Ben
Perowsky's Moodswing Orchestra
El Destructo Records
Reviewed
by Peter Aaron
New
York-bred Ben Perowsky is a quintes sential Downtown player, having
worked with such leading lights as John Zorn, Roy Ayers, John Cale,
the Lounge Lizards, Elysian Fields, Joan As Policewoman, John Scofield,
and too many others. Recent years have found the drummer dividing
his off-road time between his Brooklyn apartment and his Willow
cabin; once in a while, you might even catch him in Woodstock jamming
with Don Byron and John Medesky at the Pinecrest or backing blues
belter Alexis P. Studer at one of Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble
sessions.
One of Perowsky’s many worthy projects is his Moodswing Orchestra,
a freely evolving collective that smears the lines between dub,
jazz, and electronica. Volume 2, released on the percussionist’s
own El Destructo imprint in a limited run of 2,000 copies, stars
the leader in a large cast that also includes Brazilian diva Bebel
Gilberto, top trumpeter Steven Bernstein, Joan As Policewoman chief/vocalist
Joan Wasserman, Olabelle’s Glenn Patscha on piano, turntablist
Markus Miller, and Perowsky’s old Elysian Fields band mates,
singer Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow, here on bass instead of
his usual guitar. Best experienced as a single-flow triptych whole,
it feels wrong to discuss this set in terms of its individual tracks.
But citable moments, this spin at least, would include “1972”
(check Miller’s creepy vinyl surface noise and Doug Wieselman’s
darkly coy flute) and “Dolly”, the latter nicely pairing
Charles’s patented sexpot coo with the churchy chords of Patscha’s
Fender Rhodes.
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