Click here to [close]

Ballister: Dave Rempis (s), Paal Nilssen-Love (d), Fred Lonberg-Holm (c)

W71 in Weikersheim, Germany. March 2024.

Chris Corsano (d), Kelsey Mines (b & voice), Casey Adams (d)

Casa del Xolo, 1/16/2024, Seattle, WA. (pic: Gregg Miller)

Absolutely Sweet Marie: Alexander Beierbach (s), Anke Lucks (tb), Steffen Faul (tp), Gerhard Gschlößl (Tu), Lucia Martinez (d)

Panda Theater, 12/2023, Berlin

Dead Leaf Butterfly: Els Vandeweyer (v), Maike Hilbig (b), Lucía Martínez (d), Lina Allemano (t)

Jazzwerkstatt, 12/2023, Berlin

Han-earl Park (g), Camila Nebbia (s), Yorgos Dimitriadis (d)

Morphine Raum, 12/2023, Berlin

Monday, March 18, 2024

John Dikeman/Aleksandar Skoric/Giotis Damianidis/Petros Damianidis live @Giapi, Thessaloniki, March 16th, 2024

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

In the post-pandemic era, at least in these parts of Europe, there still exists the thrill of catching the energy of live music. One of the many results of the Covid dystopia is that it left us in Greece with very few opportunities to enjoy a, for a nevertheless marginalized music as John Dikeman put it before the gig, live act.

This Balkan (as the Damianidis’ brothers come from Greece and Skoric from Serbia) with a little help from America alliance is Dikeman on tenor saxophone, Skoric on the drums, Giotis Damianidis on electric guitar and Petros Damianidis on the double-bass. The first leg of their tour started in Thessaloniki and it will take them to Northern Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria.

The four of them played for the first time as a quartet, even though they know each other –at least in duo formations. Their free jazz with a lot improvisation take on music was a joyous affair of high energy, free thinking blowouts. There are certain moments when you don’t expect (or don’t know, or, even, just wait for the shadow of the impromptu to cover you tenderly) something in particular, and the music, the players that they produce it, offer you the best way to forget anything that bothers, itches or hurts inside you. This night was one of those instances.

Even though this is a free jazz quartet that plays in unison, a procedure that consists a lot of listening and caring, I can’t and won’t avoid a mention to Aleksandar Skoric. Having never caught him live before, I was not prepared. Not prepared for his energetic, organized chaos of joyful polyrhythmic drumming. Not prepared on how much he enjoyed it, letting go, playing and interacting outside the codes. His drumming resembles and combines the ecstasy of children that play games and the ferocity of the best drummers around at this time.

But, obviously, Skoric was not alone. Dikeman was equally eager to offer us sax blowouts and wait fervently, stepping aside for his fellow players. Notes were spitted and growled with aggressiveness. Petros Damianidis, a quiet force for the quartet, managed what seemed to impossible, considering the volume of their sound. He was an equal partner, using the double-bass as a percussive instrument too. Giotis Damianidis utilizes his electric guitar as a bridge. He fills the gap between intensive rock playing, improvising at moments, while –with the help of effects- creating his own idiolect, one that has ears for his fellow players.

When we talk about improvised music, there shouldn’t be surprises (because you are surprised only when you expect “bad” and you get something “good”), only expectations. Expecting that the music will transcend you, fill you with joy or whatever other feeling is there. I already mentioned that this night was one of those nights, and many of us felt it from the start. Catch them live, if you can.

By the way, Giapi means building under construction.


@koultouranafigo

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Anna Webber - Sunday Interview

Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix

  1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

    The disintegration of self.

  2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

    Deep listening, timbral curiosity, commitment.

  3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

    It varies from day to day! But currently I've been thinking a lot about Coltrane.

  4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

    I'm not too interested in wishful thinking.

  5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

    A career spanning 50-60 years.

  6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?

    Currently really digging Horse Lords. Is that popular music?

  7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

    I always want to be better at being present.

  8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?

    All of them.

  9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

    Basically never. I'll usually listen to it once around release day, but aside from that, I've usually had enough of it by the time it comes out...

  10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

    There are so many...

  11. What are you listening to at the moment?

    Checking out a bunch of stuff that's been released in the last month or so - the new Mary Halvorson record, the new Tim Berne record... I always try to stay on top of what's going on currently.

  12. What artist outside music inspires you?

    James Joyce, David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon

Reviews with Anna Webber on the Free Jazz Blog:

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Strinning & Daisy – Castle and Sun (Veto Records, 2023)

By Fotis Nikolakopoulos

I really like Tim Daisy’s drumming and the way he utilizes every inch of his drum set. Even though he definitely comes from a lineage of free jazz drummers, his approach is unique and allows a lot of pleasure to those of who believe that the drummer should not be confined to the role of the timekeeper.

As a fan of his music, I must comment that duos and small ensembles are one of his chosen paths to express his musical ideas. Here, with Sebastian Strinning, who plays tenor saxophone on this recording, seems at his best again. Actually they both sound on top form.

The sax and drums duo, so well documented, recorded and commented in the history of modern music, never stops to appear fruitful. If I had to guess, I’d say that this is happening because it relies on a basic form of human connection and understanding. Two people of whatever age, gender or sexuality always enclose the core (or the start in numbers maybe) of people’s exchanging in ideas and feelings.

Here on Castle and Sun, another very good free jazz release from Veto Records, they rely on interaction and listening to each other first. Listening first, playing after that: this is the very heart of improvisation. Their playing on Castle and Sun is linear, like they are following each other’s path, leaving room for ideas to blossom and following each other’s ideas and gestures.

Strinning’s tenor sax spreads phrases in a humble way like trying, always, to leave room for his fellow player. Even though I tend to avoid blowouts from saxes these days, if I had to make a criticism on this fine recording, I would say that some more energetic passages would help me as a listener. But his subtle approach is so much more closer to his partner playing, that the aforementioned thought makes me believe it’s just me nagging a bit…

I cannot say if the two have played together before, but, certainly, they seem to know each well. And above all they definitely seem to use fluently this non verbal way of communication called improvisation.

Listen here:


@koultouranafigo

Friday, March 15, 2024

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis - self-titled (Impulse, 2024)

By Martin Schray

Sometimes I DJ with my buddy Thomas in a bar. Neither of us knows what the other has taken with him, we like to surprise each other. Last time Thomas presented James Brandon Lewis’s Eye of I album and played “Fear Not (feat. The Messthetics),“ and what can I say: It blew me away! What surprised me most was the fact that this is obviously a blatant rock song - and Thomas doesn’t actually like rock. “Well, the exception proves the rule“, he answered with a smile. In contrast to him, I’ve always had a soft spot for rock and immediately fell for the descending chords, the melodrama of the sound, the sweeping gesture, the Bad-Brains-meet-Pharoah-Sanders moments. And indeed: The interesting thing about this collection of musicians is the cultural clash of hardcore and jazz, because the Messthetics consist of the two former Fugazi members Joe Lally (bass) and Brendan Canty (drums) plus guitarist Anthony Pirog, the latter being the link to jazz. His solo albums Palo Colorado Dream and In Side have already shown him as an exceptional musician. He’s also the one who made the connection to James Brandon Lewis, as both have known each other from sessions with iconic free jazz drummer William Hooker, which resulted in Hooker’s 2018 album Pillars... At The Portal. “Since day one of knowing Anthony, me and him just fit,” says Lewis. “We looked at each other after that William Hooker session, and we was like, ‘Damn, this shit is on point’.” After Pirog then took part in Brandon Lewis’s An Unruly Manifesto, it was only a logical decision to release a complete Messthetics album with the saxophonist.

However, anyone expecting a simple continuation of the previous collaboration will be disappointed. Just the opposite is the case, as some of the nine tracks are ballads (“Asthenia“ or “Three Sisters"), weird swing numbers (“Railroad Tracks Home“), post punk à la The Psychedelic Furs (“Emergence“), hard funk (“That Thang“) and almost classic jazz rock (“L’Orso“). Only “Fourth Wall", the album’s finale, is reminiscent of “Fear not“, since it’s an uptempo rocker par excellence. On that track, as so often on the album, Pirog and Lewis play their solos one after the other, but you can still hear a certain tension and connection between the two. When Lewis ends his statement with a gloomy howl, Pirog takes up the saxophonist’s last remarks with a soulful line. What is more, diversity is a theme on the album in other ways. Like in a giant cooking pot, many things are mixed together, rhythmic and harmonic hooks are constantly added. This can again be heard in “Emergence“, when the piece literally explodes in the chorus, as if you were shifting up a gear in the car, which happens here - as often in the pieces - through Brandon Lewis’s saxophone. It’s one of the characteristics of the band’s music. The blind understanding between guitar and saxophone “pushed the song like crazy,“ Joe Lally recalls of a passage when Lewis and Pirog when Pirog and Brandon Lewis started throwing wild solos back and forth to each other during a live set before the band went to the studio to record. It was a moment when intensity was physically palpable and which almost lit Lally up: “You’re just holding on and (keep) going“, he remembers telling himself.

This vibe can be felt on almost all the tracks and it’s possibly most evident in “Boatly“. The track starts like a trip-hop ballad - imagine Portishead unplugged - with drum brushes and a sluggish groove, but after four and a half minutes it transforms with an irresistible, yet simple increase in tempo and leads into a breathtaking coda in which Lewis’s overblown screams and Pirog’s plucked chords sound like a young Archie Shepp meets Bill Frisell. Anthony Pirog describes this part as a highlight of the album - and I gladly second that.

Another important surprise is the label. Impulse! is still regarded as something like the holy temple of jazz - and this album is by no means always jazz. However, the sound and the force with which Lewis plays here is clearly reminiscent of John Coltrane as well as the aforementioned Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp. And even in the 1960s, the label was always in tune with the times, as it is now with this album. Joe Lally says that he can hardly wait to see his band’s name next to the unmistakable orange, white and black Impulse! logo. “I’m trying to be cool about it,” Brendan Canty says about the fact of being associated with such a legendary catalog. “Hopefully nobody’s going to figure out that I’m the imposter in the temple.”

This is certainly not to be feared, because The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis will guaranteed be one of the highlights of this year.

The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis is available on vinyl, as a CD and as a download.

Watch “Emergence“ here:

Thursday, March 14, 2024

John Lurie - Painting with John (Strange and Beautiful, 2024)

By Martin Schray

The fact that you can listen to a new album by John Lurie (at least in parts) while he’s still alive is spectacular news in itself. For many, he has fallen into oblivion and is more a case for “What happened to …?“ columns. Yet, he was a real star in the 1980s, a hipster par excellence. Almost everyone wanted to be like him. Others however, couldn’t stand him. Both sides had something going for them. Lurie had the coolest jazz band of the time (The Lounge Lizards), he was a friend of Tom Waits, he played the leading roles in Jim Jarmusch’s films (e.g. Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law), he wore oversized, ultra-sharp suits. On top of it all, he was casual, spindly, more than six feet tall and seemed to be up to his eyeballs with indifference. His instrument was the alto saxophone. The fact that he was not a virtuoso like Charlie Parker didn’t matter, because he invented Fake Jazz, and that led to No Jazz and the scene around the CBGBs in New York in the late 1970s and early 80s. He was simply in the right place at the right time and he had goddamn charisma. Lurie performed successfully with the Lounge Lizards in various line-ups until the end of the nineties and he wrote the soundtracks for films such as Get Shorty and Lulu On the Bridge. He founded his own label, Strange and Beautiful, and developed the completely bonkers TV series Fishing with John.

Then however, his luck took a big blow. He was struck with severe Lyme disease in 1994, which heavily affected him, including the loss of his ability to play the saxophone. Lyme disease also led to his decision to isolate and distance himself socially. But Lurie - the multi-talent that he has always been - had to keep producing art. He started painting pictures in vibrant earth tones and with unconventional fauna. Painting became a source of joy for him and a way to overcome the challenges he faced, since - as if Lyme disease wasn’t enough - he also got cancer. Eventually, in December of 2022, he announced on social media channels that he would be producing a new show for HBO called Painting With John. He described it as a way to cheer people up during these difficult times. In the show, Lurie paints in his secret hideout in the Caribbean. He tells stories from his life, including his experiences as a jazz saxophonist, film and television composer and actor. As in Fishing with John, he combines the idea of painting with non-art: Painting with John is probably the most adventurous art academy ever broadcast.

What is more, everything seems to have come full circle, as Lurie has returned to music. Painting With John, the album, is the soundtrack to his HBO show. The 56 tracks are fragments both from former releases, e.g. from his soundtracks to Manny and Lo and African Swim with the John Lurie National Orchestra, and Marvin Pontiac, the re-animated discography of the fictional bluesman he created, as well as from old Lounge Lizards material (Queen of All Ears). But what is most interesting is the new material. Lurie has composed all the new tracks, he is on vocals and plays banjo, guitar and harmonica. His band is excellent as always: It consists of Doug Wieselman (guitar, clarinet, ocarina, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet), Steven Bernstein (trumpet, slide trumpet), Michael Blake (tenor and soprano saxophone), Art Baron, Curtis Fowlkes and Clark Gayton (trombones), Evan Lurie (piano), Smokey Hormel (guitar), Bryan Carrott (marimba, vibes), Jane Scarpantoni (cello), Tony Scherr (electric and acoustic bass, slide guitar), Calvin Weston (drums), and Kenny Wollesen (percussion, marimba, vibes).

And the result is much more than just a pleasant surprise. It’s particularly heartwarming to hear the great man sing and speak again, for example on “Ali Hum“ and “Night Hunters“, African desert blues tracks that could be found on a Tamikrest album as well. On “Humba“ and “Boomba!“ Lurie simply mumbles one word to himself, which is both funny and meditative. “New Opening“, “John and Calvin Wah Wah“ and “Baby Pigs“ are very delta-bluesy and remind me of a modern John Lee Hooker. Yet, the highlights of the album are certainly tracks that are in the Lounge Lizards tradition. On “Disappearing Alligator“,“The Snake That Protects Teeth“,“GB 14“, Sea Monster“ and “Helium Balloon“ the interplay of brief harmonic shifts, small motivic strands and minimalist groove develops a hypnotizing tapestry of sound.

I have to admit that I’ve been very moved listening to this music (which I’ve done over and over again in the last few weeks). Especially the Lounge Lizards reminiscences transport you back to the early 1990s, it seems like time has stood still. Painting with John comforts me when I’m feeling down. When I’m in a good mood, I feel even better. “This may be the last thing I do“, Lurie says. “I want it to be beautiful.“ I hope it’s not the last thing you hear from John Lurie. But it’s definitely beautiful.

Painting with John is available on double vinyl and as a download. You can order it here

Check out the band jamming here:

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Wilson Shook and Ted Byrnes - Joy (Other Ghosts, 2023)

By Gregg Miller

Sax/percussion duo, restless fire music. Wilson Shook plays baritone and soprano saxes, Ted Byrnes on everything percussive and the kitchen sink. Incessant drumming, burst after burst of baritone sax lines, in the tradition of ecstatic free jazz. Recorded in Los Angeles (Shook recently relocated to Oakland). Inventive hook after inventive hook, patches of sonic groove, a joyful noisy mess. Bang the cans. Shook’s edgy baritone, an onslaught of notes. stretched timbres, ripping out short declarative phrases, lots of overtone, growl and punctuation. Never in one place very long. A naturalistic texture. They don’t begin to slow down until the 18:20 mark of track two (“Joy 2"). Track 3 is slightly more spacious, the soprano more cutting, the silences between phrases slightly longer. Here Byrnes plays the rims more than the snareless snare, supporting the soprano’s register. The same restless energy and power as on the first two tracks. A bit over halfway, they switch to bari and the ringing snare drum.

We have a maximalist kind of minimalism: Just two instruments, yet an overload of sonic textures.

Track 4 (“Joy 4") opens with brushes on snare and a hint of soprano sax calling like a bird from somewhere high above canopy. By the 3 minute mark (on this 22 minute track), they are well into their dialogue, the frantic brushes continue, an insistent, boomy tom (small kick?) rounds out the tonal scheme. In the eighth minute, the energy changes when the brushes are replaced by thunder rods (maybe) on a drum with variable pitch. In the fifteenth minute, the snares are engaged. The intensity is the story.

You can hear a sampling of Shook’s other work here.

Much more about the intense and inventive drumming of Ted Byrnes here.

---

Wilson Shook wrote some very thoughtful responses to a few questions over e-mail:

1. Tell our readers about the record.

We recorded "Joy" one afternoon in Ted's garage, and I would say listening to it feels like spending a noisy, claustrophobic, sweaty hour in Ted's garage. We were both pretty isolated musically and socially for the first couple Covid years, so getting together to play a few sessions at the point where we finally felt safer doing it felt cathartic, but there's also a sort of furtive, obsessive quality about the music. Maybe that's the bunker mentality. The energy we brought was very specific to that time and place, and everything that had been going on around us. So it felt emotionally and physically potent.

I was also processing the recent death of Paul Hoskin, who was an influence aesthetically, as well as a friend. The baritone I'm playing on the record is Paul's old King Zephyr, which I had just brought back from a trip to Seattle. So there's a little bit of Paul in the music, I hope.

[You can hear 6 minutes of Paul Hoskin's bari sax on a train here]

Playing with Ted, especially in duo, demanded a level of intensity and persistence that I had to consciously work toward. Some of the strategies I used to get into that zone have structural implications for the music, such as the repetition and mutation of motifs. I'm not sure I ever played like that before, and I don't really play like that now.


2. Do you have a philosophy of music-making or sound that manifests here, or that you are trying to manifest?

For much of my history as an improviser, I've focused on developing a sensitivity to the changing moment, an agility to respond or not respond to each shift with a shift of my own. The emphasis is on listening first of all, but beyond that on radical mutability and ability to abandon safe, known identities and habits. This music is a bit different, in that it demands that one continue to inhabit a given moment, intensity, and texture—perhaps quite a bit longer than is comfortable or even physically tenable. There is still de-familiarization going on, but it's more the kind that happens when you stare in the mirror for too long. Other artists have taken this sort of idea to more extreme ends, but this was a stretch for me.

3. What role does the body play here -- do you think of this as embodied sound -- and if so, in what sense?

I think of improvising as striving for a kind of embodiment that reaches beyond individual bodies, that is a way of existing in time & space & in relation to others that breaks the rules that govern mundane reality. So there's a paradox of getting out of the body by really inhabiting it.

Music should be consoling, too. Music is where I go to be honest about my own body, which means challenging myself and exploring the transformative potential of the medium, but also confronting my own (fuzzy, inconsistent) limits with compassion. Doing so in the presence of others can feel healing.

5. I have been listening to Jack Wright’s recent What is What (Relative Pitch, 2023). Are you influenced by or otherwise aware of Wright's approach to music, (outsider) musicianship, and the saxophone?

Jack has been an influence for a long time, absolutely. His approach to the instrument was eye opening for me, and his whole engagement with the field of improvised music beyond just what happens on stage has been meaningful in terms of theorizing, advocating, and realizing this thing that is inherently fleeting and amorphous. By that I mean improvisation as a discourse, an orientation, a community, an infrastructure network. He also has a great sense of humor and play, and a real commitment to being present and transparent in the music. I like Jack.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Massimo Magee – Networking (Orbit577, 2023)

By Nick Ostrum

In the depths of the pandemic on December 20, 2020, London-based saxophonist Massimo Magee conceived of a distance series of collaborations. He began recording saxophone tracks – some just for himself and some with specific collaborators in mind. He then circulated the recordings to several choice artists, who, over the next ten months, added their own parts. The result is Networking.

Magee is not the only musician to resort to file-share collaborations like this during the lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing of early 2020s. It seems almost every creative musicians who was not doubling-down on their solo explorations or digging back into their hard-drives and session tapes for archival releases embarked on some kind of virtual collaboration project. Some were merely experiments. Many likely never saw the light of day in the end. Some, however, really worked. Networking is among the latter, in part because of the range of musicians who partook.

Networkingbegins with Signal Flare, a 2:45 minute solo of warm, jumpy scales that seems a jazzier nod to Braxton’s untouchable For Alto . Then, Magee turns to the collaborations. The first two, Echopraxia and Consolamentum are duos with electronicist Travis D. Johnson and percussionist Tim Green. They take Magee recordings in the ilk of Signal Flare and pull them into glitchier territory. Johnson seems to double Magee’s lines adding glimmering streaks and creaks to fill it out. Green adds a busy, atmospheric percussive backdrop. However, when Magee gets to his collaborations with guitarist Jonathan Weizel, something changes. The cuts that follow are sparse and Magee drops the blues and scales for space and extended techniques, which he follows through the rest of the album, almost progressively, as the album moves from the crackling electronic cascades of A.F Jonese to the raw sax-bass duo with Thomas Milovac and the peculiar sound-collage of Blinkenlights, his collaboration with Lance Austin Olsen. By this point, the sax is reduced to a series of hums buried amongst various other skittery scraps and circuitry.

The final track, Networking Outro, is the second solo piece. The music sounds less hurried, and maybe more deliberate. In a sense, it brings the album full circle, ending the wide-reaching journey that Magee and his compadres embarked on with hints of where it started.

As pandemic restrictions are now things of the past and live music seems to have returned to its pre-pandemic state, I am not sure whether Magee and the others (Olsen excluded) will return to this strategy of creation. Then again, maybe that shines light on what, exactly, this is: a product that is both a reflection of and struggle against its times. Then again, isn’t this what the best live show, or most studio album aspires to be? Networking plays in that space, and, even several years removed from its origins, it works, both as a sort of time-bounded (and distance-defying) narrative and a genuine gem in its own right. It might be that we, and especially I, should stop looking at some of these releases primarily as Covid recordings and start thinking of them simply as good music.

Networkingis available as a CD and download on Bandcamp.

  .

Monday, March 11, 2024

Ivo Perelman, Mark Helias, Tom Rainey – Truth Seeker (Fundacja SÅ‚uchaj, 2024)

By Don Phipps

Truth has always been elusive. Two film examples make the point. The Kurosawa masterpiece Rashomon concerns itself with different points of view by four eyewitnesses to a murder. Another is the Nolan film Memento, in which viewers are asked to piece the truth together based on a narrative that runs backward instead of forward. For both films, each scene alters one’s conclusions of what actually happened.

Truth Seeker, however, offers something that cannot be tied to life events, and this explains why its music is so compelling. Musical truth exists outside of context. It simply is.

Bringing together for the first time three free music giants – Ivo Perelman on tenor sax, Mark Helias on bass, and Tom Rainey on drums – Truth Seeker explores the various contours of reality using musical interpretations of the quest for truth. As is usual for a Perelman project, these seven joint improvisations are loosely centered. Each creates its own unique mood. However, they are also linked – primarily by the virtuosity of the musicians involved - but also by the rhythms and lines of each spontaneous composition.

An uncompromised combination of roller coaster runs and bird like shrills mixed with the dit and dot articulation of a Morse code signal, Perelman’s work fills the space perfectly. His output is evenly matched by bassist Helias, whose bow driven harmonic phrases are interspersed with exuberant plucks and tweaks which ground each composition. Beneath is Rainey’s all over drum work, use of brushes, and rimshot techniques, filling the space like dark fills a cave, a deep constant tumble behind the Perelman/Helias explorations.

One’s jaw will literally drop at the spellbinding Perelman runs on “Spiritual Growth” or his slippery phrasing on “Truth Seeker.” And Perelman’s fascinating embouchure work is on full display – allowing him to go beyond the normal registers of the tenor sax and articulate expressions that seem beyond the physical limits of the instrument. One can also marvel at bassist Helias’s adroit combination of strumming and bowing on “Mystical Devotion” and the harmonics he adds to “Life’s Meaning.” And while Rainey ‘s drumming provides subtle yet sophisticated girding for the various improvisations, his exploration of the sound timbres of the trap set come to the foreground on “Ubiquitous Light.”

The raw and challenging musical energy that flows through Truth Seeker provides a fascinating journey through the minds of these three masters. Explosive twists and turns combined with delicately constructed and intense soundscapes makes Truth Seeker a must-hear experience.

Ivo Perelman - Interaction (Ibeji, 2024)

By Don Phipps

The twenty tracks which comprise “Interaction” are nothing short of a tour de force, a rhythmically and musically diverse combustible interplay between three virtuosos – Ivo Perelman (tenor sax), Barry Guy (bass), and Ramon Lopez (drums and tablas). Each track has its own character and musical ambience, and even though the spontaneity of each composition is clear, each remains unique in its emotional and cerebral context, making this an album of substantial merit.

Perelman’s ability to articulate an extreme range of notes allows many of the tracks to take flight – his runs and phrases stretch out like some Evil Knievel motorcycle stunt across a vast canyon. At other times, his playing resembles the twists and turns of a trapeze artist or ice skater who does impossible mid-air maneuvers. Likewise, these sonic maneuvers will keep listeners mouths open and agape. As his lips tighten on the mouthpiece, the music splinters into high squeals and piercing cries, and then, when relaxing his embouchure, his tone recalls the breathy purity of Ben Webster.

Not to be outdone, Guy wields the bass with vengeance, striking deep plucks, full chordal strums, and bowing rapid or legato phrases that both anchor and accelerate. Certainly Guy has more than 10 fingers - or at least that is what his technique suggests. Lopez too, manages to cover the trap set, making use of all the various drums to tie the music together in a loose but definitive context. For example, he will attack the tom toms in a drumming style reminiscent of the late Ed Blackwell or use the cymbals to accent or emphasize various moments in the music. And when he is so moved, he offers up exotic and flashy play on the tablas, bringing a distinct and uncommon coloring to the musical explorations. The combined effect of both Guy and Lopez provides grounding, shifting though it may be, for the leaping articulations of Perelman’s energies.

Take Part 1 Track 6, which might be described as exploring a towering mountain forest. Around each bend is a surprise – a jutting boulder, a stream cascading into a waterfall, large ruts, trees that stretch to the sky, brambles, moss covered trunks, large rock cliffs, vistas. And this diversity is exhibited throughout the album. Part 1 Track 4 vaguely reminds one of Native American chants. Part 2 Track 1 begins with a slow drawl that offers up feelings of a late night out. Part 2 Track 5 creates a climbing intensity that reaches an apex.

Is this album an instant classic? One could make a case. Certainly, in the lexicon of free improvised music, it stands out as a collaborative effort that enables each of the musicians to maximize their virtuosity within conceptual themes which extend the sound of music. Highly recommended.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Catherine Sikora - Sunday Interview

Catherine Sikora. Photo by Eric Mingus.

  1. What is your greatest joy in improvised music?

    Sometimes, when many factors (seemingly magically) align, when I am playing with people I trust and love, when my horns are behaving themselves, when I feel strong and the sound in the room is good, there is a feeling of transcendence to another place entirely, within the music. It feels to me like a different plane of consciousness, where everything is clear and bright and sparkly, my brain relaxes and I can express myself sonically with ease; that is a place of pure joy.

  2. What quality do you most admire in the musicians you perform with?

    My favorite musician collaborators are purely and authentically themselves, and are truly at ease in their own skin, and thus freely able to allow others in their presence to be the same. They are also generous listeners, who allow enough space for me to think.

  3. Which historical musician/composer do you admire the most?

    I have enormous admiration, love and respect for Coleman Hawkins, for the quantum leaps he made on the tenor saxophone.

  4. If you could resurrect a musician to perform with, who would it be?

    I would love to meet the first female artist who worked in sound, from ancient times, and play with her.

  5. What would you still like to achieve musically in your life?

    Everything! I don't necessarily feel that I have truly achieved anything yet; if a life's work is a sculpture, I see my work (to date) as being like tiny little scratches on one small section of the surface of the raw material—scratches that could be viewed as the start of an attempt at work, or possibly as accidental damages. Having said that, I do want to find a way to realize a substantial piece using a large ensemble of saxophones. But I still have so much to do, in terms of practice and working with my instrument. I wish I could find more time, just for that, as well as time to devote to composition.

  6. Are you interested in popular music and - if yes - what music/artist do you particularly like?

    I don't know much at all about popular music. I enjoy the music of The Roots, does that count?

  7. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

     I wish I were less serious, and could be lighter in my attitude to life.

  8. Which of your albums are you most proud of?

    I feel that All My Winters is the closest thing to a realization of a sound I set out to create, so in that sense I am most proud of it. It is just one relatively short track, but it is a concept I want to explore in a much larger way. Susan Alcorn and I have a duo recording coming out on Relative Pitch Records this month, and I love that recording, it has a very particular spaciousness and beauty about it. I am also very proud of the work I have made with Eris 136199.

  9. Once an album of yours is released, do you still listen to it? And how often?

    Rarely! The process of getting a thing ready for release involves so much listening that I hardly ever feel the need to revisit it later. If I do so, it is because I am deliberately looking for something in the recording.

  10. Which album (from any musician) have you listened to the most in your life?

    Probably Interstellar Space, John Coltrane and Rashied Ali. I went through a phase of listening to it every night when I went to bed, and did so for several months. I love that recording.

  11. What are you listening to at the moment?
     
    Coin Coin Chapter Five: In The Garden by Matana Roberts, as well as my own field recordings of coyotes from the high desert.

  12. What artist outside music inspires you?

    Issey Miyake! I adore his work, and one of the greatest joys in my life is to make clothing from his patterns.
Catherine Sikora on the Free Jazz Blog: