The Squid's Ear Magazine


Perelman, Ivo / Karl Berger / Gerald Cleaver: The Art Of The Improv Trio Volume 1 (Leo Records)

Saxophonist Ivo Perelman is the anchor for the 6 volumes of "The Art of the Improv Trio", here with Karl Berger on piano and Gerald Cleaver on drums in a lyrical album that flows with grace and thoughtfulness, from ballad introspection to uptempo excitement, an impressive start to the series.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Ivo Perelman-tenro saxophojne

Karl Berger-piano

Gerald Cleaver-drums


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UPC: 5024792077120

Label: Leo Records
Catalog ID: LEOR771.2
Squidco Product Code: 23309

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

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Two constant elements in this trio are Ivo Perelman and Gerald Cleaver, who is a variegated, hyper-intuitive, yet utterly grounded drummer whose association with Perelman dates to 2010, during which time he has supported and helped shape Perelman's most intrepid explorations. Says Ivo: "Gerald is such an incredibly flexible, adaptive drummer in that sense, he is better than I am in reacting to what's happening. That's his role; my role is to provoke the reactions." This is the third time Ivo recorded with Karl Berger who swapped his mallets to the grand Steinway. Read notes by Neil Tesser and Karl Berger."-Leo



"Perelman and Karl Berger have recorded twice before: Reverie (with Berger on piano) and The Hitchhiker (Berger on vibraphone). This time, he's back on piano. As with all the albums in the series, the track names are the simple "Part 1" etc. as if something more specific would distract from the music (also, coming up with six albums' worth of titles is an unappealing task). If Perelman's previous practice is anything to go by, the track sequence is probably the order in which they were recorded.

From the opening ascent from bass to treble in a single breath on the saxophone, this is music which feels totally natural, not something sought, but found. There's a liquid flow and fluency to Perelman's tenor, creating long, crescent-shaped passages in which he glides between notes. Each track is a piece of measured thinking, coming to an instinctual conclusion, a feeling that this is a good place to end.

The trio covers a wide spectrum of sentiments, ruminative to rhapsodic. 'Part 1' is melancholic, with Perelman's mourning saxophone, gentle piano chords and brushed whispers. 'Part 2' is more declamatory, Berger's broken dance figure multiplied into superimposed rhythms which dissolve into something like a hymn, transformed into a mellifluous song without words by Perelman. The metric jungle reasserts itself before a compromise is reached, both kinds of music moving together to a uniform close. 'Part 4' reverberates with chords, repeated and spread across the full range of the piano, like some profound question which Perelman answers with echoes and a beautiful, wandering melody, growing in power as the chords become more insistent and the piano answers in turn. 'Part 5' consists of intersecting lines, three separate patterns of thought which cross from time to time.

Right through the album, Cleaver provides a backdrop of vaporised cymbals and scuttling drums, punctuated by crisp accents, a diffuse tissue of sound sometimes only noticeable when it's absent. There's an ambient acoustic, allowing one to hear the air around the instruments and rendering them in seductive colours: the piano's bell-like motif that provides the foundation for 'Part 3', the textural luminosity of Perelman's playing in the high registers and his resonant sobs lower down.

The album concludes with 'Part 6', the longest piece - barely articulated phrases and squawks on tenor; deep, pedalled piano with random interjected notes; and the irregular rattle of percussion. Little by little, the parts come into focus, their movement becomes more adroit and the disparate elements gradually cohere, retaining their distinctive features but drawing on each other, moving to a bold conclusion and then ebbing into silence with the sound of Perelman's breath.

A compelling set of performances."- Colin Green, The Free Jazz Collective


Get additional information at Free Jazz Blog

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.

"Gerald Cleaver (born May 4, 1963) is an African-American jazz drummer from Detroit, Michigan. Cleaver's father is drummer John Cleaver Jr., originally from Springfield, Ohio, and his mother was from Greenwood, Mississippi. Gerald had six older siblings. Cleaver joined the jazz faculty at the University of Michigan in 1995. He has performed or recorded with Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Roscoe Mitchell, Miroslav Vitous, Michael Formanek, Tomasz Sta ko, Franck Amsallem and others.

Under the name Veil of Names, Cleaver released an album called Adjust on the Fresh Sounds New Talent label in 2001. It featured Maneri, Ben Monder, Andrew Bishop, Craig Taborn and Reid Anderson and was a Best Debut Recording Nominee by the Jazz Journalists Association. Cleaver currently leads the groups Uncle June, Black Host, Violet Hour and NiMbNl as well as working as a sideman with many different artists."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Cleaver_(musician))
3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Part 1. 6:14

2. Part 2. 8:54

3. Part 3. 10:57

4. Part 4. 8:11

5. Part 5. 10:40

6. Part 6. 12:54

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings
Leo Records

Search for other titles on the label:
Leo Records.


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