On most of his recent albums, iconic jazz saxophonist Ivo Perelman has flirted with the avant-garde, but never fully committed. Or, as I like to put it, he’s been free jazz adjacent, not full-on free jazz.
It’s the difference between, say, John Coltrane’s Sun Ship and his Live In Japan.
But on Oxygen (digital), on which Perelman collaborates with bari saxophonist Ken Vandermark and trombone player Joe McPhee, this threesome often get super weird and out there in a way that will annoy more traditional jazz heads, but delight those who don’t mind when things get good and noisy.