Seeds, Visions and Counterpoint

Personnel: Ivo Perelman (tenor saxophone); Dominic Duval (bass); Jay Rosen (drums).
Personnel: Ivo Perelman (tenor saxophone); Jay Rosen (drums).
Recording information: 09/24/1996.
Ivo Perelman was far from predictable in the 1990s, when he recorded everything from the most atonal of free jazz to some fairly musical "inside/outside" offerings. Not among his more accessible releases, Seeds, Visions and Counterpoint is a free-jazz gem that favors complete atonality. You won't find a solid melody to grab a hold of on the 20-minute title song, the 26-minute "Cantilena" or the six-minute "Zero Expectancy" -- rather, the focus of Perelman and sidemen Dominic Duval (bass) and Jay Rosen (drums) is fiery, stream-of-consciousness improvising and dizzying, chaotic landscapes of sound. Free jazz lovers will find a lot to admire about this jolting, consistently dissonant CD, though music this extreme obviously isn't for everyone. Short of Charles Gayle, free jazz didn't get any more scorching in the 1990s than Seeds, Visions and Counterpoint. ~ Alex Henderson