Virtually every new release from free-jazz saxophone king Ivo Perelman stands out in some way, whereby the ever-inventive Brazilian is trying something he hadn’t attempted before. Interaction (Ibeji Music) marks Perelman’s first released recorded meeting with Barry Guy, and his second with Ramon Lopez, for a rare Perelman pairing with a ‘proper’ bass/drums rhythm section.
Barry Guy is an accomplished UK bassist prominent in the realm of avant-garde jazz whose career stretches back to the 1960s. The Spanish-French percussion maestro Ramon Lopez has likewise been notable in out-jazz for decades, now.
Typically, Perelman recordings get out to the public fast, but this one was taped back in 2017, only coming to light seven years later. What is typical about this Perelman release is that the music is conceived as it’s being played, among all three participants. And it’s a lot of music, over two hours’ worth of it.
The opening track “Part 1 – Track 1” serves as an introduction even if not intended that way. It helps the listener steeped in Perelman begin to process how Perelman adapts his style to his accomplices of this session, and vice versa. In the realm of totally improvised music, the product is totally about those interactions; Brian Morton’s liner notes describe tapping “into not a body of music, but a process of music-making.”
On that particular track, you hear Perelman make a melody that ignores the artificial, binary world of tonal vs. atonal, Guy approaching his bass like a guitar and Lopez lightly prancing around the other two. Perelman and Guy are comfortable enough to know when to cede control to the other and when it’s time to take it back.
Guy’s bass is on its own planet. He his plucking on the higher register during “Part 1 – Track 3” and finds a strange communion with Perelman saxophone that’s apart from other bass/sax pairings I’ve heard. Elsewhere, his arco blends hand-in-hand with Perelman’s sax articulations, as on selections like “Part 1 – Track 11” and “Part 2 – Track 4,” where the bassist is coming up with appropriate harmonic counterpoints to Perelman in real time.
Lopez’s role as a drummer isn’t a conventional one and he embraces the opportunity to set, modulate and accentuate the ever-unfolding flow of a performance. But that’s not all: on “Part 2 – Track 2,” he pulls out a tabla and not only that, he continues to play his drums right alongside of it. The Indian percussion adds an exotic flavor, yes, but it also fits into the mindset that these three men bring to the session.
Perelman’s bag of tricks is deep, as he’s able to broaden the sound of a tenor saxophone well beyond what is normal. On “Part 1 – Track 5,” he manages to make it emulate a muted trumpet. On “Part 2 – Track 3,” it sounds like a Carnatic vocalist (fitting, since he’s playing alongside a tabla). His husky honking on “Part 2 – Track 7” projects like a bullhorn. Elsewhere (including later on that same track 5), he simply puts his head down and plows through with a volley of notes in a dazzling display of chops.
While the album is divided into twenty discreet tracks, it’s really all of one big collection of amazing moments, a continuum of passion and a brainstorm of original ideas filtered through the instruments of three highly intuitive musicians.
It seems the more we hear of Ivo Perelman, the more we learn just how good he is at instantaneous creation and finding simpatico with whoever is playing in the same room as him. But Interaction excels also because Barry Guy and Ramon Lopez were in that room with him.
Interaction is now available and can be acquired from Bandcamp.
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