feature photo: Edson Kumasaka
Improvisational tenor sax virtuoso Ivo Perelman has long produced a steady torrent of recorded material and even a global pandemic wasn’t going to douse his flame of desire to make art not contemplated. He convened a trio with drummer Whit Dickey and frequent pianist Matthew Shipp in late Spring of 2020 to originate Garden of Jewels (out January 22, 2021), their second record as this trio; 2015’s Butterfly Whispers was the first.
This time, though, Perelman leads his small combo with his unrelenting desire to raise his game further fueled by greater moments of contemplation that social remoteness has wrought. His vibrato was always the sound of genuine human affection but this time he digs deeper into that emotional well. When he goes up into that high, altissimo range, there’s a vulnerability you might not have heard before. We’re in especially trying times and he’s reflecting it.
“Garden of Jewels,” the song, reveals the comeliness of notes chosen when the silence between the notes are treated the same as the notes themselves. Dickey keeps no time, he comes in behind and selectively fills tonal gaps without calling attention to himself and responds with extreme sensitivity when Perelman and Shipp build toward an apex and ease off again.
“Tourmaline” is three-way improv, an entanglement that instinctively opens up as Perelman takes charge.
Perelman’s sense of urgency incrementally increases with each track on the front end of the album. By the time we reach “Amethyst,” his tenor is getting weepy with a burst of frantic, but ultimately he keeps himself grounded in a soul-drenched expression that traces its lineage back to Rollins and Young.
“Onyx” starts with the same sort of despondence as “Garden of Jewels” but Shipp noticeably asserts himself and takes more chances and instigates the trio into dramatic turns. “Turquoise” is not just a free-flowing succession of notes, but rhythm is treated the same way, and Dickey is perfectly suited for maintaining control over a very fluid pulse suggested by the whims of Shipp and Perelman.
Perelman conveys uncommon fragility during “Emerald” as he ventures into — and back out — of the altissimo register. And during “Sapphire,” both Shipp and Dickey move in a halting motion, effectuating friction for Perelman that brings forth the sparks.
These are my readings of the songs, anyway. Someone else can hear this music and envision a wholly different sonic portrait, because Ivo Perelman — whether it’s through his music, his paintings or ever his jewelry, an example of which graces of cover of the album — leave provocative but open-ended impressions that leave it to the observer to make their own story from the fertile cues he leaves behind. Garden of Jewels is a feast of ear food delivered with passion, fearlessness and a unity of purpose.
Garden of Jewels comes to us from Dickey’s own Tao Forms label. Pre-order/order it from Bandcamp.
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