Rodrigo Amado The Bridge - Beyond the Margins

Label: Trost Records, 2023

Personnel - Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Alexander von Schlippenbach; piano; Ingebrigt Haker Flaten: bass; Gerry Hemingway: drums.

The Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado has consistently explored the outer boundaries of improvised jazz, striving to breaking new ground at each new collaboration. His latest recording, Beyond the Margins, features an international quartet known as The Bridge, with German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, and American drummer Gerry Hemingway. This three-track album is a leap forward for Amado who, fully committed to bringing expressivity and energy to the setting, extracts the utmost from the group’s push-and-pull inventiveness.

The journey begins with the title cut, a sprawling 40-minute piece filled with spontaneous detours, a bountiful fruit of their visionary creativity. Amado’s tenor, skillfully bending notes to create a sense of delightful dissonance in the phrasing, dances atop a dreamlike Coltranean texture that, steering away from melancholy, soon escalates in density and intensity. The music follows a focused direction, painted by amorphous bass moves and colorful drum work. Burnished high-range saxophone lines and agile piano take turns in the melodic thread, and we realize these musicians respect each other’s spaces within the framework.
Fine melodies and balanced rhythmic cadences are complemented with bright figures, which usually culminate in moments of visceral impact. Tricky harmonic choices, crisp angularity, and staggering rhythms are all part of the music tapestry. As the piece unfolds, we have expansion and contraction as expected, ending with a swinging eruption driven by Haker Flaten, who previously had operated with arco, and Hemingway, a sophisticated drummer who infuses meticulously placed rhythms throughout.

A piano riff sets “Personal Mountains” in motion, soon joined by bracing drumming, candid bass lines, and folk-inspired saxophone chants that gain further expression in “(visiting) Ghosts”. The latter, a free interpretation of Albert Ayler’s original piece, plays out like a spiritual ballad at the outset before exploding with energy.

Amado and The Bridge demonstrate a remarkable ability to work at both micro and macro levels, crafting moments that captivate the attention of open-eared listeners. Alternating between apparent stagnancy, simmering tension, and fiery explosions, this is a record free jazzers should go for.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Beyond the Margins ► 02 - Personal Mountains

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Rodrigo Amado Northern Liberties - We Are Electric

Label: Not Two Records, 2021

Personnel - Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Thomas Johansson: trumpet; Jon Rune Strøm: double bass; Gard Nilssen: drums.

The saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, the most representative figure of the Portuguese free jazz scene, proceeds with fruitful international collaborations, this time leading a new quartet rounded out by three qualified Norwegian players namely, trumpeter Thomas Johansson (from the adventurous quartet Cortex), bassist Jon Rune Strøm (a regular in the Paal-Nilssen Love Large Unit), and drummer Gard Nilssen (a bandleader of excellence who spearheads the Acoustic Unity trio and the Supersonic Orchestra). Their debut, We Are Electric, consists of four improvised tracks recorded live at ZDB in Lisbon, and finds the foursome exploring creative idioms with a rare cohesion. 

Clocking in at 17+ minutes, “Spark” bears a manic energy right from the start. Vivid contortions created by a saxophone that cuts in with fiery aplomb and a muted trumpet that explores timbre with logic in the phrasing, heat up the densely packed rhythmic mesh. In one minute, the frontline men engage in well-rounded motifs, but in the next they have things thriving with slapping-tongue staccatos on the saxophone and uncompromisingly keyed trumpet. At some point, the group swings, and later we are immersed in a free rock 'n’ roll from outer space. The piece ends with the horn players in absolute control, just like they do on “Response”, a number that has the particularity of being finalized with a long hoarse tenor shriek.

“Ignition” starts unhurriedly, set in motion by bowed bass and sparking brushwork. A simple two-note figure serves as an excuse to start a dialogue between Amado and Johansson, but all this is stretched and expanded into a boiling collective commotion that is interrupted by the subsequent piece, “Activity”. Here, the multiphonics, muted trumpet and palpable melodic lines denote a lyricism that counterbalances the effusiveness that comes next. They even set up a nice swinging motion and inflict a bluesy feel on this one. This is well-developed improvised music made by an intrepid quartet who knocks down all the pins in all contexts.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Spark ► 02 - Ignition ► 03 - Activity

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Rodrigo Amado This Is Our language Quartet - Let the Free Be Men

Label: Trost Records, 2021

Personnel - Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Joe McPhee: pocket trumpet, soprano saxophone; Kent Kessler: bass; Chris Corsano: drums.

The Portuguese free-jazz saxophonist Rodrigo Amado reunites his flagship project - This Is Our Language quartet - for their third outing, the second on the Austrian label Trost Records. Comprising four spontaneous improvisations, Let The Free Be Men is not as powerful as its predecessors, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t moments of pure passion or sonic rollercoasters with plenty of hooks and fast turns for us to ride.

All members give their instruments a workout, with the saxophonist/trumpeter Joe McPhee serving as a perfect foil for Amado’s attacks in the first line, while bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Chris Corsano generate concrete tapestries that feel heavy and uncompromising.

“Resist!” starts off with a drum monologue, equal measures inquisitive and driving, which is subsequently softened up by the arrival of bowed bass. Yet, it’s in this section that Corsano better shows his agility over the snare and toms, and a rare intuition of when making the cymbals crash for a great effect. Tenor and trumpet dive in simultaneously. Amado with a forceful discourse packed with rhythmic figures and punctuation marks and McPhee with deliberate and thoughtful melodic lines. From here on, the energy never stops to propagate at a vertiginous speed, and McPhee, switching the trumpet for the soprano, adds extra color to the party.

The title cut blooms with a multiphonic coalition between the two horn players, who create an abstract atmosphere with the help of a somber arco bass and controlled fluxes of brushed drums. A lament takes shape, bearing a resemblance to choral music, but the group blazes another trail at the midway point, indulging in a folk-inspired groove that inflames the saxophonists’ improvisatory stimuli. This is the most provocative track on the album.

“Men is Women is Men” incorporates humming, warbling and murmuring sounds that lead to a cacophonous parade, whereas “Never Surrender” takes the plunge in a suspended, Ornette Coleman-esque state but ends in a more-scrappy-than-polished mishmash of horns, bass and drums.

The closed circle of sounds repeat and revamp with perpetual tension and they would probably benefit from a bit more of melodic thread and groove. It’s up to the group to decide that, but free jazzers can go for it as it is.

Grade B

Favorite Tracks: 
01 - Resist! ► 02 - Let The Free Be Men

Rodrigo Amado - A History of Nothing

Label: Trost Records, 2018

Personnel - Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Joe McPhee: soprano saxophone, pocket trumpet; Kent Kessler: double bass; Chris Corsano: drums.

Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, a mainstay of the European free jazz panorama, is recognized for blowing his tenor with logic and authority, frequently in trio and quartet settings. He was also a member of the adventurous Lisbon Improvisation Players group, with which he recorded three albums for the Clean Feed label.

A History of Nothing, his debut on the Austrian Trost Records, features five improv-centric tunes authored and sculpted by the same quartet that made This Is Our Language (Not Two Records, 2012) a reference in the genre. Namely, Joe McPhee on soprano saxophone and pocket trumpet, Kent Kessler on double bass, and Chris Corsano on drums. 

“Legacies” opens the session with strong chamber intonations, driven by gentle bowed bass moves and occasional cymbal screeches. The midpoint marks a change with Kessler providing a bit more conduction through punctilious plucks, and Corsano getting increasingly active behind the drum kit while the horn section creates a free state of harmony.

The deliberative "A History of Nothing" starts with a cacophonous tug-of-war between saxophones, triggering responsive reactions from the rhythm section. It’s like a push-pull game of thrones where nobody wins, replete with raw, exhilarating collisions and powerful individual expressions. Bass and drums weave a supportive if impenetrable rhythmic net that stimulates Amado and McPhee to exhibit heftiness and intricacy in their explorative endeavors. At that moment, we can see the ensemble in full flight.

The mixture of mordant and airy sounds from pocket trumpet initiates the operations on “Wild Flower”, but McPhee soon switches to soprano sax, delivering racing phrases over the foundational tandem priorly established. Amado then chips in, employing discernible folk-ish lines with a rollicking grasp and striking timbre, evoking Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, and sometimes Fred Anderson in his musical descriptions. It felt good hearing him digging something more melodic in contrast with the fierce rhythmic approach of his co-workers. McPhee joins again by the end, for a victorious, snappy final round of interactive play.

Establishing a strange communication, the quartet finishes this adventurous journey with “The Hidden Desert”, whose dark mood and sedative hypnotics take the listener to a brooding cinematic realm. However, I could not fail to mention the homage to McPhee on “Theory of Mind II (for Joe)”, marked as a CD-only track. The intense combination of mallet drumming and bass perambulations vary in intensity with Amado opting not to bring all his impetuosity in his first improvisatory incursion. He returns later with a turbulent foray, though.

Amado’s quartet is in peak form, exerting another biting album that comprehends both volcanic and ruminative sonic layers. Just let the freedom touch you while enjoying this finely calibrated commotion.

        Grade A

Favorite Tracks: 
02 - A History of Nothing ► 03 - Theory of Mind II (for Joe) ► 04 - Wild Flower

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