The 3rd part of NY/Brazilian saxophonist Ivo Perelman's "Art of the Improv Trio" series, with Matthew Shipp on piano and Gerald Cleaver on drums, each an essential element in the interplay and subtle skills of these masterful players, with Perelman's voice exceptionally strong as he demonstrates the full range of his sax through free and melodic passage.
Label: Leo Records Catalog ID: LEOR773.2 Squidco Product Code: 24047
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.
"Perelman has made more contributions to saxophone technique than perhaps any other reed player since Roscoe Mitchell: he has mastered the tenor sax's altissimo range and found innovative ways to navigate it from within, as well as to access it from the other ranges of the horn. ... He has researched air flow and breath control, rebuilt embouchure and streamlined the demands of creating the extraordinary sounds at his disposal."-Neil Tesser
"Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, Gerald Cleaver-at this point, the web of collaborations linking these three improvisers is almost too tangled to pull apart. Just for an idea: typing "Ivo Perelman" into Shipp's Discogs page calls up twenty results, the well received Callasand Corpoamong them. Fifteen results for "Gerald Cleaver," and twelve for Cleaver with Perelman. As a trio, we've heard them before on The Foreign Legion, plus in quartet with William Parker on Serendipity and with fellow drummer Whit Dickey on Enigma-all on Leo Records, the label that's been such a welcome home to Perelman since the late 'nineties (forty-eight results on Discogs!).
I'll admit, while we're in the midst of this recent sextuple release, that it's hard to keep up with Perelman's prolific output, not to mention Shipp's. Which is why it's so pleasing, when you do catch an album, to come across one as good as the third volume of The Art of the Improv Trio. That said, we do cover as many of the Brazilian saxophonist's releases as we can on the blog, and even as he continues to stretch boundaries, the common descriptors work fairly well here: there's a sense of mystery, soulfulness, and poetry to the improvisations. Perelman's playing is sublimely expressive, especially in his exploration of the altissimo register, where notes flit and then spill back down the tenor's range. His control over the instrument-in part what makes his albums, with their varied range of collaborators, so consistently strong-is in evidence on each of these nine tracks.
It's hard to discuss each musician's contribution individually, since throughout the album they're almost always playing at once. In this context, Shipp's playing demonstrates a kind of control in its relative restraint. More than anyone else, he takes responsibility for setting the mood of the improvisations, whether with dark, crashing chords that plume out like fog or with ostinati that help launch Perelman into the ether. On one track, he even sits out entirely. Cleaver, meanwhile, proves exactly why he deserves his recurring role on these albums. Here he straddles the line between timekeeping and open playing, sometimes implying a groove, sometimes cracking out backbeats. He can swing hard or patter around quietly. Fellow drummers will enjoy turning up the volume to appreciate the richness of his drum sound, especially in his two solo spots.
Anyone hesitant to commit to all six volumes of The Art of the Improv Trio or unsure where to make your approach-I encourage you to give Vol. 3 a try."-Eric McDowell, The Free Jazz Collective