Sean Perlmutter joined Paxton/Spangler Septet for a new album – Anthem For The New Nation – which features a collection of compositions by legendary South African pianist/composer Abdullah Ibrahim.
Drummer Sean Perlmutter leads his own jazz trio, MOUTHBREATHr, but he also performs and records with other groups around Michigan. Most recently, he joined with the Paxton/Spangler Septet for the recording, Anthem for the New Nation, which will be introduced July 11 at the Cadieux Café in Detroit.
The album consists solely of compositions by Abdullah Ibrahim, a pianist who mostly performs his own work.
“The recorded music came out of apartheid South Africa, where Ibrahim grew up,” said Perlmutter, 23. “Two of the seven pieces, ‘Cape Town Fringe/Mannenberg’ and ‘Soweto,’ are named after the townships where black South Africans were forced to live in cramped [and discriminatory] conditions.
“My Jewish understanding comes from my father’s side of the family, and the context of the music reminds me of pogroms and the horrors of the Holocaust. The sounds of struggle and the joy of rising above that is what this music is about in a lot of ways.
“I think the strength of the Jewish people is augmented by noting comparisons of their struggles to those of other people.”
Perlmutter, who grew up near Grand Rapids, was encouraged by his parents to study instrumental music and become part of the school band. Early on, he tried playing the recorder but soon decided he didn’t like wind instruments. Although the trombone and French horn had been suggested by his teachers to fill out the band, he leaned toward percussions.
“I heard rock albums from the ’60s and ’70s in my dad’s record collections, and the drum set seemed like a hop, skip and a jump from what I thought I could do,” Perlmutter said about his choice, which was supplemented through school studies. “Later, I heard John Coltrane, and I knew jazz was for me.”
At 12, Perlmutter got his own drum set and started playing at home and then in the jazz band at high school. At 16, he began private lessons with a jazz teacher.
Perlmutter worked a bit in the music scene around Grand Rapids. His first paycheck was earned by playing in a community theater band, and he used the money to buy extra cymbals for his drum set.
“When I first moved to Detroit, I went to jam sessions in clubs and checked out other people’s gigs,” explained Perlmutter, a Redford resident who earned a music degree with a concentration in jazz studies from Wayne State University.
“If you do that enough, people start to remember you, and they ask for your number. By the time they need someone for a gig because their normal guy can’t make it, you get the call. If you do a good job, the word spreads. Before you know it, you’re working.”
Besides recording with R.J. Spangler, a percussionist, Perlmutter joined with Tbone Paxton, trombone; Phillip Hale, piano; Jeff Cuny, electric and acoustic basses; Daniel Bennett, tenor sax; Rafael Leafar, alto sax and flute; Kasan Belgrave, alto sax; Damon Warmack, electric bass; and James O’Donnell, flugelhorn.
Improvisational Music
The track “Perfumed Forest Wet with Rain” is especially appreciated by Perlmutter.
“It’s a beautiful piece of music, but it also allows the band to get into really interesting spaces improvisationally,” said the drummer, who teaches at a studio as well as digitally and performs Monday nights at Barter in Hamtramck.
“It allowed me, as a player, to use a lot of my experience and a side of my playing I don’t necessarily get a chance to showcase. It has a few different sections, and it’s one of the more floaty or ethereal pieces that has fluidity to the pulse. It starts off slow and picks up just a little bit as it goes on.”
Perlmutter, who recorded “MOUTHBREATHr” as a debut album of his own compositions and has freelance performances lined up, learned about Ibrahim’s style by working on the recording being released.
“The soulful, and many times joyful, music can be appreciated by all types of people,” he said. “It’s not just the jazz audience although the music still has all the jazz bona fides.”
Details:
Anthem for the New Nation will be introduced at 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11, at the Cadieux Café, 4300 Cadieux, Detroit. $10. Cadieuxcafe.com.
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July 01, 2021 at 01:00AM
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Drummer to Introduce New Recording at Cadieux Café — Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News
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