DL Review - Ivo Perelman - Reed Rapture In Brooklyn, Part 3 - With David Murray

Yes, I know it's upside down. 
This way you won't see the same exact image 12 times

Ivo Perelman
Reed Rapture In Brooklyn

(Mahakala)  ivoperelman.bandcamp.com/album/reed-rapture-in-brooklyn

Part Three - With David Murray

The combination of Ivo Perelman and David Murray feels like one of the most anticipated sections of this 12-duet set. Murray has really made a career out of never staying in the same musical place for too long. He is just as likely to play in a more traditional setting - tearing it up in the process - as he is playing in a freer situation, having worked with trios, octets, big bands, not to forget an organ quartet, the Gwo Ka Masters and the World Saxophone Quartet. 

Murray is also a master improvisor who can pile on chorus after chorus, building each time from what he has already played. Years before saxophonist James Brandon Lewis came up with his Molecular Systematic Music idea, I sat transfixed at a David Murray show, imagining the path of his solo looking like one of those DNA models that twists around as it moves upward. The base of it always connected but it evolved at it stretched up. Too bad Lewis went public with his idea first. The only people who ever heard my theory were friends at the bar. Though it was funny to hear one friend, who understood what I implied, suggesting that you could direct your bandmates's solos by yelling, "Use the DNA approach."

Anyway, the idea of Murray getting together for a purely spontaneous meeting with this Brazilian raconteur feels intriguing, with myriad possibilities.

For openers, Murray throws a curveball. He left his tenor saxophone in the case, or at home, and plays nothing but bass clarinet during his ten improvisations with Perelman. This proves to be a positive though, due to Murray's skill on the instrument. Along with his harmonic chops, his slap-tonguing technique makes it double as a percussive instrument, virtually making him alternating parts of a rhythm section, in addition to harmony. Sometimes he approximates a bass marimba, which gingerly switches between the role of an accompanist to Perelman's relatively grounded improvisation and a leader, bouncing ideas off the accompanying tenor.

Things get playful in "3," where Murray sticks closely to an arpeggio melody, with Perelman adding color as it moves forward, making it proceed like a soundtrack piece to a suspenseful scene. When Murray launches "4" with a guttural wail, Perelman takes that cue to slide off and back on to the rails, having stayed rather calm until then. "5" builds off a groovy, descending blues riff from Murray (which, to be really obscure, also resembles the David Bowie instrumental "Sense of Doubt"). Of course, before they're done, they both take turns hitting the upper register from some shrieks of joie de vivre. 

Hopefully, this won't be the only documented meeting of these two masters.