Ivo Perelman has accomplished so much in his thirty-year recording career, but there are still a few things left on his bucket list. That doesn’t include leading a quartet with Matthew Shipp, William Parker and Bobby Kapp…he checked that box with 2017’s Heptagon. But what he hadn’t done until now is to record for the iconic outsider artist label ESP-Disk.
That was important for him because during the label’s heady upstart days, they signed a little-known Gato Barbieri and released his volcanic debut album In Search of the Mystery. The Argentinian saxman Barbieri went for the jugular on that album, something that the Brazilian saxman Perelman does on every album. Back in ’67, Gato established himself as the first in a line of South American avant-garde jazz greats that goes straight on down to Perelman himself.
Ineffable Joy is Perelman’s own ESP-Disk debut, and he wasn’t about to do anything but uphold the reputation established fifty-two years earlier. That meant bringing the Heptagon gang back together again, and perhaps not so coincidentally, Kapp was the drummer on Mystery, too.
Regardless, Perelman’s level of comfort in the company of fellow out-jazz vets set up Ineffable Joy perfectly for high quality free jazz, and it meets the high standards of the players involved. The word ‘ineffable’ means “too great for words” and while the music here is ‘joy to great for words,’ I’ll attempt some words about it here:
“Ecstasy” opens with Perelman and Shipp only, the former playing with an allure and the latter with forcefulness. The rhythm section sneaks its way in and it’s hard not to notice Kapp’s unusual brush work that combines with the two front line musicians and Parker’s confidently rangy bass to make a collective sound like no other. As the song proceeds, Kapp discreetly moves to sticks on cymbals and alters the dynamic of the song.
The astonishing interplay between Shipp and Perelman that begins “Ineffable Joy” is the product of decades playing together. Parker and Kapp know just how to accentuate it, however. Shipp makes a melody that hints of the blues with nuanced turns on “Jubilation,” and Perelman takes his time letting the pianist’s ideas fully flower before adding his own thoughts to it and sagaciously alters the direction.
Perelman & crew show a great mastery of melancholy on the ironically titled “Ebullience,” while “Bliss” is a blizzard of notes but Kapp and Parker tie down the energy to keep it from spinning out of control. Perelman’s tenor range here is almost superhuman that’s followed up by Shipp’s discerning piano run.
Shipp’s measured approach paces “Elation,” where everyone is playing with a collected passion. The climbing up and down chord progressions on “Rejoicing” is made more interesting from Parker’s and Kapp’s continual adjustments to it.
For “Exuberance,” Perelman makes Parker his primary bartering partner instead of the usual Shipp, and once the motif the two establish is baked, Shipp and Kapp jump in and make it more complete. But then Shipp and Perelman later run down notes together in a final burst of kinetic music making that ends the program.
With Ineffable Joy, Ivo Perelman makes a significant addition to free jazz’s most fabled record company catalog.
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