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
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