![]() It's a huge bit of progress to make in 4-5 years. You could also check out this live set from the Endless Planets release party, also recorded for Brainfeeder. You can hear all this by purchasing Endless Planets, or streaming it on Spotify/etc., or even YouTube, where Alpha Pup Records - which distributes Brainfeeder - has uploaded all of it. Here's a clip where he covers Flying Lotus' "MmmHmm" with bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Justin Brown. It was one avenue in which Peralta connected to a greater musical community, one beyond "jazz." Of course, it seems likely he would have gotten there anyway - in recent years, he's been sighted backing up the singer Octavius Womack, or improvising with beatboxer Taylor McFerrin, or recording for Erykah Badu - and it doesn't mean he wasn't playing with top jazz-trained musicians either. He appeared on record with the producer Teebs, on stage with the singing electric bassist Thundercat and with FlyLo himself. The album has a few electronic touches to it, courtesy of the artist Strangeloop, but in turn, the Brainfeeder family embraced Peralta back. What that statement says, exactly, is open to interpretation.Įndless Planets came out on Brainfeeder, the independent record label founded by electronic music artist Flying Lotus. As tossed-off as it looks, it's hard to hear it as anything other than a statement about his roots, and maybe the collective past of the musical tradition which raised him. Set in relief amid the rest of the record, that out-of-context, barely-a-minute-long glimpse of a band deeply in the pocket is striking. Nearly two-thirds of the way through, there's a brief "Interlude" of straight-ahead swing. A more charitable interpretation would point out how often remarkable ambition synchronizes with execution, and how the kid was already letting his more cosmic concerns lead him in new directions. Some of it comes off as standard high-modernist stuff: post-Wayne-Shorter harmonies and experiments of unclear logic. But he also makes efforts at ballads ("Ode To Love"), electronic atmospheres ("Epilogue: Renaissance Bubbles," with the Cinematic Orchestra and vocalist Heidi Vogel), spacey meditations ("Introduction: The Lotus Flower"). It's a program of originals, which work best centered around fetching grooves - "Capricornus" in a dynamic 5/4, or "Algiers," with its open structure around a single pedal point and a set of tabla drums. If his piano isn't necessarily the dominant voice, his authority as bandleader comes through in his compositions. Of course, he'd already been leading working bands and groups for some time now: Here's a studio session from KCRW in 2008, just after he turned 18. Hamilton Price plays bass and Zach Harmon plays drums, filling out a band of relative peers - another thing you didn't find on his teenage wunderkind records. The core of the record is made with a quintet, featuring saxophonists Ben Wendel and Zane Musa, and he gives his sidemen more than equal space to stretch out. Peralta also seemed to make a conscious decision not to hog the spotlight. ![]() (Unsurprisingly, it's an approach heard in a lot of top younger players today - the Robert Glaspers, the Aaron Parkses, the Gerald Claytons, etc.) He intermittently jabs for a chord like Bill Evans might, but as he runs up and down the keyboard, you can hear him searching for ways to avoid the admitted early influence. On tracks like "Capricornus" and "The Underwater Mountain Odyssey," he's got a certain sparkling right-hand feel: playful, fluid, punctuated with feints and stutter steps in search of a lyricism beyond stock bebop-style virtuosity. Not that it's hard to hear why Peralta was so heavily tipped. Clearly, the kid behind it was trying to grow. Endless Planets isn't a rote recital of precocious virtuosity, and even sounds thoughtfully designed to avoid that impression. Those who have been around the business grow a skeptical frown when someone mentions "child prodigy," but this was somewhat different. He was 20 when it came out in early 2011, and the child prodigy buzz was part of the hype around the record. ![]() For most intents and purposes, his third album, Endless Planets, put him on the national map. I learned about Austin Peralta, who died last week at age 22, the same way most folks away from Southern California's jazz scene did. He certainly didn't promote those records, and by the time I first learned about him, his artistry was already at a different place. But I can't help think about what Peralta must have thought about his first efforts on record. To just about anyone, that should signal an incredible achievement.
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