Ivo Perelman & Fay Victor - Messa Di Voce (Mahakala Msic, 2024)

By Sammy Stein

I wrote a piece for Reader’s Digest a year or two ago titled “10 Female Musicians You Should Get To Know”. One of these was Fay Victor, who coincidentally was interviewed for FJC’s Sunday interview in August. Her voice is an instrument of delight. So to find Victor featured on this album in my inbox from Perelman was a joy. Perelman has collaborated with only two vocalists, Flora Purim, and Iva Bittova. Here, the mastery of Victor pushes Perelman to explore even deeper, the wealth of musical discovery, he has made – and it is easy to believe he also makes a few new connections. The album also has the supremely creative rhythm section of Joe Morris and Ramon Lopez. Victor has worked with Anthony Braxton, Randy Weston, Wadado Leo Smith, Nicole Mitchell, Daniel Carter, and more and her ‘Freesong’ approach has shown her as an individualistic, creative vocalist. Joe Morris brings his blend of African and jazz-rooted music to his bass playing and Ramon Lopez is a jazz drummer familiar to many for his multicultural cadences.

To find four musicians of such calibre on one recording is a rarity. To discover they blend and merge so well, with Victor’s vocals adding nuances almost impossible on any other instrument, is a delight. Messa Di Voce (which means placing the voice in Italian) could not be a more appropriate title because Victor understands how to use her voice as an instrument in as precise a manner as anyone plucking or bowing a string or striking a key. And the other musicians understand how to utilise the depth of Victor’s voice to the best, allowing her to express its full range and versatility.

Perelman, ever the organic grower musically, has placed these three musicians together and cast his net across using his sax lines to link, and his musical suggestions to inspire. The notable similarity between the range of the female voice and that of the upper sax registers is clear along with the possibilities for complimentary phrases and contrast. At times on Track I-One it is possible to imagine the sax and voice as one and at others, the point where they diverge and separate is difficult to discern. Victor’s pitching is profound and vocalising as she is against Perelman who, as ever, introduces unexpected musical dalliances into the melodic lines, veering off along pathways of his invention, and leaving Victor to follow, is a feat most vocalists might not relish. Victor, however, is no ordinary vocalist and she counters and enhances Perelman’s musical deviations, at times re-taking the creative mantle, causing Perelman to backtrack and re-engage. In the middle section, there is a lovely, phrased section where Victor hums a tune that Perelman picks up and distorts – creating an adaptive, creative response. Lopez sets up furious rhythmic passages in the closing stages as Victor flows freely, allowing her impressive voice its full range.

The tracks follow much the same pattern, but there is never a sense of repetition or over-familiarity. Perelman is pushed by the vocals and introduces sounds he has not played for some time, such as on track I-Two, where he blasts and growls rhythmic patterns while Victor pushes out equally extreme vocalisations, creating a depth of intuitive sound, which feels like two musical titans leaning into each other at times, and slightly demonic at others.

There are some beautifully worked sections, like the swinging phrasing briefly held by the sax on track I-Three and the guitar phrases on that track. Familiar jazz elements ooze over trickling, intricate vocals. The opening on track I-Four sounds big-band with the vocals exuding emotion. The structure of this eighteen-plus minute track is exceptional, and the listener is never lost, yet somehow catapulted from one extreme effect to another. Many tracks make the most of the rhythmic potential and adaptability of the voice, with Victor offering her punctuation and percussive elements at times counteracting the rhythm section of Lopez and Morris. II-Three is an impressive blend of culturally diverse rhythms and vocalisations.

As ever, the numbering of the tracks is a mystery with the album being divided into two parts, but the tracks are also numbered in numerical order from 1 to 9 and vary in length from just over five and a half to over eighteen minutes.

Gathering his components around him Perelman, the constant gardener of music, plants elements to create colours, patterns, and striking contrasts, that work to create a glorious, colourful, emotionally packed musical landscape for the listener. Given Perelman’s kinaesthesia, it is no wonder he can weave intricate patterns of depth and warmth, using subtle hues and big, striking episodes of intensity.

Four stellar musicians, with Perelman as a guide but not leader in the ‘follow me’ sense, but more in the ‘let’s see what works if I do this’ sense and with heavy attention paid to the incredible instrument of Victor’s voice, this is simply beautiful.