Click through the album titles for purchase information:
Both tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith have a lot in common. Each have been making records for decades, are improvisors of their respective instruments at the highest order. They’ve both reached an age where other musicians might rest on their laurels and go on cruise control, yet they’re as highly productive as they’ve ever been, still challenging themselves to attain new peaks. They also share a love to make spontaneous music in one-on-one duet settings.
So is it really any surprise Perelman and Smith would at some point lay down some tracks as a duo? This early, 2026 installment of Perelman’s Duologues series just made too much sense to not happen. Duologues 5 (Ibeji Music) is the logical intersection of two careers that have separately done so much to advance the cause of free jazz and improvised music.
Each of these performers have such established characteristics that they’re going to ‘be themselves’ no matter who they go up against, and this setting confirms that. But neither are inflexible and unyielding, either. When Smith discreetly applies a plunger to his horn during the first track, he wrings out saxophone-like sounds that for that moment makes it appear Perelman is (once again) trading licks with a fellow reedist.
Moreover, neither has to make much effort to connect to other because they already start in more or less the same space. They both share a flair for finding and putting together pretty, fragile melodies whenever either embark on solo excursions; on Duologues 5, we get to hear that done synchronously. “Three” and “Six” are fine examples of that.
The name of the game for the second performance is reaction and redirection, and both do it with such unerring instincts, you’d swear they’ve been doing this for some forty or fifty years (of course, they have). These instincts also serve them well when harmonizing together — as on the fourth track — because they have to do so impromptu but never fail at nailing the chords together.
Having great rapport also means anticipating where a remark from your partner is going and finishing that thought for him. That’s what is happening all over “Five.” On the next cut, the two opt for higher energy level and even here where ever-quicker thinking is required, both are more than up to the task.
Ivo Perelman and Wadada Leo Smith collectively bring about a century of fearless music creation into the sessions that produced Duologues 5, and the veteran poise and confidence shows up unfailingly from beginning to end.
*** Ivo Perelman CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
*** Wadada Leo Smith CD’s and vinyl on Amazon ***
- Soft Machine – ‘Thirteen’ (2026) - March 4, 2026
- Devin Gray – ‘Hz Of Gold‘ (2026) - March 2, 2026
- Triple Blind – ‘Cold Walk’ (2026) - February 27, 2026
