Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp: Efflorescence

As Reggie Jackson once said about Nolan Ryan’s fastball, “Hey, I love ice cream, but I’m not ready for a gallon of it at once.” That is the attitude that is easy to feel on this four disc set of improvisations between long time friends tenorist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp. Their recordings have been legion, with this one a full weighted opus that almost explodes at the seams. All of the songs are fairly concise, clocking in between 2-6 minutes, but the 49 tunes come across as quick concepts, with  piano jabs here and there on “Carnation,” dark keys explored on “Snapdragon, or lyrical moments for “Clover.” Perelman is in a puffy mood for “ Amaryllis,” digging into subtones on “goldenrod” and hitting the pitches high and inside for ”Hydrangea.” The term “Efflorescence” represents the crystal deposits of salts on objects like brick; it also means “to flower out” in French-which one does this first volume of two mean?

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