Honoring the spirit of the late guitarist-composer Michael O’Neil, drummer Peter Perfido and vocalist Kris Adams released Away in 2025. The 62-minute, 13-track CD features nine O’Neil originals, 2 covers written by drummer Paul Motian and several instrumentals. Recording the album with Peter Perfido and Kris Adams are Bob Degen (piano) and André Buser (bass).

The music on Away is sparse and moody making it perfectly suited for Ms. Adams’ earthy vocals and the drumming of Peter Perfido. Not having heard Minnesota native Michael O’Neil’s music before, I can only attest that the music is equally inspired and melancholy with bold overtones. Although it’s clearly jazz in nature there is an air of experimentalism and improvisation. There’s even a stellar ensemble tribute to legendary sax player Jan Gabarek called “Die Sehnsucht” (The Longing) with spirted wordless vocals by Ms. Adams.

The chemistry of the band is very much in-sync with the airy nature of the music and, without a note out of place the tracks are performed with empathy and taste. One can only applaud drummer Peter Perfido for putting this project together with the assistance of Ms. Adams and, in fact, the entire band.

Veteran post-Bop pianist Bob Degen, having released many albums under his own name, shines on the instrumental track “I Remember Albert”, which is actually another cover, this one written by guitarist Eric Schultz. The wordless vocals / piano track “Anthem” is another highlight. The vocal tracks featuring Ms. Adams, many featuring intriguing English lyrics, fit the free-form jazz sensibilities on hand here.

In the liner notes, several musicologists pay tribute to Michael O’Neil’s music while liner notes from Ms. Adams and Peter Perfido add in their own honorary postscripts. Although the project was actually started in 2021, the fact that these artists stuck with it and finally released it on CD in 2025 attests to the long-lasting significance of the recordings.

 

RMR speaks with Kris Adams & Peter Perfido

RMR: Tell us something about Michael O’Neil and his music. Did he get a chance to record on his own and how was his music preserved and rediscovered again for this album?

Peter Perfido: Mike and I were close friends and musical partners for over 30 years . He wrote a lot of music: both instrumental music and many songs with lyrics. He recorded a lot of this music privately with himself on guitar and as the vocalist. I’ve mentioned a few releases that we did together in one of the following questions. For myself, Mike’s music has always resonated very deeply and I’ve played a lot of these tunes with other bands and they always sound great. The melodies are so pure and organic sounding, to my ears. I’d love to record more of his music and have some ideas, but that’s very much in the very formative stages at this point in time.

 

RMR: The Away album was recorded in Switzerland starting in 2021 and it took some time to finish and release. Tell us something about the recording the album in Switzerland and why it took several years to complete.

Kris Adams: It took a few years because it was mostly due to the semantics of importing the master tracks from the studio in Switzerland, here to the states, organizing them and then the emailing back and forth between me and Peter, who lives in France, about the edits. In addition, we needed to get permission to release the music from Michael’s wife and daughters. Getting their contact info and reaching out to them was another project in itself. Once we did make contact, they were more than happy to hear that we had recorded it and immediately gave their approval to release it.

 

RMR: How did Peter Perfido meet Michael O’Neil what were some of the highlights of the 30 years they worked together? Being that Michael was a guitarist, is it surprising there is no guitarist on the album? Did Michael ever get to release an album under his own name?

Peter Perfido: We both lived in Paris and started playing together around the end of 1986. We performed in a pretty wide range of formations, from trio’s with or without bass to quartet & quintet and finally as a duo. There’s a CD from Mike as a leader and it’s called Evensong that was a live performance at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris from 1991. We also recorded as a duo on the CD Live at Radio France in 2010. Lastly, we recorded as a trio in early 2013 with bass clarinetist Michel Pilz under the title No Corner To Hide In.

I didn’t want to play Mike’s music with another guitarist as his guitar style was so strong and unique, I just didn’t hear that instrument in a new recording without him. I thought it best to change the sound and with Bob on piano, it was quite obvious that he was perfect for the project.

Kris Adams: The album is about his compositions, songs that he wrote and never recorded. I think they are presented in their pure form. Maybe to have a different guitarist playing with us would have taken away from the purpose of the project as the focus is on his compositions and not his playing career.

 

RMR: Interesting that both Kris Adams and Bob Degen have a number of albums out under their own names. How does Away compare sound wise with their albums?

Kris Adams: I can only speak for myself on this one. My previous recordings featured highly arranged music, using a drummer-less trio, to a band with horns up to bigger band with 13 musicians. This recording featured only the trio and myself. So, it was a completely different experience for me. Recording live in the studio. A few takes for each song. No overdubbing afterwards, minimal editing. A very fresh and interactive encounter between the four of us those four days that we were playing together.

 

RMR: Some of the musicians on Away are also based in Europe. Does that give the album a kind of international flair to the overall sound?

Kris Adams: I know that Peter has played with Bob and André in different settings and of course, they all have other groups that they have played with in Europe. I’ve gigged mostly in the states and a bit in Italy. All that aside, the focus was really on making some magic happen with Michael’s music and the few other tunes that we included, those four days that we were together, in the same place.

Peter Perfido: I’ve been playing with Bob Degen since 1991, so there’s a pretty long track record between us and we’ve played in numerous groups over that 30+ year time span.

 

RMR: Tell us about the cover tracks including the Paul Motian compositions and the track written by Eric Schultz. How do those tracks fit on the album? Were the lyrics on the vocal tracks written by Michael O’Neil or added later? Some of the tracks add wordless vocals so were those tracks instrumentals to begin with? I’m thinking of the track here called “Anthem”.

Peter Perfido: I’ve been a serious fan of Paul Motian’s for a long time, both as a player and composer, so those tunes just seemed natural to me and were a nice compliment / contrast to Mike’s tunes. The tune by Eric Schultz has also been a favorite of mine for quite a while now and Eric and I are old friends from living in Paris in the late 1980’s.

Kris Adams: Yes, the lyrics were written by Michael as well as the music. The songs that are instrumental had no lyrics so I sang them wordlessly.

 

RMR: Tell us your plans for 2025 and beyond. Will the music on Away be played live and will there be more music released? Tell us about plans for the musicians on the Away album.

Kris Adams: I’m the only one of the four of us living in the states. Peter lives in France, Bob in Germany and André in Switzerland so it’s difficult to plan something but, I do hope that we can all come together, somewhere in Europe, to perform this music. In the near future, Peter plans on traveling here to New England in September and we’ll perform a few dates then with musicians from Boston.