Ivo Perelman/Matthew Shipp

Rich Pellegrin featuring Neil Welch
Topography
Slow and Steady Records SS11

Forging a sound picture from the timbres of just a piano and a saxophone can be a difficult task, especially if the aim is figurative art with touches of abstraction. The mixed duos here attain acceptable variations on that theme. However jabs from dissonant free playing seemingly creates a more vibrant color field, rather than the muted instrumental textures of a restrained program, even if it’s designed to reflect picturesque landscapes.

Magical Incantation is yet another coupling of the free-form ideas of New York-based pianist Matthew Shipp and Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman, who have been recording together since 1996. Free improvisation is the exemplar here with no attempt to reproduce anything past sound creativity. Topography on the other hand is a 13-track tone poem designed to capture in music the landscape of Whidbey Island, just north of Seattle. Associates since the mid-aughts, tenor and soprano saxophonist Neil Welch has since opted for more nature-based work, while pianist Rich Pellegrin who lives on the island, as does the saxophonist, is also an academic who has taught at three universities.

Less frenetic than many Shipp, and especially Perelman dates, Magical Incantation’s eight tracks build up from the opening “Prayer”, which couples the saxophonist’s breathy Ben Webster-like tone with the pianist’s considered keyboard clunks and clips  that moderate Perelman’s alternating warm scoops and altissimo squeaks. That sort of strategy is followed throughout the disc, with passages of straight-ahead, mid-range story telling sharing space with interludes where the expositions are fragmented with angled and rugged interjections that include piano pounding and multiphonic reed asides. The two players know each other so well that an on-the-edge balance is always maintained so that neither stridency nor serenity gains the upper hand.

At the same time no one will mistake this for a mainstream session. Shipp’s playing on “Lustihood” may pivot to near-standard Jazz accompaniment and on “Sacred Values” move from mid-range to processional lines, but the parallel response from Perelman in either case includes shaking reed smears and sniffs, soaring doit and circular breathing as well as moderated phrasing. The saxophonist isn’t always the disrupter of the pianist’s composure however. On “Vibrational Essence” Shipp demonstrates spectacular dynamics, which billow from mid-range to concentrated pumps at near march tempo extending prestissimo passages to connect with the saxophonist’s tremolo flutters and bent notes. He may keep the session grounded, yet his thundering key pressure, bellicose crashes and pedal point vibrations are as potent as the saxophonist’s high-pitched reed bites, squeaking whistles and curvaceous whines. Creativity lies in completion.

Still if mainstream Jazz involves forceful, unyielding swing than the other CD moves outside those strictures as well. Restrained, understated and almost infinitely hushed, Topography’s tracks which mostly clock in the three and four minute range, are resolutely horizontal and methodical. This is one of a smattering of discs where the product literally reflects the label’s name.

Most improvisations are based around the intertwining of reed flutter tonguing, trills and peeps with precise chording, with the result more fragile than forceful. If a more vigorous groove is reached as on “Stream” or the penultimate “Cave”, it usually means that the simple undulating exposition is interrupted by dark soundboard rumbles as on the latter, or scale ascending keyboard notes on the first that then prod Welch’s Getzian output to pivot to a less straight-ahead line.

Although seemingly as disciplined as many other tracks, the mini-suite of “Field (night), “Canyon (day)” and “Canyon (night)” is the least conventional of the program. Harder and more deliberate keyboard pressure introduces precise tone flutters and tongue stops from the saxophonist. Sympathetic chording on the next two tracks encourages Welch to add stops and triple tongued pressure to the logical evolution. This culminates in passages on “Canyon (night)” where Pellegrin’s barely there touch and Welch’s floating line confirms the thesis that profound tonal progression can be achieved without altering linear forms or shouting out the transformation.

However the brevity of  the tracks and the sameness of tempos works against Topography offering as vibrant an experience as Magical Incantation. Pellegrin’s disc is a start but more tonal and tempo variety would help. Meanwhile Shipp and Perelman appears to have invoked the magical incantation for another striking session.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Magical: 1. Prayer 2.  Rituals 3. Lustihood 4. Enlightenment 5. Sacred Values 6. Incarnation 7. Vibrational Essence 8. Magical Incantation

Personnel: Magical: Ivo Perelman (tenor saxophone) and Matthew Shipp (piano)

Track Listing: Topography: 1. Treeline 2. Ravine 3. Butte 4. Stream 5. Clearing 6. Field (day) 7. Field (night) 8. Canyon (day) 9. Canyon (night) 10. Bluff; (day) 11. Bluff (night) 12. Cave 13. Marsh

Personnel: Topography: Neil Welch (tenor and soprano saxophones) and Rich Pellegrin (piano)