Saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp have been musical besties for thirty years. Think about that. Have you enjoyed consistently fruitful relationships with any of your co-workers and/or peers for three decades? Even so, we’re willing to bet it hasn’t been as harmonious (yes, we see what we did there) as this partnership.
The seventh installment in Perelman’s long-running series of duet albums and the fiftieth (maybe?) joint with Shipp, the two-volume Distillation celebrates the duo’s pearl anniversary in the only appropriate way – with another collection of spontaneous compositions. As always, anyone expecting chaos will be disappointed. Though both players can bring thunder and lightning as provocatively as anyone, when together, they tend to lean more toward contemplation and understatement, with the deepest respect for each other’s musicality. Songs like Vol. 1’s “Seven” and Vol. 2’s “Five” are conversations, not shouting matches, with simultaneous questions, answers, and ruminations on each – all happening in real time.
Perelman and Shipp have played together for so long they know how the other thinks and plays, so they don’t bother to anticipate each other’s motions – they know everything will click without thinking. Thus Shipp’s improvised harmony constructions perfectly set the scene for Perelman’s slipping, sliding, and spiraling melodies – or is it the other way around? Likely even they don’t know. Distillation lives up to its title – it’s as pure a portrait of the beauty these longtime pals can paint through pure communication as they’ve ever made.
