The prolific tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman is not the kind of person that does things halfway. As a practitioner of totally free improvisation, he’s recorded dozens of projects with pianist Matthew Shipp, indulged his interest in playing with string players in a series of 4 discs on Leo plus a session with the Arcado String Trio on the FSR label, and teamed up with bass clarinetists Rudi Mahall and Jason Stein to record several hours of duets (also on Leo). His latest opus, celebrating his 60th birthday, is Brass And Ivory Tales, a collection of 9 CDs pairing Perelman’s formidable concept and mastery of the tenor saxophone with an equally formidable array of deeply creative pianists. Each CD is a “tale,” separated into “chapters,” with as few as two long pieces (Dave Burrell) or as many as eleven (Sylvie Courvoisier). While there is no indication that the chapters are sequenced in the order in which they were played, it often feels that way. The strategy is always the same: say hello and start to play with no preconceptions whatsoever. These tales took seven years to record, starting out with a duet with Marilyn Crispell in March 2014. The most recent encounters are with Aaron Parks in March 2020, and a final flurry of activity in 2021 of sessions with Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, and Angelica Sanchez. Save for a 1996 quartet session featuring Crispell, these are all first encounters. That serves to demonstrate the immense power of the free improvisation scenario when it’s approached by the right performers, where Perelman’s dedication and practice can lead to so many different musical zones. The presence of musicians from around the world is notable. It’s also worthy of note (although perhaps it shouldn’t be) that three of Perelman’s encounters are with women.
Sometimes the mood is expansive and the players dialog at length. The set with revered elder Dave Burrell on the first disc is like that, with two long improvisations that fill an hour. The musicians are eminently compatible and thoroughly engaging in Chapter One, a 37-minute exploration that touches on the blues and hints at a number of standards. Chapter Two is a bit edgier with Perelman in a generally calm mood and Burrell maintaining his usual rigorous focus.
Tale Two, with Marilyn Crispell is beyond gorgeous, with each player deeply rooted and equally passionate about the direction of the music. The pianist’s introduction to Chapter One is utterly arresting, before Perelman enters the picture with peaceful gravity and power. There’s no letup in the course of nine chapters that range from the soulful (Chapter One and its mirror image, Chapter Nine) to the absolutely wild (the herky-jerky swing of Chapter Two and the powerful Chapter Eight).
Emotion runs high in the duets with Aruán Ortiz. The pianist likes to begin with simple structures that let his notes ring out while Perelman counters with bent notes and taut lines that twist and turn. Ortiz’s command of the keyboard, like the combination of right hand melody with left hand bass clusters that powers Chapter Three, provokes Perelman into some of his most exuberant playing. There is always such impressive playing on Perelman’s releases that it’s hard to pick favorite moments, but I will note my pleasure at the extreme density of Ortiz’s playing and Perelman’s impassioned responses on the lengthy Chapter Four and at the dynamic sweep and spontaneously generated architecture of Chapter Five. This eminently satisfying encounter concludes with the gentle and peaceful Chapter Seven.
Tale Four presents Perelman in musical conversation with pianist Aaron Parks. Parks is generally considered a mainstream player, working with, among many others, Joshua Redman, Terence Blanchard, and Ambrose Akinmusire. That makes his presence here perhaps the most surprising meeting of the nine discs. As told by Neil Tesser, Perelman’s indefatigable chronicler, the two met over dinner and hit it off, especially when Parks expressed his admiration for Matthew Shipp. Perelman notes Parks’ “beautiful round harmonies, and his melodic playing” leading to the saxophonist’s maximizing his “expressionism without resorting to harshness.” The pair’s three long and deeply absorbing improvisations testify to the protean nature of Perelman’s disciplined musical approach and his ability to dramatically adjust his contribution to the music while always retaining the core of his sound.
Sylvie Courvoisier, Perelman’s partner on Tale Five, starts off Chapter One with a calm and stately melody, the first of eleven instant compositions. Perelman is almost jaunty on Chapter One with an unusually low-key attitude . By contrast, Chapter Two jumps right out at the start, with a feral saxophone attack and dissonant power chords at the piano. These two performances, taking up the first six minutes of this fifty-five minute ride, prime the listener to expect an immense range of expression, an expectation that is more than fulfilled in the balance of the CD. The blend of high-register saxophone and the inside-the-piano creaks and bangs makes Chapter Three one of the real gems here. The seemingly random bursts of Chapter Seven lead to some of the most energetic playing of the date. The frantic clatter of Chapter Eight arises from Perelman’s excitable extreme high register playing coupled with Courvoisier’s dense pianistics, including more inside the piano techniques to give extra spice for their soundworld. The final three chapters tend to be more relaxed and almost wistful, an astute and welcome conclusion to a thoroughly rewarding and absorbing encounter. Courvoisier has frequently recorded in duo settings, and it shows in the boldness and emphatic nature of her playing. Their collaboration makes me look forward to more work by this duo.
The Spanish pianist Agustí Fernández is Perelman’s partner for Tale Six, bringing his refined sensibility and bold imagination to bear on the proceedings. Beginning with the relatively serene Chapter One, the pair ranges far and wide in their search for fresh sonorities and felicitous textures. Chapter Two is explosive and bold, a high-energy call and response romp. Chapter Three extends the density of Chapter Two into a roller-coaster ride of unleashed power. Chapter Five features Fernandez rattling around the inside of the piano and making some rowdy sounds that provoke Perelman into some squeaky realms of his own. Another ferocious duet erupts in Chapter Six with the pianist’s thick onslaught starting things off at a high level of intensity. They dial back the power, though not the fervency, for a sort of free ballad on Chapter Seven. That’s followed by the rather jolly combination of Fernandez back inside the piano strumming the strings as Perelman builds a melody from a few repeated notes. The disc concludes with Chapter Nine with Fernandez making a relatively rare move to the very high end of the piano and Perelman responding by going down low on his horn. For much of this disc, Perelman concentrates on the lower registers of his tenor, with only the occasional leap into the stratospheric heights that he often inhabits. Tale Six offers a winning encounter where both musicians sound thoroughly at home and engaged.
Perelman’s collaborator for Tale Seven is the frequently dazzling pianist Craig Taborn. Chapter One of their encounter clocks in at over 26 minutes, and the pair is by turns contemplative, brusque, combative and tender. Taborn’s forceful and highly energized playing leads Perelman into sustained frenzies of sound, complete with the occasional vocal exclamation. Their brisk liveliness never falters through five chapters, loaded with passages of astounding beauty. As the saxophonist told Tesser, Taborn’s “colossal drive tapped into gigantic streams of energy” and the power of their collaboration is impressive indeed.
The duets with Angelica Sanchez on Tale Seven often deliver the uncanny sense that the music derives from an underlying composition. Clearly it’s an illusion, as the forms are generated spontaneously, but Sanchez’s brittle and imperturbable lyricism seems to move Perelman ever so slightly in the direction of more traditional styles of improvisation. That’s not always the case, as the blustery Chapter Four or the saxophone bleats and muted piano clusters of the first half of Chapter Six prove. Still, the nine chapters of Tale Seven comprise a case study in the immense possibilities of free improvisation and the virtues of close listening. The sustained bittersweet free ballad that concludes the disc is yet another of the collection’s highlights.
For the final disc, Perelman is joined by Vijay Iyer for five improvisations. Iyer, who has distinguished himself as a key collaborator with artists as varied as alto saxophonists Steve Coleman and Rudresh Mahanthappa, rapper Mike Ladd, and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, proves to be an adventurous and provocative partner for Perelman. From the first few minutes of Chapter One, the duo’s connection is evident in the way that the music ebbs and flows. Displaying his usual intensity, Perelman ranges all over his horn amid Iyer’s resourceful and busy piano stylings. Chapter One is over 17 minutes of incendiary and enthralling music, a tour de force of improvisatory music-making. In truth, if Tale Nine had only this single chapter, it would stand as significant and beautifully realized. But of course, there’s much more to be heard here. There’s the slowly meandering conversation of the brief Chapter Two followed by the complex elegance of the 25 minute Chapter Three with its ultra-dynamic shifts of pacing and density that grab your attention and keep it, lest you miss another serendipitous passage of instant music making. Chapter Four continues to be chock full of radical changes in tempo and fury including a hair-raising section of spiraling intensity that stops abruptly at about the halfway point of the 14 minute piece. The final Chapter Five presents a short (2:28) but furious argument that seems to me almost funny as a fragment of stereotyped “free jazz” and a marvelous way to end the disc, and the whole box set.
Ivo Perelman’s bold and expressive style of free improvisation is certainly an acquired taste, but, from my perspective, one very much worth acquiring. The heartily recommended Brass And Ivory Tales is another milestone in the burgeoning discography of Ivo Perelman.
Fundacja Słuchaj! (Poland); Ivo Perelman (ts) with Disc 1 (57:10, in two chapters) Dave Burrell (p), January 2020; Disc 2 (52:42, in nine chapters): Marilyn Crispell (p), March 2014; Disc 3 (55:40, in seven chapters) Aruán Ortiz (p), December 2017; Disc 4 (39:42, in three chapters) Aaron Parks (p), March 2020; Disc 5 (54:26, in eleven chapters) Sylvie Courvoisier (p), March 2018; Disc 6 (54:10, in nine chapters) Agustí Fernández (p), July 2017; Disc 7 (65:01, in five chapters) Craig Taborn (p), June 2021; Disc 8 (61:29, in nine chapters) Angelica Sanchez (p), June 2021; Disc 9 (63:16, in five chapters) Vijay Iyer (p), May 2021. All tracks recorded in Brooklyn, NY. sluchaj.bandcamp.com/album/brass-ivory-tales
