D

rummer Sean Perlmutter 
leads his own jazz trio, 
MOUTHBREATHr, but 
he also performs and records 
with other groups around 
Michigan. Most recently, he 
joined with the Paxton/Spangler 
Septet for the recording, Anthem 
for the New Nation, which will 
be introduced July 11 at the 
Cadieux Café in Detroit.
The album consists solely 
of compositions by Abdullah 
Ibrahim, a pianist who mostly 
performs his own work.
“The recorded music came 
out of apartheid South Africa, 
where Ibrahim grew up,
” said 
Perlmutter, 23. “Two of the 
seven pieces, ‘Cape Town Fringe/
Mannenberg’ and ‘Soweto,
’ are 
named after the townships where 
black South Africans were forced 
to live in cramped [and discrimi-
natory] conditions. 
“My Jewish understanding 
comes from my father’s side 
of the family, and the context 
of the music reminds me of 

pogroms and the horrors of 
the Holocaust. The sounds of 
struggle and the joy of rising 
above that is what this music is 
about in a lot of ways.
“I think the strength of the 
Jewish people is augmented by 
noting comparisons of their 
struggles to those of other peo-
ple.” 
Perlmutter, who grew up 
near Grand Rapids, was 
encouraged by his parents to 

study instrumental music and 
become part of the school 
band. Early on, he tried playing 
the recorder but soon decided 
he didn’t like wind instruments. 
Although the trombone and 
French horn had been suggest-
ed by his teachers to fill out the 
band, he leaned toward percus-
sions.
“I heard rock albums from 
the ’60s and ’70s in my dad’s 
record collections, and the 
drum set seemed like a hop, 
skip and a jump from what I 
thought I could do,” Perlmutter 
said about his choice, which 
was supplemented through 
school studies. “Later, I heard 
John Coltrane, and I knew jazz 
was for me.”
At 12, Perlmutter got his own 
drum set and started playing 
at home and then in the jazz 
band at high school. At 16, he 
began private lessons with a 
jazz teacher.
Perlmutter worked a bit in 
the music scene around Grand 
Rapids. His first paycheck was 
earned by playing in a commu-
nity theater band, and he used 
the money to buy extra cym-
bals for his drum set. 
“When I first moved to 
Detroit, I went to jam ses-
sions in clubs and checked out 
other people’s gigs,” explained 
Perlmutter, a Redford resident 
who earned a music degree 
with a concentration in jazz 
studies from Wayne State 

University. 
“If you do that enough, peo-
ple start to remember you, and 
they ask for your number. By 
the time they need someone for 
a gig because their normal guy 
can’t make it, you get the call. 
If you do a good job, the word 
spreads. Before you know it, 
you’re working.” 
Besides recording with 
R.J. Spangler, a percussionist, 
Perlmutter joined with Tbone 
Paxton, trombone; Phillip Hale, 
piano; Jeff Cuny, electric and 
acoustic basses; Daniel Bennett, 
tenor sax; Rafael Leafar, alto sax 
and flute; Kasan Belgrave, alto 
sax; Damon Warmack, electric 
bass; and James O’Donnell, 
flugelhorn.

IMPROVISATIONAL MUSIC
The track “Perfumed Forest Wet 
with Rain” is especially appreci-
ated by Perlmutter. 
“It’s a beautiful piece of 
music, but it also allows the 
band to get into really interest-
ing spaces improvisationally,” 
said the drummer, who teaches 
at a studio as well as digitally 
and performs Monday nights at 
Barter in Hamtramck. 
“It allowed me, as a player, 
to use a lot of my experience 
and a side of my playing I don’t 
necessarily get a chance to 
showcase. It has a few different 
sections, and it’s one of the 
more floaty or ethereal pieces 
that has fluidity to the pulse. It 
starts off slow and picks up just 
a little bit as it goes on.”
Perlmutter, who recorded 
“MOUTHBREATHr” as a 
debut album of his own com-
positions and has freelance 
performances lined up, learned 
about Ibrahim’s style by work-
ing on the recording being 
released.
“The soulful, and many times 
joyful, music can be appreciated 
by all types of people,
” he said. 
“It’s not just the jazz audience 
although the music still has all 
the jazz bona fides.
” 

Soulful 
Jazz

42 | JULY 1 • 2021 

Drummer to introduce new 
recording at Cadieux Café.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC
Sean 
Perlmutterer

COURTESY OF SEAN PERLMUTTER

Details 
Anthem for the New Nation will be introduced at 
6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 11, at the Cadieux Café, 
4300 Cadieux, Detroit. $10. Cadieuxcafe.com.

“THE SOULFUL, AND MANY TIMES 
JOYFUL, MUSIC CAN 
BE APPRECIATED BY ALL 

TYPES OF PEOPLE,”

— SEAN PERLMUTTER

