Tenor saxophone extraordinaire Ivo Perelman has recently released what would be an ambitious, career-defining move for most of his contemporaries but is ‘merely’ the latest project coming from him. The voluminous, nine-part Brass and Ivory collection is a series of piano-sax improvisations between Perelman and a notable pianist he is performing with for the first time (with one, small exception). These recordings were made over the course of seven years, from 2014 until 2021.
The lineup of piano maestros who have sat down with Perelman to create duo music on the fly is a little breathtaking: Marilyn Crispell, Craig Taborn, Angelica Sanchez, Aaron Parks, Agusti Fernandez, Dave Burrell, Sylvie Courvoisier, Aruan Ortiz and finally, Vijay Iyer.
Every one of these nine encounters are a revelation, each a spontaneous formulation of unique musical rapport. Of these piano partners, Iyer is perhaps the most well-known of the bunch, and his progressive bonafides are undisputed. But it’s nonetheless very intriguing to imagine him tossing musical ideas around while performing with Perelman, who is deeply embedded within the realm of free jazz, whereas Iyer’s music is typically pre-conceived, at least in a general sense.
Everyone who knows about Iyer knows he is capable of anything, including completely improvised music. He’s previously worked with Butch Morris, William Parker, Wadada Leo Smith, and Roscoe Mitchell, after all. But now we get to hear him one-on-one with an elite pure improviser in Perelman, who has traded instant musical inventions with Matthew Shipp for decades now (and to a lesser extent, Karl Berger). Being comfortable with those guys has resulted on some forty-odd albums of great jazz. But there’s something to be said about discomfort, too, where unfamiliarity with someone forces more chance-taking when bold musicians are involved.
That’s the kind of anticipation I had going into this final volume of Brass and Ivory, Tale Nine.
What we find is that Iyer completely buys into Perelman’s vision of music without preconceptions or premeditations, but Iyer brings his own DNA and lines it up with Perelman’s. Iyer’s enlightened sense of melody, rhythm, modulation and timing all show up in this exposed setting, revealing perhaps more about him than what we previously knew. Ivo Perelman tends to draw out all the interesting little characteristics from his musical partners.
“Chapter One” commences with Perelman taking the lead and Iyer soon entering meekly but ever expanding his footprint until he nearly overtakes the saxophonist. From there, a unique bond emerges, where Iyer cascades percussive chords for the first half of the song. For the second half, the pianist takes the lead and Perelman picks up the cues as building blocks for his own creations. As the song progresses, you can feel the affinity growing between them, meshing their dissimilar styles together to forge a unique combination of harmonics: the sweeping, lushly melodic Iyer with the unshackled, passion-driven Perelman.
“Chapter Two” is a brief piece, but one that showcases Perelman’s unmatched ability to convey desolation through a tenor saxophone. Running at nearly half an hour, “Chapter Three” never gets overheated, it’s about flow and Iyer modulates it with uncanny preciseness and constructing interesting motifs, allowing Perelman to focus on doing his thing.
Perelman and Iyer knit interwoven lines during “Chapter Four” never sounding too labored in the process. Then, density loosens up into a fluid progression, culminating into Perelman’s lonely wail at the center point of the performance. “Chapter Five” is a short, frisky jaunt with Iyer bearing down on his staccato chords and Perelman reveling in the chaos.
Ivo Perelman has discovered a deep well fresh musical ideas of simply by interacting with other musicians to co-compose music on the fly. When he partners with new musicians, the well goes even deeper, particularly with a partner like Vijay Iyer.
Tale Nine and the rest of the Brass and Ivory collection is now on sale, and you can get it from Bandcamp.
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