The Squid's Ear Magazine


Perelman, Ivo / Karl Berger: The Hitchhiker (Leo Records)

The second CD that NY saxophonist Ivo Perelman has recorded with Ornette alumni Karl Berger, the first with Berger on piano, and here on vibraphone, opening new aspects of sound to the commanding dialog between these two friends and seasoned improvisers.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Ivo Perelman-tenor saxophone

Karl Berger-vibraphone


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UPC: 5024792075423

Label: Leo Records
Catalog ID: LEOR754.2
Squidco Product Code: 22163

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2016
Country: UK
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded at Parkwest studios, in Brooklyn, New York, in July, 2015, by Jim Clouse.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"This is a quiet and intimate duet album recorded between tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and vibraphonist Karl Berger. Both men are longtime veterans of the avant/free jazz scene, and the space created by the format and the sound of the vibraphone allowed a hushed dynamism to prevail over the course of the music.

The album opens with "The Shadowy Path" which has a slightly yearning saxophone tone playing off against dancing vibes. Subtle peals of air and darting mallets and then metallic sounds that the vibes can achieve prod Perelman's saxophone into higher pitches. Punchy, sharp squeaks and hollow clanks work very well as the music develops. Moving further afield, "The Well of Memory" paints with quiet shades of vibraphone and breath, it develops a haunted air akin to a misty meadow under shrouded moonlight, until Perelman breaks the spell, pushing his instrument into a more strident tempo. Tap dancing mallets with circling saxophone make their entrance on "Twilight" and give the music a sense of energy that is building through centrifugal force looking to break free. The music is in constant motion, as Berger takes his vibes through descending trails of notes, Perelman meets them with high pitched saxophone calls.

"Unspoken Feelings" begins with Perelman alone, playing with a lonely and hushed sound, soon to be shaded patiently by Berger's vibes in a quietly emotional performance. Some of the forlorn sensibility overflows in emotional squalls of saxophone toward the end and carries on into "The Hitchhiker" where Perelman becomes very dynamic in his improvising, ascending and descending in stridency and volume while Berger's vibes move in the free space created by the harsh sounds.

"Pride and Prejudice" is a beautiful interlude for solo saxophone, with Perelman playing with a raw and wounded sound that is emotionally open and free from pretense. His tone is captivating and similar in sound to the classic Albert Ayler sound of Spiritual Unity or Witches and Devils. Patient tones of saxophone and vibraphone usher in "The Sound of Bliss" which has ecstatic blasts of percussive mallets and bursts of raw saxophone that meet and converse and delve even deeper into the aesthetics of improvised music, with strong waves of saxophone and clamoring vibes.

The album is completed by "Well Behaved Quarter Notes" where the squeaks and squiggles of fast saxophone meet the shimmering nature of the vibraphone in an example of great interplay. It becomes a cat and mouse game, playful and fun, between two old friends who have nothing but the highest respect for one another, and it is a very good way to end a fine album."-Tim, Music and More, JazzAndBlues Blogspot


Get additional information at Jazz and Blues Blogspot

Artist Biographies

"Born in 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil, Perelman was a classical guitar prodigy who tried his hand at many other instruments - including cello, clarinet, and trombone - before gravitating to the tenor saxophone. His initial heroes were the cool jazz saxophonists Stan Getz and Paul Desmond. But although these artists' romantic bent still shapes Perelman's voluptuous improvisations, it would be hard to find their direct influence in the fiery, galvanic, iconoclastic solos that have become his trademark.

Moving to Boston in 1981, to attend Berklee College of Music, Perelman continued to focus on mainstream masters of the tenor sax, to the exclusion of such pioneering avant-gardists as Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann, and John Coltrane (all of whom would later be cited as precedents for Perelman's own work). He left Berklee after a year or so and moved to Los Angeles, where he studied with vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake, at whose monthly jam sessions Perelman discovered his penchant for post-structure improvisation: "I would go berserk, just playing my own thing," he has stated.

Emboldened by this approach, Perelman began to research the free-jazz saxists who had come before him. In the early 90s he moved to New York, a far more inviting environment for free-jazz experimentation, where he lives to this day. His discography comprises more than 50 recordings, with a dozen of them appearing since 2010, when he entered a remarkable period of artistic growth - and "intense creative frenzy," in his words. Many of these trace his rewarding long-term relationships with such other new-jazz visionaries as pianist Matthew Shipp, bassists William Parker, guitarist Joe Morris, and drummer Gerald Cleaver.

Critics have lauded Perelman's no-holds-barred saxophone style, calling him "one of the great colorists of the tenor sax" (Ed Hazell in the Boston Globe); "tremendously lyrical" (Gary Giddins); and "a leather-lunged monster with an expressive rasp, who can rage and spit in violence, yet still leave you feeling heartbroken" (The Wire). Since 2011, he has undertaken an immersive study in the natural trumpet, an instrument popular in the 17th century, before the invention of the valve system used in modern brass instruments; his goal is to achieve even greater control of the tenor saxophone's altissimo range (of which he is already the world's most accomplished practitioner).

Perelman is also a prolific and noted visual artist, whose paintings and sketches have been displayed in numerous exhibitions while earning a place in collections around the world."

-Ivo Perelman Website (http://www.ivoperelman.com/bio/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Karl Berger is a six time winner of the Downbeat Critics Poll as a jazz soloist, recipient of numerous Composition Awards ( commissions by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, European Radio and Television: WDR, NDR, SWF, Radio France, Rai Italy. SWF-Prize 1994 ). Professor of Composition, Artist-in-Residence at universities, schools and festivals worldwide; PhD in Music Esthetics.

Karl Berger became noted for his innovative arrangements for recordings by Jeff Buckley ("Grace"), Natalie Merchant ("Ophelia"), Better Than Ezra, The Cardigans, Jonatha Brooke, Buckethead, Bootsie Collins, The Swans, Sly + Robbie, Angelique Kidjo a.o.; and for his collaborations with producers Bill Laswell, Alan Douglas ("Operazone"), Peter Collins, Andy Wallace, Craig Street, Alain Mallet, Malcolm Burn, Bob Marlett a.m.o. in Woodstock, NY. New York City, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, Paris, Rome.

He recorded and performed with Don Cherry, Lee Konitz, John McLaughlin, Gunther Schuller, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, Dave Brubeck, Ingrid Sertso, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Ray Anderson, Carlos Ward, Pharoah Sanders, Blood Ulmer, Hozan Yamamoto and many others at festivals and concerts in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa, India, Phillippines, Japan, Mexico, Brazil.

His recordings and arrangements appear on the Atlantic, Axiom, Black Saint, Blue Note, Capitol, CBS, Columbia Double Moon, Douglas Music, Elektra , EMI, Enja, Island, JVC, Knitting Factory, In&Out, MCA, Milestone, Polygram, Pye , RCA, SONY, Stockholm, Vogue a.o.

Founder and director of the Creative Music Foundation, Inc., dba The Creative Music Studio, a not-for-profit corporation, dedicated to the research of the power of music and sound and the elements common to all of the world's music forms; and to educational presentations through workshops, concerts, recordings, with a growing network of artists and CMS members worldwide.Conducted CMS Residencies worldwide. In the 90s, Dr. Berger was Professor of Composition and Dean of Music Education at the Hochschule fuer Musik, Frankfurt / Germany. Chairman of the Music Department at UMass Dartmouth till 2006.Now re-establishing CMS programming in collaboration with producer Rob Saffer, directing the CMS Archive Project, recording and producing. Performing internationally with the Allstar Ensemble "In the Spirit of Don Cherry" and with numerous projects, collaborating with vocalist/poet Ingrid Sertso ( contact CreativeMusicAgency@gmail.com ). Recording a Trlogy of Piano Music for Tzadik Records. Collaborating with bassist Ken Filiano, vocalist Ingrid Sertso (KIK) + guitarist Kenny Wessel (KIKK). The Karl Berger Improvisers Orchestra, completed 75 performances in New York since the Spring of 2011 (see BLOG at www.karlberger.org). New collaboration in Europe with drummer Baby Sommer, bassist Antonio Borghini, guitarist Carsten Radtke, vocalist/poet Ingrid Sertso (DIFFERENT STANDARDS). Collaborating with cornetist Ken Knuffke, violinist Jason Hwang, saxophonists Ivo Perelman, Peter Apfelbaum, Mercedes Figueras, drummers Harvey Sorgen, Tani Tabbal, Warren Smith, Tyshawn Sorey. bassists Joe Fonda, Mark Helias, Max Johnson, William Parker, trumpeter Steven Bernstein and others for recordings and performances."

-Karl Berger Website (http://www.karlberger.org/biography.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. The Shadowy Path 6:36

2. The Well Of Memory 8:14

3. Twilight 4:22

4. Unspoken Feelings 4:49

5. The Hitchhiker 4:01

6. Pride And Prejudice 2:48

7. Extremely Loud While Incredibly Quiet 1:19

8. Engulfed In Flames 2:52

9. Zen And The Art Of Improvisation 1:51

10. The Sound Of Bliss 6:31

11. Well-Behaved Quarter Notes 4:34

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Duo Recordings
Leo Records

Search for other titles on the label:
Leo Records.


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