenorhood, recorded in March 2014, may seem from its devotions to negate the artist’s commitment to freedom in his music, but it is clear after listening that the names are attached after the event of their recording, that there was no devious plan to suborn the pureness of his mind-set. The deployment of Whit Dickey on the album and his employment of polyrhythmic constructions against the saxophonist’s perverted and confounded, dissonant harmonies bear witness to the profoundly free nature of this music and the obligation of both musicians to press their instruments and themselves to their absolute maximum.
Undeniably, Perelman created a problem for himself in this regard. Integral to much of his music is his extensive use of the high altissimo, notes which sit above the ‘normal’ range of his instrument, overtones really. Each actual fingering allows several notes achieved by adjusting the aperture permitted by the throat muscles, rather than the embouchure. His command of this upper register took its toll and he had to put the tenor aside last year while he embarked on schoolings in breathing techniques and voice control. It seems that vocalists, especially opera singers may have the same difficulties. So he listened to a lot of Maria Callas’ recordings, hence the production called Callas, recorded in March 2015 after his recovery, as was Counterpoint, which follows later.
Callas is a collection of performances by the tenor and piano in the hands of Matthew Shipp, each piece named for characters from a number of arias that Callas has sung. Each is a spontaneous aria in its own right and there is an incontestably high level of emotion at large here. Shipp has accompanied Perelman before, but this recording is exceptional, the mutual understanding between the two leading to music which exhibits their reciprocal respect in the presentation by two minds acting as one of a pure music that is not only imaginative, but performed with chivalry and grace.
Mat Maneri and Joe Morris have both recorded with Perelman before and it must be said that the unfamiliar amalgamation of instruments was destined to produce a distinctive aural medium from which percussion has been omitted altogether and guitar has been favoured instead of a piano. The result is in part a triple counterpoint, hence perhaps the album’s title. Counterpoint produces diverse qualities and potentials as a result, along with differing approaches to dealing with them.
Excitingly tantalising, relentlessly innovative and intensely disconcerting, Ivo Perelman and his music raise the question as to who else has been consistently this good. David S Ware, perhaps? Here are three masterful recordings that confirm Perelman’s position as a vibrant power in the continuing renovation of Free Jazz and that Ornette Coleman’s rebellion is no lost cause.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Mat Maneri and Joe Morris have both recorded with Perelman before and it must be said that the unfamiliar amalgamation of instruments was destined to produce a distinctive aural medium from which percussion has been omitted altogether and guitar has been favoured instead of a piano. The result is in part a triple counterpoint, hence perhaps the album’s title. Counterpoint produces diverse qualities and potentials as a result, along with differing approaches to dealing with them.
Excitingly tantalising, relentlessly innovative and intensely disconcerting, Ivo Perelman and his music raise the question as to who else has been consistently this good. David S Ware, perhaps? Here are three masterful recordings that confirm Perelman’s position as a vibrant power in the continuing renovation of Free Jazz and that Ornette Coleman’s rebellion is no lost cause.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
