It can be intimidating to work with someone who has a lot more experience than you. Like, say, if you were drummer and piano player Tyshawn Sorey, and recording your first album with iconic saxophonist Ivo Perelman, who is twenty years Sorey’s senior, and who’s recorded exponentially more albums in the last twenty year than Sorey has his whole life.
But on Parallel Aesthetics (CD, digital), Sorey and Perelman’s first album together, the younger musician more than holds his own on these freely improvised jazz duets.
Tyshawn Sorey, Ivo Perelman
As is often the case with Ivo Perelman, the music on Parallel Aesthetics is freely improvised, and often veers deep into free jazz territory, though not all the way. It’s more like what John Coltrane did on such albums as Sun Ship and the sessions that comprise First Meditations as opposed to when he went full-on free jazz for Expression or during the concerts presented on Live In Japan.
Or, as I like to put it, “free jazz adjacent.”
In the case of Parallel Aesthetics, this edge is pushed, and hard, by the opening track of the first disc, “One,” which gets wild and noisy, but never to the point of sounding unhinged or out of control. It also serves as a good opener to this album because, quite frankly, if this is too free for you, then so is this collection.
Things get decidedly mellower, and moodier, on Parallel Aesthetic‘s second track, “Two,” with Perelman playing smokey sax, and Sorey adding some percussive piano. That is, until it approaches the middle of this lengthy tune, at which point both men’s playing gets decidedly noisy, only to calm back down before getting frantic once again.
It’s a similar pattern that’s followed on the first disc’s third track, “Three.” While it opens with some gentle brushing of the drums and some careful blowing of the sax, both Perleman and Sorey get decidedly more frantic around the middle, though never to the point where this is a noisy as “Two.”
That same patterns also repeats during the last track of Parallel Aesthetics‘ first disc, “Four.” Well, mostly. For starters, the moody parts of “Four” are decidedly even more careful-sounding and atmospheric than the tunes that precede it. They also last longer, as this tune doesn’t start to get more aggressive until about two-thirds in. “Four” also calms down at the very end, going back to the relatively mellow mood it had when it began.
This brings us to the second disc of Parallel Aesthetics, and the potentially confusingly titled “One” (well, assuming you listen to both discs in a row). The longest track of this album — nearly 23 minutes; the rest are between 11 and 15 — “One” doesn’t build up like “Two,” “Three,” and “Four.” Instead, it’s aggro from the get-go, with Sorey’s manic drumming matching Perelman’s squonky playing. That is, until a little past the middle, at which point Cosey takes over, playing some carefully selected percussion while Perelman adds brief bits of matching sax tones.
Parallel Aesthetics then comes to a close with the also oddly titled “Two,” which, like it’s companion on the other disc, also starts off slow and stark, with Perelman and Sorey playing their respective instruments slowly and carefully, almost tentatively, but also rather noisily, often resulting in sounds (especially from Sorey’s piano playing) that are more noisy or atmospheric than musical. It’s an approach that continues throughout the tune, even in the middle when both men get decidedly more aggressive, and their playing becomes more frantic.
In the end,
Parallel Aesthetics stands as yet another solid example of Ivo Perelman’s free jazz adjacent style. But it also shows that Tyshawn Sorey is not just talented in his own right, but that he’s more than capable of holding his own with a master of one-take improvisation, regardless of whether he’s playing piano or the drums.
SCORE: 7.5/10
