Ivo Perelman And Matthew Shipp: Fruition

Five out of six pieces on this CD are devoted to Hank Mobley, Ben Webster, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler and Sonny Rollins. And in a delightfull stroke of wit and wisdom the title track 'Tenorhood' does not feature a saxophone at all. It is a drum solo. Ivo Perelman and Whit Dickey reached the stage when they don't have to think in advance about what they are going to do at this or that session. The music just pours out of them, they don't have to force anything. They allow themselves to be completely taken by the music.

The track that gives this album its deceptively ominous titl comes at its very end, after nearly an hour filled with sound and fury, light and darkness, joy and foreboding, controlled chaos and serendipitous serenity - all those qualities (and the many more) that Ivo Perelman and his cohorts have learned to coax from their instruments. But rather than strain the leash or burst the seams, the piece titled 'Breaking Point' serves as an inward-looking finale - a concluding meditation rather than a celebratory scherzo.

The track that gives this album its deceptively ominous titl comes at its very end, after nearly an hour filled with sound and fury, light and darkness, joy and foreboding, controlled chaos and serendipitous serenity - all those qualities (and the many more) that Ivo Perelman and his cohorts have learned to coax from their instruments. But rather than strain the leash or burst the seams, the piece titled 'Breaking Point' serves as an inward-looking finale - a concluding meditation rather than a celebratory scherzo.

Do you remember the film The Thomas Crowne Affair? The original—not the 1999 remake—starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and contained the 1968 Academy Award-winning song "Windmills of Your Mind" by Dusty Springfield. I bring that up because this live performance by Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp brings to mind the lyrics: "Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel / Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel / As the images unwind, like the circles that you find / In the windmills of your mind."

Do you remember the film The Thomas Crowne Affair? The original—not the 1999 remake—starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and contained the 1968 Academy Award-winning song "Windmills of Your Mind" by Dusty Springfield. I bring that up because this live performance by Daniel Carter, William Parker, and Matthew Shipp brings to mind the lyrics: "Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel / Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel / As the images unwind, like the circles that you find / In the windmills of your mind."

Meeting in France in 2017 for the Festival Météo de Mulhouse, Evan Parker alternating between soprano and tenor saxophones and Matthew Shipp on acoustic piano, present an epic extended improvisation that naturally evolves through several sections, followed by a brief post-script, each musician attentively focused as they support the clarity of each other's playing.

Currently in the midst of an unprecedented mid-career renaissance, wildly prolific tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman has been recording for Leo Records at a frantic pace, typically issuing several new albums at a time. Released concurrently with The Edge and The Art of the Duet, Volume One is Serendipity, a title that bears out its namesake. Taped in the winter of 2011 during what was originally intended to be the session for The Foreign Legion, a bass-less trio date with Perelman's regular collaborators pianist Matthew Shipp and drummer Gerald Cleaver, this unplanned quartet effort with legendary bassist William Parker is a truly serendipitous affair.

This CD was recorded a week after the ground-breaking duo with Matthew Shipp (LEO 755 - Corpo). The presence of the bass (Michael Bisio) and drums (Whit Dickey) provide an extra lift to Matthew Shipp and Ivo Perelman. Bisio finds valuable notes in between those that makeup Shipp's chords. Dickey adds color and texture that peer into the swirl of melodies and light them from within. Ivo added new quality to his technique - muscular yet relaxed; a sort of tai chi of the saxophone.