IVO PERELMAN / MAT
MANERI - Two Men Walking
Leo Records CD LR 696
Ivo Perelman – tenor saxophone; Mat Maneri – viola
IVO PERELMAN TRIO – Book of Sound
Leo Records CD LR 697
Ivo Perelman – tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp – piano; William Parker – double bass
Two albums by Ivo Perelman who really does like to keep his annual output up in the air, but no two being the same I always know that something new will be heard. Last year saw Perelman and Mat Maneri together for the first time, with Matthew Shipp on the piano stool. Shipp is absent this time, but no reflection on him; it's just that Perelman wanted to do something new. Then again Shipp does appear on the second Perelman album reviewed here and his long standing 'partner' and master bassist William Parker makes up the trio. This trio last recorded together (as a trio) in 1996.
Leo Records CD LR 696
Ivo Perelman – tenor saxophone; Mat Maneri – viola
IVO PERELMAN TRIO – Book of Sound
Leo Records CD LR 697
Ivo Perelman – tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp – piano; William Parker – double bass
Two albums by Ivo Perelman who really does like to keep his annual output up in the air, but no two being the same I always know that something new will be heard. Last year saw Perelman and Mat Maneri together for the first time, with Matthew Shipp on the piano stool. Shipp is absent this time, but no reflection on him; it's just that Perelman wanted to do something new. Then again Shipp does appear on the second Perelman album reviewed here and his long standing 'partner' and master bassist William Parker makes up the trio. This trio last recorded together (as a trio) in 1996.
Two Men Walking, unless my hearing
misleads me, was recorded with saxophone on left channel, viola on the right,
but at no time did the music make me conscious of that, so coherent is the
playing. It was only when I listened for
it that I became mindful of it. No
matter how unusual one might think this duo of instruments as a jazz 'combo', odd
it is truly not; one might think of it as next best to a solo instrument, so
closely do these two exceptional musicians sing with one voice. Ultimately, isn't that what even orchestras
strive towards?
The problem with this category of music, if indeed it may be categorized, lies not in the music itself to my ear and mind, but to describing it and categorizing it, which many seem to need to do. It might be easier to suggest what it might be about, rather than to propose a meaning for it. I suggested earlier that I think Perelman wants, always, to try new things, not to repeat himself as lesser artists often do. So, going back to his Trio in Book of Sound is not to reiterate that music or that sound from '96. He knows that won't happen, because he understands the synergy with which he, Shipp and Parker will work, each being of the finest calibre of creative artist.
These two albums are utterly unlike each other, further evidence of Perelman's desire to always create, not to be bound by rules and conventions. He succeeds in this in that each exhibits exquisite spontaneity, unpreparedness if you like; anarchy even. Neither album has a theme, nothing is predetermined or prearranged. Yet this duo or that trio goes into a studio and produces new music like nobody heard before. Music that is cerebral, intensely provocative and sophisticated.
You could make comparisons, with regard to style of playing, between Perelman and Albert Ayler or David Murray. Should you want to hear something a little similar, try Archie Shepp, Henry Threadgill or John Zorn. They are by no means the same, but they might give a clue.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
The problem with this category of music, if indeed it may be categorized, lies not in the music itself to my ear and mind, but to describing it and categorizing it, which many seem to need to do. It might be easier to suggest what it might be about, rather than to propose a meaning for it. I suggested earlier that I think Perelman wants, always, to try new things, not to repeat himself as lesser artists often do. So, going back to his Trio in Book of Sound is not to reiterate that music or that sound from '96. He knows that won't happen, because he understands the synergy with which he, Shipp and Parker will work, each being of the finest calibre of creative artist.
These two albums are utterly unlike each other, further evidence of Perelman's desire to always create, not to be bound by rules and conventions. He succeeds in this in that each exhibits exquisite spontaneity, unpreparedness if you like; anarchy even. Neither album has a theme, nothing is predetermined or prearranged. Yet this duo or that trio goes into a studio and produces new music like nobody heard before. Music that is cerebral, intensely provocative and sophisticated.
You could make comparisons, with regard to style of playing, between Perelman and Albert Ayler or David Murray. Should you want to hear something a little similar, try Archie Shepp, Henry Threadgill or John Zorn. They are by no means the same, but they might give a clue.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham