Ivo Perelman

Listen "Interaction" on Bandcamp

«We can't get enough of it, it's really the top-notch of this totally improvised free free-jazz. Faced with the marvelous sounds of the tenor sax, by turns velvety, spiraling, ethereal, with harmonics stretched to the point of a cry modulated by magic, the double bassist solicits all the nuances of friction with the bow pushed to the sublime and this percussion of the wood of the bow on all the angles of the vibrating strings. Listen to him carefully, he has no equal... power and delicacy often on the edge of silence. And the percussionist at the pure service of what is happening in a refined approach and a sense of permanent dynamics from proliferation to erasure. A perfect success».
Improv and Sound on "Interaction"

«This album is an instant classic. The twenty tracks which comprise "Interaction" are nothing short of a tour de force, a rhythmically and musically diverse combustible interplay between three virtuosos. Each track has its own character and musical ambience, and even though the spontaneity of each composition is clear, each remains unique in its emotional and cerebral context, making this an album of substantial merit».
Don Phipps, Free Jazz Blog

«Three great musicians in communion. The interactions that emerge from this are especially interesting because they bear the marks of an entire history of the development of free jazz».
jazz.pt on "Interaction"

Brazilian, Cuban, Flamenco, Indian and Creative Jazz inform the work of these music masters from Brazil, Cuba and Spain.
They form a truly universal trio that mirrors the deep historical and anthropological ties of their native countries. Their debut recording is released on July 2024 on Fundacja Sluchaj label.

"Ephemeral Shapes" on Bandcamp

Interaction and Thruth Seeker

Listen "Polarity" on Bandcamp
Listen "Polarity 2" on Bandcamp

Perelman, a saxophonist, painter and jewelry designer, is as committed to the art and craft of improvisation as anyone alive. Over a 30-year career, he has released more than 100 CDs, building creative relationships with players from all corners of the free music world. His intensity and devotion to spontaneous music-making is virtually without equal, and he has developed a unique and highly recognizable language on the horn, while always remaining open to hearing what his bandmates have to say. Wooley is an open-eared and innovative improviser, composer, and all-around creative spirit who has worked extensively with Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Ingrid Laubrock, Ken Vandermark, and many others, and has built up a vast and fascinating discography of his own, encompassing everything from solo work to recordings and performances with groups of all sizes. This is the fifth encounter between Perelman and Wooley, but their first duo recording. They played together with pianist Matthew Shipp on Philosopher's Stone and with bassist Brandon Lopez and drummer Gerald Cleaver on Octagon, both released in 2017, and reunited for Strings 3 with violist Mat Maneri and Strings 4 with Maneri and Shipp, from 2019. The ten pieces on Polarity are intimate and beautiful, yet also rigorous and challenging. As Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg writes in the liner notes, "The rewards of their improvising method, their sensitivity and skills are offering us constant variations and extensions of forms, feelings and sounds... Their duo was not planned, but responded to an existential need to create beauty and surprise."

«The best improvisers play their best when challenged the most. Ivo Perelman and Nate Wooley once again push each other to peak performances, and since their peaks are high, so is the level of improvisation».
S. Victor Aaron, Something Else!

«an absorbing and dynamic set of improvisations»
Jazziz

«the sound of people figuring out what they can do together»
The Wire

«articulate expressions of spontaneous communication»
Down Beat

«Throughout the recording, Perelman, and Wooley trade musical commentary, rather like two familiar comrades meeting up after a short time apart, each with something to say, and the other more than willing to listen and respond».
Sammy Stein, Free Jazz Blog

«Recorded in Brooklyn, New York, the second installment of tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpeter Nate Wooley's Polarity sessions offers a series of reflective, sometimes ludic, conversations... A graceful lyricism gradually takes over, coloured by wavering pitches and warm susurrations».
Stewart Smith, The Wire

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Ivo Perelman is born in 1961 in São Paulo, Brazil.
He was a classical guitar prodigy who tried his hand at many other instruments - including cello, clarinet, and trombone - before gravitating to the tenor saxophone.
His initial heroes were the cool jazz saxophonists Stan Getz and Paul Desmond. But although these artists' romantic bent still shapes Perelman's voluptuous improvisations, it would be hard to find their direct influence in the fiery, galvanic, iconoclastic solos that have become his trademark.
Moving to Boston in 1981, to attend Berklee College of Music, Perelman continued to focus on mainstream masters of the tenor sax, to the exclusion of such pioneering avant-gardists as Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann, and John Coltrane (all of whom would later be cited as precedents for Perelman's own work).
He left Berklee after a year or so and moved to Los Angeles, where he studied with vibraphonist Charlie Shoemake, at whose monthly jam sessions Perelman discovered his penchant for post-structure improvisation:
«I would go berserk, just playing my own thing», he has stated.
Emboldened by this approach, Perelman began to research the free-jazz saxists who had come before him.
In the early 90s he moved to New York, a far more inviting environment for free-jazz experimentation, where he lives to this day.
His discography comprises close to 125 recordings, with a dozen of them appearing since 2010, when he entered a remarkable period of artistic growth - and «intense creative frenzy», in his words. Many of these trace his rewarding long-term relationships with such other new-jazz visionaries as pianist Matthew Shipp, bassists William Parker, guitarist Joe Morris and drummer Gerald Cleaver.
Critics have lauded Perelman's no-holds-barred saxophone style, calling him «one of the great colorists of the tenor sax» (Ed Hazell in the Boston Globe); «tremendously lyrical» (Gary Giddins) and «a leather-lunged monster with an expressive rasp, who can rage and spit in violence, yet still leave you feeling heartbroken» (The Wire).
Since 2011, he has undertaken an immersive study in the natural trumpet, an instrument popular in the 17th century, before the invention of the valve system used in modern brass instruments; his goal is to achieve even greater control of the tenor saxophone's altissimo range (of which he is already the world's most accomplished practitioner).
Neil Tesser