It's been
almost a year since Ivo Perelman has issued a new recording. For most artists,
that would represent a normal release schedule; for Perelman, who had produced
20 or so albums in the previous four years, it marks a significant gap in his
creative output. Now come three new albums (Callas as a double-CD, Tenorhood
and Counterpoint) at once, which for most artists would signify an attempt to
catch up after the year's inactivity. For Perelman, however, it merely returns
him to his regular schedule.
Perelman's
latest collection of simultaneous releases, all on Leo Records, celebrate
artistic heroes new and old, and musical relationships that fall somewhere in
the middle. Taken together, they capture much of this remarkable artist's range
of technique, emotion, and imagination; any one of them, taken separately,
stands as a significant addition to his by now overwhelming discography. They
also announce to the listening public that, after a significant physical
crisis, Perelman is back in full force.
In 2014,
Perelman began to experience pain and bleeding from his mouth. Thinking this
signified dental problems, he arranged to visit his native Brazil for oral
surgery. But before his trip, he learned that the problem actually originated
in his larynx, which had suffered damage from Perelman's preternatural reliance
on, and mastery of, the tenor saxophone's altissimo register - the extremely
high notes above the instrument's written range. Perelman has made the use of
these notes an integral part of his hyper-expressive, enormously flexible
saxophone style; indeed, he has brought a previously unimagined command and
control to these timbral frontiers. Perelman discovered that his methodology
had stressed the larynx; moreover, the stress bore a distinct similarity to
that experienced by vocalists, and specifically operatic singers.
Temporarily
putting aside the saxophone, Perelman began to contact singers who had suffered
the same condition. "I started to take voice lessons, and lessons in
breathing technique - and I started to heal," he explains. "If I
hadn't done this, I would not be able to play the way I want, and to continue
to grow. Now I breathe as if I were a singer; I think as if I am a
singer." By incorporating these changes, and by reconstructing his
embouchure, Perelman soon healed (and without the services of a dentist).
During this time, he began listening intently to opera, and eventually to the
recordings of Maria Callas, the "new hero" that inspired his
double-CD Callas, featuring Perelman's longtime collaborator Matthew Shipp on
piano.
Each of
the utterly spontaneous duo performances in this set bears the name of a
character portrayed by Callas, the Greek-American diva whose meteoric and
tumultuous career in the 1950s remains the stuff of artistic legend. Among the
title protagonists brought to mind by these improvised arias are Medea, Lucia
di Lammermoor, Norma, and Aida, as well as Mimi from La Bohéme and Rosina from
Barber of Seville. Perelman's music has always displayed an almost operatic
nature, in its grand emotions and in the epic proportions of his
improvisations. But now, as he points out, the influence of Callas has given
his sound "a subtle new vocal quality.
"We
saxophonists have this thing with reeds: 'You're only as good as your reed.'
The free-flowing perfection of a perfect reed is like nirvana for us. And
Callas is like the perfect reed, the perfect vibration, because of the perfect
use of her vocal apparatus, brought about by her superhuman dedication. This
has deeply affected my approach." For Ivo Perelman, Maria Callas is more
than a "new hero," and her music more than a helpmate in his
recovery; she has become a soulmate across centuries. "I fell in love with
her," he says, "It's as if know her. I know what she felt; the
feelings she had, I have felt."
Whether
because of Callas or due to his joy in the resumption of performing, Perelman's
saxophone creations have perhaps never had more emotional resonance. What's
more, on this album his collaboration with Shipp has achieved a new high point
in what was already a stunning example of musical clairvoyance. Shipp's
relationship to Perelman has previously been described as "the Lewis to
his Clark" on a "shared expedition of discovery." On Callas, it
goes even further, in the words of Leo Records founder Leo Feigin, who writes:
"Nobody sounded like this before. These are not just free improvisations;
it is a kind of new genre. It is not two people playing but one. It is more
than telepathy - so organic, so natural."
Upcoming
Ivo Perelman Performances:
July 17 /
Michiko Rehearsal Studios / New York, NY
Ivo
Perelman · Callas,Counterpoint,Tenorhood
Leo
Records · Release Date: May 26, 2014
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