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Ivo Perelman, Matthew Shipp, and the Buddha walk in to a bar...

By Mark Corroto
June 8, 2017
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Ivo Perelman / Matthew Shipp
The Art Of Perelman-Shipp
Leo Records
2017

If you are looking for reviews of the seven new discs

Ivo Perelman

saxophone, tenor
b.1961

" data-original-title="" title="">Ivo Perelman and

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Shipp released on Leo Records, you won't find them here. You probably won't find a proper review of the music elsewhere either, but we'll get back to that later. The S?o Paulo-born, now Brooklyn-based saxophonist has, like pianist Shipp, moved into the rarefied air of the master musicians. Both Perelman and Shipp have developed their own individual technique and sound. Instantly recognizable, each artist employs a language developed under the umbrella of free jazz. The closest analog to their music might be psycholinguistics. Let's not dive into the relationship between their musical behavior and it's relation to the psychological process, or both you and I might find ourselves really in over our heads.

In 2016, Matthew Shipp announced that he was stepping away from studio recordings with the release of Piano Song (Thirsty Ear, 2017). What he didn't tell us is that there would be an avalanche of sessions coming out. This year you can also hear the pianist as solo performer, Invisible Touch At Taktlos Z��rich (Hatology, 2017), in trio with

Mat Walerian

saxophone, alto
b.1984

" data-original-title="" title="">Mat Walerian &

William Parker

bass
b.1952

" data-original-title="" title="">William Parker, This Is Beautiful Because We Are Beautiful People (ESP, 2017), Magnetism(s) with Parker and

Rob Brown

saxophone, alto
b.1962

" data-original-title="" title="">Rob Brown, in quartet Not Bound (ForTune, 2017) with

Michael Bisio

bass, acoustic

" data-original-title="" title="">Michael Bisio,

Whit Dickey

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Whit Dickey, and

Daniel Carter

saxophone
b.1996

" data-original-title="" title="">Daniel Carter, Vessel In Orbit (AUM Fidelity) with Dickey and

Mat Maneri

viola
b.1969

" data-original-title="" title="">Mat Maneri, and in these seven discs with Perelman.

With Perelman, Shipp shares a fraternal relationship. The old brothers from different mothers saying applies here. Together, the pair have released (by my rough count) twenty-eight recordings. The first being Cama De Terra (Homestead, 1996) and sixteen since 2012 (that doesn't include the latest seven). Consuming all of this music is a mind boggling task. Just as there has never been an acceptable account of

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's later works like Ascension (Impulse!, 1965), any attempt to describe The Art Of Perelman-Shipp would ultimately be an exercise in failure. Sure, we can give the listener a lineup (see details below) with the guest drummers

Andrew Cyrille

drums
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Cyrille, Whit Dickey, and Bobby Kapp, and bassists William Parker and Michael Bisio, but music is in one word, ineffable. Am I comparing these recording to those of John Coltrane? Yes. Like Coltrane's later works, the best approach is to be versed in his early recordings, like his work in

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis' quintet, followed by Trane's progression with

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk, his recording Giant Steps (Atlantic, 1959), Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1965), and on and on. The same goes for both Perelman and Shipp's discography. Both players, it can be argued, were freed by Coltrane's explorations, to develop their own language. Early recordings by the saxophonist like Soccer Land (Ibeji, 1994) highlight this debt to the music of

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler and

Gato Barbieri

saxophone
1934 - 2016

" data-original-title="" title="">Gato Barbieri. As his discography broadened, so did his vocabulary. The same can be said for Shipp, who only seemed to have been born a fully formed piano voice. Shipp's music has connections to that of

Cecil Taylor

piano
1929 - 2018

" data-original-title="" title="">Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk,

Andrew Hill

piano
1931 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Hill, and

Horace Tapscott

piano
1934 - 1999

" data-original-title="" title="">Horace Tapscott. Under the tutelage of

Roscoe Mitchell

saxophone
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Roscoe Mitchell,

David S. Ware

saxophone, tenor
1949 - 2012

" data-original-title="" title="">David S. Ware, and William Parker he has, like Monk, created his own language.

The progression of the careers of both Perelman and Shipp is the backstory here. Knowledge of those prior recordings, it can be argued, is necessary before listening to these seven discs. But I disagree. One certainly could have no connection to free jazz and still appreciate Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity (ESP, 1964) or knowledge of abstract expressionism and dig a Jackson Pollack painting. Which leads us to Zen Buddhism. Well sort of.

My mentor and former editor at AllAboutJazz, Nils Jacobson, was convinced that a free improvisation performance was a one-and-done experiment. He believed it should never actually be preserved on disc. That's all well and good for a bodhisattva, but the rest of us certainly would miss out on many a performance. Okay then, the next level would be to listen to a recording just once. That method would require you to be fully present and engaged in the moment. For connoisseurs of The Art Of Perelman-Shipp music, that would be about 6 hours of listening. By factoring in Perelman's discs these last three years, and Shipp's output for the same period, we're now talking about nearly 40 hours of listening. That's a full-time work week.

Are you still wondering where the reviews of the seven discs are? Considering the sound of one hand clapping? Zen again, right? I'm talking koans here. Depending on where you are in your own listening evolution, these sessions will be a revelatory experience or a joyous return to the musical dialogue Perelman and Shipp have been having for the past 20 years.

The only question is, would you choose to step in the same river of these recordings more than once?

Tracks and Personnel

Titan

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; William Parker: bass.

Tarvos

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; Bobby Kapp: drums.

Pandora

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; William Parker: bass; Whit Dickey: drums.

Hyperion

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; Michael Bisio: bass.

Rhea

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; Michael Bisio: bass; Whit Dickey: drums.

Saturn

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano.

Dione

Tracks: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8.

Personnel: Ivo Perelman: tenor saxophone; Matthew Shipp: piano; Andrew Cyrille: drums.

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