Brazilian Saxophonist Ivo Perelman releases
Dynamic Collection of Improvisations with New Quartet
THE HOUR OF THE STAR
AVAILABLE JULY 12
Eminent New Lineup includes pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist
Joe Morris and Drummer Gerald Cleaver
CLICK HERE TO STREAM EXCLUSIVE TRACKS FROM THE HOUR OF THE STAR
For the latest addition to his prodigious discography, prolifically
inventive saxophonist Ivo Perelman convened a stellar quartet that is at
once a first meeting and several small reunions. Consisting of a half-dozen breathtakingly
expressive improvisations, The Hour of the Star documents the first-ever
conjoining of Perelman with pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist Joe Morris,
and drummer Gerald Cleaver.
"The process is just what I've been doing for the past twenty years," Perelman says.
"I trust them, I take it they trust me, and we just go in and play. Everything's
a first take and what you hear is what you get. That's why I like this kind of work,
because you never know what's going to happen. It's stimulating."
First meeting though it may be, these musicians are hardly strangers to one another.
Perelman and Shipp recorded together several times in the late 1990s, and once with
Morris, on the 1997 duet album Strings. While this is the leader's first
encounter with Cleaver, the drummer has an extensive record with both Morris and,
especially Shipp; and Morris has been working in Shipp's trio continuously over
the past several years.
Still, the context of this album marks it as a remarkable new beginning, beyond
the almost fifteen years between collaborations. Perelman last recorded with Shipp
at a moment when the Sao Paulo-born saxophonist was exploring the fusion of his
lyrically abstract sound with Brazilian folk music. Their duo conversation from
1998's Bendito of Santa Cruz is resumed here on "The Right To Protest."
"Matt's very responsive," Perelman says. "Also, his ideas come in a very original
way. His style is very unique; you can go anywhere and he'll be there with you.
His playing has become more focused, more mature, and more eloquent in the sense
that I think he says just the right thing."
Besides resuming his work with Shipp, The Hour of the Star marks Perelman's
first recording with any pianist in more than a decade. It took a few minutes
- though only a few - to readjust his thinking. "The piano occupies a huge space
in my musical canvas. Especially Matt, whose playing is so wide in range. So it
took me a while to see where I fit in, because for so many years I didn't have that
constraint. I had the whole spectrum open for me to occupy. But it's like riding
a bicycle; once you learn, you'll always be able to do it."
The change in Perelman's playing relationship with Joe Morris is even more radical;
on Strings, Morris played his primary instrument, the guitar, while Perelman
switched to cello. Now, Perelman returns to his more comfortable tenor while Morris
picks up the bass, on which he's concentrated increasingly in recent years.
"It's great to hear Joe Morris on bass because I like his musical thinking, and
his musical thinking is still there whether he plays the bass or the guitar," Perelman
says. "And the bass, it establishes a whole new relationship, a whole new set of
problems and solutions that I enjoy."
With no history between them, calling on Cleaver was more of a leap of faith - but
an inspired one. His drumming, which deals more with color and texture than with
propulsion, provides an ideal counterpoint to Shipp's at times torrentially percussive
pianism. "He's so subtle," Perelman says of Cleaver. "Particularly in a jazz combo,
drums are thought of as playing all the time, but every note they play, every time
they hit a cymbal or a snare, it occupies a space; it says something. A lot of jazz
drummers overplay - if that was a guitarist or a trumpeter, it would be unbearable.
But drummers like Gerald Cleaver are so nimble, soft, subtle; he's just pinpointing
directions, he's not so forceful. It's a caressing drumming sound that I enjoy playing
to."
The combination of Morris and Cleaver wound up being such a potent inspiration that
Perelman pared the group down to a trio for two tracks, "Singing the Blues" and
"As For the Future." The result came as a revelation. "I realized I have two bands
here - a trio and a quartet. When Matt isn't playing, it's not just the quartet
minus Matt, it's more. It's a new band, a trio with a whole different personality."
While "Singing the Blues" in particular captures perfectly the essence of the track,
the bluesy direction was not discussed beforehand and the title, like every track
on the disc, comes from the name of a chapter in the work of Brazilian author Clarice
Lispector. "Her books affects me very deeply," Perelman says of Lispector, whose
work also provided names for four of his previous albums. "I can only read a sentence
or a paragraph at a time because they're so powerful. I can't handle it; I keep
thinking about it the whole day. Not cognitively, but it affects me like an abstract
painting."
Painting is also an inspiration, as represented by the cover art of The Hour
of the Star, a piece by the saxophonist himself. As with the Lispector titles,
connections between his art and music are made only after the fact, when parallels
suddenly become evident and unmistakable. It's simply more evidence of Perelman's
intuitive creativity, which applies to music, painting, or assembling a quartet.
"I think this project is a turning point for Ivo Perelman the individual
musician," he says. "Now add to that the opportunity to play with young masters
like Joe and Matt and Gerald, and that makes for a very strong statement."
Ivo Perelman Quartet · The Hour of the Star
Leo Records · Release Date: July 12, 2011
For more information on Ivo Perelman, please visit:
www.IvoPerelman.com
For more information on Leo Records, please visit:
www.LeoRecords.com
For more information, please contact:
DL Media
Don Lucoff
Amy Miller
DL Media | 124 N Highland Ave | Bala Cynwyd | PA | 19004
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