Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp: Amalgam

You might think that after dozens of recordings of freely improvised music, the saxophone and piano team of Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp would have run out of things to say. They’ve thought it themselves, proclaiming on a few occasions that their duo projects were over. But time has a way of upending expectations, and after extended recording sessions in 2018 (Efflorescence, Vol. 1, with a second volume on the way) and a live recording in Nuremberg in June, 2019, the pair was back in Brooklyn’s Park West Studio in January 2020 to create their latest opus, Amalgam. There’s a peaceful feeling to the first of twelve sections as the duo seems to have reached a serene plateau of other-worldly melody. Shipp’s gently rolling phrases are met by a relatively subdued Perelman in an impressive piece that amounts to a sort of overture for the session. There’s some outright contentiousness in the second part, as if the duo was having a dispute about the direction of the music. Perelman’s endless assortment of shrieks, moans, wails and frenzied screeches is matched by Shipp’s insistent chording and rhythmic complexity. The third section is calm again, though with an undercurrent of dissonance that threatens to erupt but never does. The twelve sections of Amalgam are more introspective than usual for this pair. Close listening is absolutely critical when you’re collaborating with a partner to create music out of the thin air with no preconceptions, and here Perelman and Shipp seem to have reached a new level of instant communication. As Perelman told their tireless chronicler Neil Tesser, “We play less now and say more. We are having a new appreciation for the space between notes and between chords. So now each note carries more weight in the overall structure; each note breathes because of the space around it.” Strictly speaking, an amalgam is an alloy of mercury with another metal which may be a liquid, a soft paste, or a solid, depending upon the proportion of mercury. It’s a word nearly always associated with dentistry, but metaphorically speaking, a mixture of elements, with the result dependent on the particular proportions, is a perfect way to describe this music. Or as close to perfect as words might reach to describe the mystical communion that Shipp and Perelman attain with their instruments. A beautiful session, strongly recommended. Mahakala Music; Ivo Perelman (ts) Matthew Shipp (p); Brooklyn, NY, January 2020; Amalgam, parts 1-12; 47:29. mahakalamusic.com

Wolfgang Muthspiel: Angular Blues

Drum master Brian Blade was a member of a trio with Jeff Denson on bass and Romain Pilon on guitar that recorded one of my favorite CDs of 2019. He’s back again in another guitar trio led by veteran guitar slinger Wolfgang Muthspiel, with the unerringly supportive bassist Scott Colley rounding out the group on Angular Blues. The trio’s warm and sympathetic approach to the music is a reflection of the fact that Blade and Muthspiel have collaborated on ten released projects since they first performed together on Rebekka Bakken’s Daily Mirror Reflected back in 2000, including several trio releases and a pair of duo albums, Friendly Travelers (2006) and Friendly Travelers Live (2007). Colley also played on the Bakken CD, and in 2001, he joined Blade and Muthspiel to play on Mike Holober’s Canyon. The trio recorded this set in Tokyo, after a three night run at a jazz club. Not surprisingly, the overall feel is that of the last set of a long night, with everyone loose and relaxed as the music practically plays itself in an extended three-way conversation. Particularly fine are the elegiac Hüttengriffe, one of three pieces to feature Muthspiel on acoustic guitar, the trio’s joyous dissection of Cole Porter’s Everything I Love and their madly swinging treatment of Muthspiel’s Kanon in 6/8. Definitely recommended.
ECM 2655; Wolfgang Muthspiel (ac* & el g) Scott Colley (b) Brian Blade (d); Tokyo, Japan, August 2018; Wondering*/ Angular Blues*/ Hüttengriffe*/ Camino/ Ride/ Everything I Love/ Kanon in 6/8/ Solo Kanon in 5/4/ I’ll Remember April; 53:54. www.ecmrecords.com

Jeremy Pelt: The Art Of Intimacy, Volume 1

Trumpeter Jeremy Pelt had a yen to play with some elders, and he could not have picked better collaborators for The Art Of Intimacy, Volume 1 than pianist George Cables and bassist Peter Washington. Back in the Fifties, there was the idea of “mood music,” epitomized in the jazz world by Prestige Records’ Moodsville imprint. As a listener to the Bay Area radio station KJAZ-FM in the Seventies, I recall their “dinner jazz” segment for two hours every night. Pressing “play” on The Art Of Intimacy quickly brought those developments to mind. There’s always a place for a low-key ballad-heavy project in the jazz world, and given the crazy times we live in, a soothing set of genuinely warm music is truly welcome. While a trio of trumpet, piano, and bass is pretty rare among jazz recordings, Pelt, Cables, and Washington make it sound like the most natural blend in the world. Pelt has selected some uncommon material for the date. Rodgers and Hart’s Little Girl Blue is the most familiar of the standards, played here with graceful finesse and featuring an especially fine arco solo by Washington. Always On My Mind (by Johnny Green and Norman Newell) was sung by Sarah Vaughan for Roulette in 1963, but has seldom been recorded since. The trio gives it a lovely and unhurried reading, with Pelt’s Harmon-muted horn leading the way. I’ve Just Seen Her, a song by Charles Strouse and Arthur Schwartz, is similarly obscure, with only a handful of recordings over the years. The mute stays in place for a typically melodic and elegant performance. Another rarity is Lucky Thompson’s While You Are Gone, which as near as I can tell was recorded by the composer just once, on a 1960 French TV appearance released decades later on the Fresh Sounds label. It’s a genuinely charming melody, which Pelt describes as “singable,” proving the point with his horn. There are a few breaks from the trio format. Ab-o-lutely is a spontaneous blues duet by Pelt and Washington. Pelt and Cables play a luscious duet on the pianist’s Ebony Moonbeams and conclude the disc with a tender rendition of I’ll Never Stop Loving You, written by Nicholas Brodzsky and Sammy Cahn, and made famous by Doris Day in the 1955 film Love Me Or Leave Me. Here it’s the occasion for some particularly beautiful rhapsodizing by Cables and a succinct melody statement by Pelt, the perfect ending for a beautifully heartfelt session. Warmly recommended.
HighNote HCD 7334; Jeremy Pelt (tpt) George Cables (p) Peter Washington (b); Englewood Cliffs, NJ, August 22, 2019; Live is Simple/ Little Girl Blue/ Always on My Mind/ I’ve Just Seen Her/ Then I’ll Be Tired of You/ Ebony Moonbeams/ While You Are Gone/ Ab-o-lutely/ I’ll Never Stop Loving You; 52:22. www.jazzdepot.com

Supporting musicians in a dark time

You certainly don’t need me to tell you about the massive disruptions in all phases of life by the coronavirus, including the world of creative music. As the Music Workers Alliance notes, “the vast majority of the music sector has lost the economic means for basic survival.” This brief post is intended as a guide to some of the strategies that are being used by creative musicians to cope with the crisis, continue to make music, and somehow, make some money.

• First thing to note is a petition titled A CALL BY MUSICAL ARTISTS FOR BASIC FAIRNESS IN THE DIGITAL MARKETPLACE that is being circulated by the Music Workers Alliance. I urge everyone reading this to add their names. Clink here to find the petition. 
• There are at least two organizations raising money for musicians. One is the brand-new Jazz Coalition, which is launching a Commission Fund in an effort “to keep artists in our broad and global jazz community active and compensated to create new work.” Find out more here. 
• Also, The Recording Academy and its affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares “have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund to help our peers in the music community affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.” There’s more information here. 

The ability to live-stream events has been adopted by a number of performers and organizations.

• In Chicago, the Experimental Sound Studio has been streaming The Quarantine Concerts since March 20, described as “a collaborative endeavor meant to provide artists a space to share their work and continue to earn a living during this time when most live performance opportunities have been cancelled due to COVID-19.  We believe in the necessity of art during difficult moments like these, and feel fortunate to live in a time when loss of mobility does not have to mean loss of community.” There’s a full schedule of events here and they are all archived. 
• Pianist Fred Hersch launched Fred Hersch At Home this week, an online concert series offering listeners and viewers what's described as "an expansive, in-depth musical experience." Check it out here.
• Pianist/composer Satoko Fujii and trumpeter/composer Natsuki Tamura are presenting daily Facebook Live concerts  through the end of the month. There’s a schedule here. 

And there are more fresh ideas:

• Clarinetist Ben Goldberg has been creating a musical Plague Diary by recording a piece at home every day and posting it on Bandcamp. He started on March 19, and as of this moment, there are 52 tracks available for your listening pleasure. Pay what you can at this link.
• After putting out Liberty Ellman’s Last Desert CD at the end of March (review coming soon!), Pi Recordings has suspended its intended release schedule for the rest of the year and begun a digital-only series titled This Is Now: Love In The Time of COVID. Release number one is a solo set by alto saxophonist Steve Lehman.  He used his iPhone to record Xenakis and the Valedictorian in the passenger seat of his 2011 Honda CR-V, from March 25 to April 15, 2020, for his mother’s 80th birthday. There’s more information here. 
• Volume 2 of Pi’s This Is Now series is "InWhatStrumentals: Music from In What Language?" the previously unissued instrumental version of In What Language, the acclaimed 2003 collaboration between Vijay Iyer and Mike Ladd. Learn more about it here.
• The storied ESP-Disk has had to shift course as well. The label plans to keep putting out music and generate income for musicians by changing the scope of some releases. The Coalescence by Owl Xounds Exploding Galaxy will be released on June 5 in an extremely limited edition physical release of 30 vinyl LPs. It’s also available to stream or download. There’s information here. 
• Finally, trombonist Samuel Blaser has had time “to revisit his recording archive and select some hidden treasures” for issue on his new digital-only Blaser Music imprint. The first release is Audio Rebel, recorded in Brazil in 2013 while on a duo tour with guitarist Marc Ducret. Find it here. 

On a personal note, I’d like to say that I am healthy and safe in the small Northern California town that I call home. I sincerely hope that everyone that reads this blog is similarly safe.

Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio featuring Johnathan Blake: Without Deception

After crossing paths on bandstands around the world in the Seventies, pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland first recorded together on Barron’s Scratch album (Enja, 1985). They’ve worked on a few projects together over the years, toured Europe as a duo in 2012, and in 2014 collaborated on The Art Of Conversation (Impulse). Now they’ve extended their working relationship by forming the Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio featuring Johnathan Blake, which makes a potent debut with Without Deception, released on Holland’s own Dare 2 label. Blake has been playing drums in Barron’s regular trio with bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa for the last few years, so his presence in this unit is no surprise. The well-chosen repertoire includes originals by Barron and Holland plus four songs by pianists: Mulgrew Miller’s Second Thoughts, Sumi Tonooka’s Secret Places, Duke Ellington’s Warm Valley, and Thelonious Monk’s Worry Later. There’s nothing fancy about the arrangements, just a solid sense of swing at all times as these accomplished musicians offer the equivalent of a master class in the art of the jazz piano trio. Favorite tracks include the supersonic flair of Barron’s Speed Trap with a splashy drum solo, Holland’s jumping Pass It On, a dedication to Ed Blackwell, and the always irresistible Warm Valley. But there’s not a single dull moment on this winning set. Happily recommended.
Dare 2 DARE-011; Kenny Barron (p) Dave Holland (b) Johnathan Blake (d); Mount Vernon, NY, August 17-18, 2019; Porto Alegre/ Second Thoughts/ Without Deception/ Until Then/ Speed Trap/ Secret Places/ Pass It On/ Warm Valley/ I Remember When/ Worry Later; 66:32. daveholland.com

Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp/William Parker/Bobby Kapp: Ineffable Joy

With an album called Ineffable Joy, and track titles like Jubilation, Ebullience, and Bliss, there’s no need to wonder about the way that the special quartet of Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, William Parker & Bobby Kapp feels about their April 2018 ESP recording. There’s a ton of history connected with this release. Saxophonist Perelman and pianist Shipp have recorded dozens of duo sessions over the last quarter-century, and bassist Parker has joined them for several trio and quartet dates over the years. Shipp and Parker were long-time partners in the David S. Ware quartet, and have participated in numerous other projects together. Drummer Kapp made his first recordings as a member of Noah Howard’s group for ESP-Disk in 1968. After a big gap in his recording activities, he made a duet album with Shipp in 2016, joined Perelman and Shipp for the trio release Tarvos: The Art of Perelman-Shipp Vol. 2 (Leo Records), and with Parker on board, played on the 2017 Leo quartet release Heptagon. William Parker’s first recording session was also for ESP, on Frank Lowe’s Black Beings in 1973. And since 2012, Matt Shipp has done four projects for the revitalized ESP imprint. The juxtaposition of Perelman’s virtuosic saxophone, Shipp’s lush voicings and torrential playing, Parker’s deeply rooted bass, and Kapp’s carefully calibrated percussion results in a true bounty of sound. As fascinating as it is to follow along with the Perelman-Shipp duo music as saxophonist and pianist provoke one another, when there are four powerful personalities involved in a free improvisation, the listener’s task is complicated by the sheer force of the music. With so much happening at every moment, it’s tricky to know what to pay attention to. Music that exists in the moment can be, paradoxically, ripe for hearing again and again. First to glean the general picture, then a second pass to listen closely to the sax, another for piano, and so on. After a couple of plays, I find myself partial to both the frisky and urgent Bliss, which maintains its manic intensity for nearly nine minutes, and the swirling maelstrom that they call Exuberance. But next time, and every time thereafter, new facets and nuances will continue to be revealed. Strongly recommended.
ESP-Disk ESP5036; Ivo Perelman (ts) Matthew Shipp (p) William Parker (b) Bobby Kapp (d); Brooklyn, NY, April 21, 2018; Ecstacy/ Ineffable Joy/ Jubilation/ Ebullience/ Bliss/ Elation/ Rejoicing/ Exuberance; 50:06. www.espdisk.com

Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp: Efflorescence; Live In Nuremberg

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or as saxophonist Dewey Redman once posited, The Ear Of The Behearer (Impulse!, 1973). Each time that Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp unleash another gorgeous tenor saxophone and piano duet, a burst of pure beauty is revealed. The wonder is that everything they play is pure improvisation. They don’t talk about the music, they just play, until they stop. After the triple-CD set Oneness was released on Leo Records in 2018, Perelman declared that there would be no new duo music because “for now, there’s nothing more to say.” That didn’t last long, and they were back at their home away from home, Jim Clouse’s Park West Studio in Brooklyn in May of that year, embarking on a multi-day session that yielded Efflorescence (Volume 1), with no fewer than forty-nine tracks spread over the four CDs. Their studio encounters usually result in shorter pieces, and the pieces on Efflorescence, each one named for a flower, seldom exceed five minutes. At other times, like their performance Live In Nuremberg, the presence of a live audience changes the pair’s dynamic orientation as they feed off the energy in the room to deliver extended improvisations. Perelman and Shipp made their first duet recording in 1996, Bendito Of Santa Cruz (Cadence Jazz Records). Over the course of scores of recorded encounters since then, the pair’s uncanny connection remains endlessly intriguing, certainly for the listeners and maybe for the performers as well. As their faithful and astute commentator Neil Tesser has written, “they not only complete each other’s sentences. They also start them.” And like any marriage, the range of emotional content is broad and filled with surprise and tenderness. Whether the mood is contentious and excitable (Rose, on disc 1 of Efflorescence) or calm and collected (Lotus, the next track) or anywhere in-between, Shipp and Perelman bring the full force of their sensibilities to bear on music that’s being invented that very moment. It’s a sort of magic trick, but instead of a rabbit, the pair pulls a coherent musical statement out of their collective hat.

On their Live In Nuremberg performance, the blend of Perelman’s idiosyncratic melodic sense and Shipp’s lushly propulsive piano results in a tour de force improvisation lasting just a few minutes shy of an hour. Astonishing passages like the speedily intense section around the 5-minute mark and the rapturously beautiful piano solo that follows immediately afterward highlight the dramatic tension at the heart of their collaboration. Shipp in particular is in a busy and expansive mood at the keyboard, provoking Perelman into more intense than usual saxophone flourishes and establishing a virtuous cycle of inspiration and engagement. The variety of moods and strategies that the pair expresses in the shorter tracks of their studio dates is similarly broad on stage but requires an altered mindset that’s attuned to the physical exigencies of the moment. Are these exceptionally profound musical moments mere serendipity, or a genuine manifestation of two minds acting as one? Or is that a false choice? Somehow, the unalloyed beauty at the heart of Perelman and Shipp’s music leads to such deeply philosophical and ultimately unanswerable questions. Both releases are unreservedly recommended.
Efflorescence: Leo CD LR 866/869; Ivo Perelman (ts) Matthew Shipp (p); Brooklyn, NY, May 2018; Disc 1 (59:08): Hibiscus/ Cosmos/ Rose/ Lotus/ Amaryllis/ Zinnia?/ Iris/ Bleeding Heart/ Moonflower/ Peony/ Clematis/ Tiger Lily/ Mandevilla/ Cape Primrose. Disc 2 (47:35): Quince/ Columbine/ Hydrangea/ Jacob's Ladder/ Yellow Bell/ Trillium/ Nigella/ Helenium/ Goldenrod/ Forsythia/ Sage. Disc 3 (61:07): Clover/ Heather/ Sweet Pea/ Veronica/ Strawflower/ Aster/ Catmint/ Honeysuckle/ Impatiens/ Globeflower/ Jasmine/ Sweet William/ Nightshade/ Lilac. Disc 4 (43:14): Snapdragon /Heath/ Narcissus/ Lupine/ Shasta Daisy/ Rosilla/ Snowdrop/ Carnation/ Orchid/ Tiger Flower. www.leorecords.com
Live In Nuremberg: SMP Music SMP-011; Ivo Perelman (ts) Matthew Shipp (p); Nuremberg, Germany, June 26, 2019; Live in Nuremberg, Part I/ Live in Nuremberg, encore; 59:42. smpmusic.bandcamp.com