Tenor sax savant Ivo Perelman has made an endless number of recordings just on the idea of instantaneously creating music with only one to three partners. It’s an idea he could probably mine forever because of his inspired choice for partners and the equally inspired tactic of making no type of instrument off limits to spar with his sax. Perelman’s ability to adjust to any situation and still be very much himself is unsurpassed.
The Purity of Desire inserts Perelman into a decidedly Middle Eastern situation, with Gordon Grdina on oud and Hamin Honari handling percussion associated with that region, such as a tombak and daf. Properly managing the give-and-take among improvisors can be a high-wire act for even some of the best musicians but always seem second nature to Perelman and whoever he collaborates with; he adjusts to them and they adjust to him, meeting in a middle that is in a musical space not previously occupied by anyone else.
Honari’s daf on the opening performance sounds like a brushed snare to the uninitiated but this Persian frame drum’s got a looser, deeper resonance. Along with Perelman, Honari weaves a rhythm with the tenor saxophonist playing Middle-Eastern scales until he then climbs on up to an impossibly upper alto range with his tenor.
Grdina playing the oud in a highly improvisational way is not a setting that instrument is known for, but he is able to follow Perelman’s whimsy on the second track and build an underlying harmony on the fly. The three encounter a groove and mine it good, Perelman turning more and more lyrical in the process.
The upper reaches of the tenor sax greets you at the start of Track #4 and as Perelman goes up and down the scales, so does Grdina as they chase each other in the pursuit of the next idea. That sort of close communion is also found on the next track, but at a quick pace and accentuated by Honari’s daf. The seventh song is more scattered than the rest, with all three cutting loose with skittering lines and Perelman later kicking off a lively jig.
If there was going to be anyone who could figure out how to make a tenor saxophone work with an oud and Persian percussion, that would be Ivo Perelman, with Gordon Grdina and Hamin Honari likewise finding the right roles for their respective instruments alongside a sax. The Purity of Desire is available now, from Not Two Records.
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