by Chris KelseyAs of 2001, tenor saxophonist Perelman had put out in the neighborhood of 20 albums as a leader since his recording debut in 1989. A remarkable number, considering Perelman plays a kind of music (free jazz) that has almost no viability as a commercial product. How he managed to convince so many small, independent labels to record him with such great frequency is a mystery. It's not that Perelman is not a fine player -- he plays well in the heavily distorted, abstract-expressionist vein first tapped in the '60s by the late Albert Ayler -- but there's little to separate him from contemporaries like Elliott Levin, Ken Simon, or a host of other stylistically-similar tenor players who have received far fewer opportunities. Perhaps it's the company he keeps; Perelman has had the good sense and abundant resources to hire top players to play on his records. His first album, Ivo (K2B2, 1989), featured an all-star cast that inclu...