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Paul Pellegrin
Paul Pellegrin is a “polyrhythmic force on drums and percussion” (Gapplegate) and a composer working in Los Angeles. His approach to music involves complex rhythmic and melodic counterpoint and modulation. He usually begins by exploring hybrid rhythmic phrases in a polymetric time (e.g., 5/3/4, 7/5/3, 6/7/9, 8/12/15) and from this builds the melodic components of a song. He likens these hybrid phrases to “claves” (in an Afro-Cuban sense), because, although they are not always explicitly heard in the music, they are the rhythmic "keys" that allow the song•or the musicians while improvising•to modulate to different feels or meters, somewhat akin to African music, but with the intention of being even more stratified (if that is possible).
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“The rhythms on this album are just crazy... But it’s not just a forest of time signatures. What’s really brain-warping are the polyrhythms... The opening ‘Deprong Mori’ is almost enough to give you motion sickness•catchy and yet impenetrable, a spinny ride that keeps swerving at the wrong time... And there are solos•passionate, swinging solos that cut across the time lines, like jazzy braille darting through an other-dimensional sighted world.”--(Memory Select: Avant Jazz Radio)
“Some music sneaks up on you... This is a kind of jazz that grooves as it also provides some quite sophisticated musical fare
Music
Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson
