Ivo Perelman has recorded several times with violist Mat Maneri. He’s the son of sax and clarinet player Joe Maneri, so he’s had strong musical influences in his life.
“I have the wonderful sounds that a stringed instrument can produce – the bowing, the pizzicato, the sad timbre of the viola, the intimate sounds, but I also get the wonderful phrasing of a woodwind player,” Perelman says. “It’s like each of us is playing both instruments at the same time.”
Together, the violist and tenor saxophone player have recorded two albums called Strings 1 and Strings 2, both out on Leo Records. Ivo Perelman seems to have the knack of finding musicians who specialize in one instrument – and not only that, but to find musicians among them who understand and tune in to his singular improvisational style.
The albums are available separately or together, and Strings 2 also features Hank Roberts, a cellist who plays many genres and has played with musicians including Gary Burton, Bill Frisell, Sting and Tim Berne. His playing is profound and emotional. On four tracks, Strings 2 also features reeds player Ned Rothenberg on bass clarinet. Rothenberg has played with, amongst others, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Marc Ribot and Paul Dresher. Perelman learned cello as a child and says it’s “a powerful thing, a deep, deep sound which speaks to his soul immediately.”
Ivo Perelman explained his passion for these instruments to me: “My love for the strings family started in my teens when I studied cello in Sao Paulo, Brazil and acoustic bass in Haifa, Israel. When I studied arranging and composing in Los Angeles at the Grove School, that’s when I really started to appreciate the strings’ flexibility as a wonderful tool in film scoring. Almost anything written for strings will sound good regardless of range or instrumentation.”
Track 1 features a free-fall entry by all players, with Rothenberg’s bass clarinet clearly heard underpinning sounds above including Perelman’s tenor saxophone in searing altissimo. Maneri’s viola sets out some gorgeous themes, changing ideas and swapping ideas with Roberts’ cello, which resonates and simmers, deftly taking notes from both higher and lower registers provided by the other instruments. They then produce disharmonic chords across the strings, which jar and deflect the upper notes of the saxophone. There are some lovely sections where the quartet simultaneously decide to descend, all at their various pitches. It’s an interesting opening track, with much going on and much promised.
Track 2 begins like a real jazz track – for about 2 bars – before each player takes his own line for a while, the tenor squealing over the others, wonderful comical stretches and tweaks over mostly viola but also the deeper, subtler cello line. The ending is sudden. Track 3 begins with Ivo Perelman’s tenor sax speaking out a simple line, under which the cello and viola murmur before the sax sets a series of four-bar riffs under (or over), which the strings sit before coming forth to duet their own themes, which the sax cannot follow. Then all are together, the sax flowing across Hank Roberts’ cello line before emerging with its own dexterous little interlude over the top. The middle section is all depths and delights from cello and viola, before the sax fluidly introduces a melodic line. By the end of the track, all is fast, frenetic and harmonics galore – but it is engaging.
Track 4 begins with some lovely stutt notes in melody from Rothenberg’s bass clarinet, which are all the more beautiful for how the sound reverberates within the frame of the instrument. It’s intriguing to the extent that I played the opening many times before playing onwards on the track. The saxophone falls in over the top, juxtaposing the same theme for a while before delicately harmonizing with it. This short, melodic, thematic track is a showstopper, and one where both the tenor sax and bass clarinet can be heard sweetly, clearly. The second third takes your breath away before the quieter recovery period as the track nears its finish.
Track 5 sees Perelman’s sax and strings setting off, first fairly delicately but building the musical scaffolding upon which all three players build – adding a little, a touch of vibrato a melody or two, a theme here and there. The sax vies with Hank Roberts’ cello for a line or several, but all listening, hearing and responding. The rapid fire altissimo section from Ivo Perelman toward the neck of the piece is astounding, and leads the others in a helter-skelter dash toward the end, where the pace finally relents and eases.
Track 6 is a gentler affair altogether, with the strings and sax playing off each other in a rhythmic opening before Perelman establishes a more fluid line, which the others follow and harmonize with. The speak – repeat – speak work out is lovely in many ways and the cello positively sings on this track: It’s an emotive, classical style but jazz influenced. There is one beautiful, magic spot where the cello line merges seamlessly into the sax line, and it is almost impossible to pick the exact spot they cross and change. This demonstrates how similar their intonation and range can be. Wonderful.
Track 7 is spacey, eerie to open, before Ned Rothenberg’s bass clarinet introduces a repeated eight-note riff for a period. This establishes a dense, velvety foundation. The others establish their lines on this and the musicians veer off, then come together in, at times, very harmonic episodes. Ivo Perelman’s sax line introduces song-like motifs, which the others take apart and toss back in changed form. Sax and clarinet echo each other briefly before there is a whispered breath and a subtle ending. A lovely track.
Track 8 hears Hank Roberts’ cello played in different ways, plucked, banged and tapped. Mat Maneri’s viola creates a mandolin-like sound at times. The bowed sections are rich and countered by tremulous squeaks and sucks from tenor sax of Perelman, before he creates a melody. The foundation is raised higher by the absence of the bass clarinet here, but it is established largely by the cello when it is bowed. The extensions reached by all 3 players is impressive, the ending predictable.
Track 9 is like a mini-suite in itself. Across 15 minutes, there are sections where each of the musicians stands alone, leads, follows, interacts and harmonizes. Really, a fully fledged exploration in 15 minutes of all instruments on Strings 2. In some places, the deep, provocative playing of cello with sax flying over the top is almost heart wrenching, and the viola and cello help add emotions of their own. It’s difficult not to be moved by this sumptuous finish to a really interesting and explorative album.
Ivo Perelman is clearly moved by the string lines and tends to veer towards their themes than those set by Rothenberg’s bass clarinet, which was an intriguing listen in itself. His searing notes in the upper register just layer on more emotion. Across Strings 2 emerges some repetition of style, in a good way, and the interaction of the musicians is profound and rather beautiful at times.
What is enjoyable is that strings can usually do what reeds can find difficult to emulate, and that is soar and warp their way upwards and upwards. The bass clarinet cannot follow in range but Ned Rothenberg is clear in his sonorous supporting lines – as well as in his own right, when he emerges from the sometimes-crowded playing. But Perelman’s sax here almost achieves string-sounding like notes and feelings, as well as being pitched perfectly alongside Hank Roberts’ cello, which makes it really intriguing.
Ivo Perelman almost decided not to record with a cellist, because of the distraction he can feel when a cello is in the mix – but thankfully he decided to do this and Strings 2 is a delight.
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