Ben Perowsky, Frank Perowsky, Sam Yehel: Bop on Pop (2002)

DAN MCCLENAGHAN,

Dan McClenaghan

Senior Contributor since 2002

A lover of sounds, and the way they fit together.

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Published: September 11, 2002

Ben Perowsky, Frank Perowsky, Sam Yehel: Bop on Pop

Drummer Ben Perowsky has decided to do one with Dad; Dad being reedman /arranger Frank Perowsky—the Pop in Bop on Pop

Perowsky the younger is a New York-based drummer who has worked with everyone from Walter Becker (Steely Dan) to John Cale (Velvet Underground) to jazz keyboardist Uri Caine and trumpeter/bandleader Dave Douglas. Pop/Frank is a veteran of the big band scene—Lee Castle and Woody Herman—and has performed with Peggy Lee, Billy Ecstine, Sarah Vaughn...and on and on.

For Bop on Pop , an unpretentious trio outing, father and son play some of the tried and true tunes they've played together for years, since Ben was a kid (check out the picture of him, six years old at the drum set, at www.perowsky.com), and they've enlisted Sam Yahel—who just did the marvelous yaya3 CD with Joshua Redman—to sit in on B-3 organ.

It's a set of tunes familiar to any jazz fan: Miles Davis's "Vierd Blues", off the early Prestige album, Collector's Items , with Frank P. displaying a throaty tenor tone, Yahel whispering aropund the melody; a couple of American Songbook classics—"All of You" (Cole Porter) and "My Foolish Heart"—Fat's Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz" that has the dark wood of Frank's clarinet dancing around the similar tones of Yahel's B-3 breeze in front of Ben's shuffling percussion.

And if it's got bop in the title, you have to include some Bird: "Confirmation", of course, and also "Star Eyes", one of the Yardbird's most recognizable vehicles; and again with a Miles Davis-penned, Charlie Parker-made famous tune, "Donna Lee".

A fine, pared-down, first-rate primer of Bop and American Songbook tunes, with the switch from tenor sax to clarinet keeping the sound interesting.

Visit Ben's website at www.perowsky.com

Track Listing: Vierd Blues, The Jitterbug Waltz, Quicksilver, All of You, My Foolish Heart, Star Eyes, Confirmation, Donna Lee, Four

Personnel: Ben Perowsky, drums; Frank Perowsky, saxophone and clarinet; Sam Yahel, organ

Record Label: Jazz Key Music
Style: Straight-ahead/Mainstream