IVO PERELMAN QUARTET – The Hour Of The Star (2011)

Label: Leo Records – CD LR 605
Format: CD, Album; Country: UK - Released: Apr 2011
Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz
Recorded by Jim Clouse at Park West studios on September 20th, 2010.
Artwork by Ivo Perelman
Packaging: Jewel Tray

"The hour of the Star" by the newly formed all-star Ivo Perelman quartet is a fierce tour-de- force that will leave improv music fans breathless. The mesmerizing interaction between Ivo Perelman (saxophone), Matthew Shipp (piano), Joe Morris (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums) proves that intensity and attention to detail can coexist when delivered as a cohesive artistic statement. A band bound for greatness!
_ Leo Records

"A Hora da Estrela" [The Hour of the Star] is the last work by Clarice Lispector, released shortly before his death in 1977. Hour of the Star is the latest album by Ivo Perelman, released by the English label Leo Records, in 2011. After 34 years, the tireless New- York based Brazilian saxophonist and artist revisits the theme accompanied by some of the most creative and active musicians in the current "free- jazz"/improvised music scene. His recent albums have been named after works by Clarice Lispector (Soulstorm, Apple in The Dark, etc.), which seems to have become an obsession for Perelman, translating the essence of Lispector's confusing, distressing, melancholic and, to some extent, liberating character into his music.

Hour of the Star was recorded just one week before the quartet's live debut in São Paulo, in September 2010. This was the first time the four musicians had played together. They had recorded and played as trios and duos, but never as a quartet. I had the chance to see them perform first hand in São Paulo. One could call this quartet a "super group", but I prefer not to refer to them as such, as the term is closely linked to the music of the 1960s and 1970s, made by musicians with inflated egos, which isn't the case with Perelman's quartet.

With each new release, Perelman has continued to develop his technique. His breathing is unique, very characteristic and different from other saxophonists. As soon as one hears his playing you can tell that it is Perelman's. His music is urgent; it has to stretch out from limits and reveal feelings, whatever they may be, to the outside world. His music is challenging. It has become increasingly developed, complex, but without being boring: it encompasses huge energy and creativity. Whenever people think that Ivo's musical career has peaked, he brings out another great record. Hour Of The Star' has the complexity, density and melancholy found in Clarice Lispector's works, but if we close our eyes we can see the abstract paintings directly relayed via Perelman's music.

The release begins with "A Tearful Tale", in a very fragmented and angular way with just Ivo and Shipp; this becomes more cohesive as Morris and Cleaver join in, leading to a peak after almost 13 minutes. "Singing the blues" is what we could call the most "conventional" on this album, followed by the brilliant and powerful "Hour of the Star", the high point of the album. In its 14 minutes, the quartet does not demonstrate any sign of fatigue or lack of creativity. The track is explosive, with impressive interaction between the musicians. It is one of Perelman's best compositions in his long career.

"The Right of Protest" is the shortest piece on the album and also the most melancholic. Shipp and Perelman play it as a duo. "As for the future" is just the trio of Perelman, Morris and Cleaver, while Matthew Shipp lays out. Starting calmly with Cleaver, the track develops in such a way that the listener just has to get involved. Morris and Cleaver provide the necessary support for Perelman to take off on his solos perfectly. It is worth remembering that Joe Morris is a guitarist with a highly personal technique, but recently he has concentrated on playing bass, as he does here. The album closes with "Whistling in the Dark Wind" at the highest level, with Matthew Shipp and his "hammered" piano, while Perelman wrings everything he can out of his sax, stretching the limits of the instrument. A breathtaking close to one of the most sincere, honest and challenging forms of music.

Review by Cláudio PENTERIANI (2011-08-10)



Links in Comments!

FLOW TRIO – Rejuvination (2009)

Label: ESP Disk – ESP 4052
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: 2009
Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded at Context Studio, Brooklyn, October 4, 2008
Artwork By, Photography – MP Landis; Design, Layout – Fumi Tomita, Miles Bachmann
Engineer, Mixed By, Mastered By – Steven Walcott
Liner Notes – Bruce Lee Gallanter
Producer [Production Manager] – Tom Abbs

Note:

Over the past few months have been published in various references as bassist, Morris acts as leader or co-leader. In early 2009 published Rejuvenation ESP (ESP 4052) in the name of Flow Trio. This formation is composed of Louie Belongenis (tenor sax), Charles Downs (formerly known battery with Rashid Bakr) and Joe Morris (bass). In this, their second recording, made in October 2008, the three musicians raised an impromptu session of free jazz that fits perfectly into the historic tradition of the seal (the essential Spiritual Unity by Albert Ayler is one of its references), in being published. The 46 minutes are divided into six parts in a trio, plus the initial “ Reflection ” with Belongenis solo tenor. Along these musicians have not forgotten any time in the character of a melodic improvisations in the prevailing dialogue and spaces above the urgency to reach the pinnacle inherent in a certain way of understanding the free-jazz. Perhaps the only objection is that a great piece as “ Two Acts ” in the form of molten ends with silence.

                                                                                                 Louie Belogenis

Review:

If there is a way—and there most certainly is—to feel music with all the senses, then Flow Trio, comprising saxophonist Louie Belogenis, bassist Joe Morris and percussionist Charles Downs, show how completely spectacular this can feel when it all comes together on a record such as Rejuvenation.

The group, all seriously schooled in the poetics of sound, have literally mastered the way to fully explore the sound dynamic of saxophone, bass and drum, vertically- -for harmonic depth—and horizontally—to toy with the melodic elasticity. And if the central idea of Rejuvenation is to drain the senses' touchstones in music that are obvious, predictable and comfortably numbing, and refill them with an unexpected and refreshing, resonant and wholesome new sound, then it succeeds not only conceptually, but also in every real sense as well.

Flow Trio is not the first to explore this kind of musical space. Paul Bley had done this on several occasions decades ago, but probably the first to make such bold sojourns into spatial reading of music was Jimmy Giuffre, most notably on 7 Pieces (Jazz Beat, 1959).

Although it may seem antithetical to have a structured format to this record—the amorphousness of its musical progression from song to song is a delight—it would still appear as if the music is book-ended by the first and last tracks. From "Reflection" to "Rejuvenation," so to speak. But whether deliberately sequenced or not, "Reflection" seems a perfect place to start. A slow moody piece, it features a haunting solo by Belogenis and progresses perfectly into "Slow Cab," with its plucked triads, exploratory bass opening and skittish, stammering drumming that creates an open season on harmonics while the saxophonist weaves melodically in a circular and sometimes helical manner.

"Pick Up Sticks" is a vivid sonic tapestry, rich in harmony and rhythm. It is an interstellar excursion that rouses the spirit as it moves the body to dance. Downs drives hard, showing himself to be atop his game while exploration tone and time. "Two Acts" roams the stratosphere of sound and is a gripping piece that melds a walking bass and rebellious drums, creating a wonderful refracted vessel for the tenor sax to further explore its tonal landscape.

"Succor" is a spirit-moving, graceful work, featuring fine con arco work from Morris and highly evocative drums that follow the funerary saxophone, where all the musicians revel in a highly suggestive, conversational atmosphere. "Unfolding" takes the music into a space where it hangs with dynamic tension. It is the band working itself up to a conclusion, brightly stated in "Rejuvenation," which brings the music not just to a resolution, but also attempts to inhabit a new plane—a soaring, edifying glide into musical territory first laid bare by the opening track.

Rejuvenation is not simply a trio record. It is studied and deliberate, and a well thought out exercise in the realm of New Jazz Sound.

_ By Raul d'Gama Rose (AAJ)



Links in Comments!

MARSHALL ALLEN, MATTHEW SHIPP and JOE MORRIS – Newport Jazz Festival 2010 - Night Logic Suites 1-5 (2010)

 

Marshall Allen, Matthew Shipp, and Joe Morris In Concert: Newport Jazz Festival 2010 
Quad Stage, Fort Adams State Park, Newport, Rhode Island


Note from Greg Drusdow:

date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 7:40 PM subject: Marshall Allen broadcast from Newport Jazz Festival 2010 WGBH-FM & National Public Radio (NPR) broacast a select group of performances from the Newport Jazz Festival 2010 this past weekend.

The August 7, 2010 appearance of Marshall Allen (alto sax, flute, EVI*), Matthew Shipp (piano), and Joe Morris (bass) 
* at times, Marshall Allen's EVI sounds like an electronic slide whistle!

Design by ART&JAZZ Studio - 2012
Artwork and Complete Design by Vitko Salvarica


Marshall Allen played reeds with Sun Ra for decades. Matthew Shipp has created one of the most distinctive piano voices of his generation. Joe Morris anchors on bass, an instrument he mastered after first establishing himself as a guitarist. At the Care Fusion Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, R.I., the meeting of three top free improvisers performing "Night Logic Suites 1-5".

__________

The Newport Jazz Festival, was founded by jazz pianist George Wein in 1954 as the first outdoor music festival of its kind devoted entirely to jazz, and is now universally acknowledged as the grandfather of all jazz festivals.

Links in Comments!
  

JOE MORRIS – Wildlife (2009)

Label : AUM Fidelity - AUM056
All compositions by Morris/Cancura/Gray (Riti publishing, ASCAP)
P+C 2009 AUM Fidellity
Produced by Joe Morris
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Petr Cancura
Recorded at Riti Studios, Guilford, Connecticut, March 16, 2008
Photo by Joe Morris; Cover layout by Anne Marcotty


Reviews:

It is extremely rare to have a record start with a three-minute drum solo, as an introduction for an uptempo free bop power improvisation by a trio. The band is Joe Morris on bass, Petr Cancura on sax and Luther Gray on drums. "Again?", you might think and you think right. No later than two months ago the almost same trio already released an album, "Fine Objects" on the Polish Not Two Records, only the drummer is different. And whereas the previous album still contained some composed material, the music is more free, more improvised, but as boppish and as likeable. Gray and Morris take care of the drive and the forward motion, Cancura keeps the attention going with his powerful and sensitive playing. The second piece "Thicket" made me think more than once of Ethiopian composer and vibist Mulatu Astatqé, not only because of Cancura's longing and very melodic development, but also because of the more expansive rhythms. Regardless of the influence, the piece is a pure beauty. The third piece "Crow" is more spiritual and bluesy, slow and deep and emotional and soulful, keeping the deep essence of the tradition, but packaged in a more modern and free way. The album ends with the upbeat "Nettle", uptempo and boppish again, full of great playing by all three musicians, and again, as unpretentious and musically honest as their previous release. Luther Gray is great. Morris as unpredictable as ever - and I always welcome his lyricism on bass. Cancura is a guy to watch. Enjoy!

By Stef (FreeJazz)


Widely revered in avant-garde music circles for his innovative approach to the electric guitar, Joe Morris' decision to take up the contrabass in 2002 was initially met with apprehension from certain corners of the new music community. Fears that the singular guitarist might disavow his primary axe have been dispelled, replaced by a burgeoning parallel discography charting Morris' remarkable growth as a bassist.

Wildlife is the most recent document of Morris' increasingly impressive bass prowess and his first release for AUM Fidelity since 2001's solo guitar recording Singularity. For this freewheeling trio session, Morris partners with Luther Gray, his preferred drummer since 2002. A ubiquitous member of the Boston-based jazz scene, Gray's nuanced abilities have blossomed considerably since his seminal work in the late eighties Washington D.C. punk rock scene.

A former student of Morris, saxophonist Petr Cancura is a rising presence whose sideman duties have included stints with Rakalam Bob Moses and Danilo Perez. Originally from the Czech Republic, the current Brooklyn resident has recorded a number of sessions with Morris, including Fine Objects (Not Two, 2009), a trio date with drummer Jason Nazary. Wildlife deviates from the previous album's reliance on originals and standards, braving more adventurous territory over four lengthy free improvisations.

The trio embraces a wide range of spatial dynamics on this expansive set, with the majority of their probing explorations conjuring the bristling frenzy of New Thing era expressionism. Cancura's vocalized phrasing, brisk intervallic runs and brawny timbre invokes such giants of the genre as Ayler, Coltrane, Sanders and Shepp. A singular stylist, Cancura's assimilation of his forbearers' innovations is seamlessly integrated into his own uniquely lyrical approach to alto and tenor—a kinetic attack buoyed by a pungent tone.

Gray's bustling percussion provides the trio with a malleable rhythmic foundation, ably demonstrated by his extended work-out on the rousing post-bop excursion "Geomantic." Navigating capricious shifts in meter, tempo and volume, Morris displays his burgeoning virtuosity with stalwart flair. His extended solos on "Thicket" and "Nettle" reveal a composer's awareness, alternating oblique harmonic variations with percussive invention. Drawing from both Eastern and Western traditions, his bright, guimbre-like pizzicato lends a lilting North African modality to "Thicket," while his laconic phrasing on the introspective ballad "Crow" ebbs with blues feeling.

The trio's congenial interplay is superlative, whether careening through the quicksilver changes of "Nettle" or extrapolating the somber motifs of "Crow." A compelling document of the saxophone trio tradition as a democratic exchange of ideas, Wildlife presents three masterful improvisers at the top of their game.

By TROY COLLINS, Published: July 10, 2009 (AAJ)




Welcome to new prog-blog "Different Perspectives In My Room...!".
Enjoy the music, and please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Link in Comments!