ON badd press blog
By Kevin Press July 13, 2017

"Don’t be fooled by the inconspicuous lineup: Gonçalo Almeida on double bass, Rodrigo Amado performing tenor saxophone and Marco Franco on drums. This is no dusty, old-school jazz record. The Attic moves at a feverish clip. Featuring three extraordinary players, recorded live, this is a state-of-the-art free jazz album. Almeida, Amado and Franco are renowned inside and outside their home country of Portugal. These are accomplished artists with rock star resumes. (Amado was recently voted top tenor saxophonist in the El Intruso International Critics’ Poll.) Their ability to pull together such a formidable 52 minutes and change speaks for itself. Track one opens with Almeida’s double bass, providing “Shadow” a momentary new classical vibe. Quickly though, Amado’s tenor sax makes clear where we’re headed. Aggressively modern – confrontational even – the piece will gnaw at you with every stroke of Almeida’s bow. “Hole” comes next. This time it’s a coarsely plaintive sax line at the start. Franco’s drums join in, a single beat at a time to start. As the tune progresses, the gravity of Franco’s contribution to this project becomes clear. He is all over his kit, building a sharply kinetic foundation. The album’s closing track is an all-out blast of controlled chaos. “Nail” is a well-chosen title for the piece; the three hammer away at it for a full five minutes. You’ll wish it went longer. The Attic was recorded live to tape in Lisbon back in December 2015, by Luis Candeias.
---------------------------------------------------
ALL ABOUT JAZZ By JOHN SHARPE

"The Attic unites three Portuguese musicians who are making a name for themselves beyond their native land. Now based in Rotterdam, bassist Gonçalo Almeida works with a range of European artists, but may be best known as leader of the Lama Trio, with trumpeter Susana Santos Silva. Saxophonist Rodrigo Amado probably enjoys the highest profile, befitting his activity with his own Motion Trio, which has featured as guests trumpeter Peter Evans and trombonist Jeb Bishop, as well as with his cooperative quartet with Joe McPhee, Chris Corsano and Kent Kessler. Completing the threesome is drummer Marco Franco, heard with Clocks And Clouds and improvising foursome Deux Maisons.
Although Almeida contributes charts to many of his bands, this outfit operates firmly in the free jazz/improvised music continuum favored by Amado. Across five selections recorded live, the trio demonstrates a determinedly democratic ethos in which each of the members benefits from lots of legroom, as well as equal billing in the unfettered exchanges. Almeida often reveals a melodic core to his playing even in the outside situations, shown nowhere better than in his marvelously engaging unaccompanied introduction to "Shadow," where he delves into cello register sonorities and exquisite harmonics, tempered by wavering abrasion. That track continues with Amado's dissonant pinched tenor saxophone cry, before opening into brooding tenor incantations paced by harmonious bass counterpoint.
Each of the first three cuts builds from one or two instruments in spacious dialogue, until reaching foot to the floor intensity. "Spring" starts with Almeida's slurred pizzicato and Franco's tappy timbral spurts, then bass overtones picked like chimes, before Amado sets down a folk-inflected line which he repeats to hypnotic effect.
The longer "Board" takes a more rollercoaster trajectory but arrives in the same promised land giving a pulpit to Amado's sermonizing tenor, speaking in tongues, and clattering drums. "Nail" leaps in at the level where most pieces end, as Amado seesaws between gruff flexing and altissimo cries over roiling undercurrents. It's exciting, passionate, and energetic, suggesting a fertile future waits for this particular aggregation."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gapplegate Music Review
By Grego Applegate Edwards
Thursday, July 13, 2017

"I must say that the work of tenor sax man Rodrigo Amado has over the recent years never failed to leave an excellent impression on me. He is back with a trio of Goncalo Almeida on bass and Marco Franco on drums for the recent CD The Attic (NoBusiness NBCD 98).
It is pure modern avant free jazz in a very open setting. Almeida's double bass grounds everything whether arco or pizzicato; Marco Franco drums his way into an open field with consistent drive and imagination.
And all that sets up nearly infinite possibilities that Rodrigo takes advantage of with some very inspired tenor flights. As one expects, he has a ravishing tone and never flags in his formidable knack to weave endlessly fascinating, soulful and earth stirring lines.
It is an astonishingly great set, in my view. Grab it!
Posted by Grego Applegate Edwards at 6:23 AM No comments:
Labels: modern avant free jazz trios at work today, rodrigo amado goncalo almeida marco franco the attic gapplegate music review, tenor giants today."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Attic *****: Sweeping debut
By Fabricio Vieira on FreeForm Freejazz

“CRITICAL A new trio comes from Portugal, with an incredible debut album. Rodrigo Amado, Gonçalo Almeida and Marco Franco are responsible for this one of the most vibrant albums of the year ...
In early 2013, the Brazilian public had the opportunity to enjoy one of the rare visits of Portuguese musicians to the country. And it was not a visit whatsoever. The saxophonist Rodrigo Amado landed here for three performances, in São Paulo (Sesc Belenzinho and Sesc Santos) and Rio de Janeiro (Audio Rebel), in duo with drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. At that time, Amado showed on stage the high inventiveness of his music, which we knew only by records, which undoubtedly places him as one of the central names of the contemporary sax. Since then, the musician has enchanted our ears with one album better than the other. Not being a free improviser of the most prolix in terms of recordings, of those who edit several titles each year, Amado has concentrated his creative force on certain albums, which inevitably end up shining in the annual best season lists - just see the (2014, Motion Trio with Peter Evans), and The Freedom Principle / Live in Lisbon (2014, Motion Trio). Always surprising us, Amado just released his first title of 2017: and once again, a marvel that already appears as a candidate for the best records of the year.
The Attic , the new title, brings Amado (sax tenor) in a new Portuguese trio, formed alongside Gonçalo Almeida (bass) and Marco Franco (drums). The title now published was captured live on December 22, 2015, at SMUP (Cascais / Lisboa) and marked the first recorded meeting of this new group. Although the three musicians are Portuguese, they are not habitual partners, playing parallel projects in a multiple and wide scene as is the one of Portugal. Bass player Gonçalo Almeida has lived in the Netherlands for years and it is there that he develops his main projects, such as the Spinifex quintet and the Albatre and Lama trios. Franco has also been featured in bands such as the Clock and Clouds and Deux Maisons, as well as playing rock bands (Memória de Peixe). The varied breadth of the projects with which the three musicians are undoubtedly involved is key to the great result achieved in The Attic . In five tracks, the trio shows the magic of free improvisation, such that an unprecedented encounter can create such high, engaging and brilliant music.
Almeida, well known for his work on electric bass, focuses here on the acoustic model of the instrument, showing great versatility. It is exactly Almeida who opens the presentation, with an enchanting development to the bow, that governs the initial minutes of "Shadow" like true introduction to the universe that little by little is stripping to our ears. When the first painful cries of Amado appear, for the three minutes elapsed, we are already acclimatized to perfectly enjoy what will be offered to us in the little more than 50 minutes by which the record extends. "Shadow" is one of the most impressive themes that appeared this year and for this is decisive the interaction between the bass and the breath of Amado. We see here the saxophonist in a somewhat different voltage to which we are accustomed (especially in Motion Trio, its main project); There is something more painful and desperate in his breath, which shivers the listener in his first interventions in the presentation. Over the arch of Almeida and the discreet percussion of Franco, the tenor sax rips the air and stabs us deeply, in a process that stretches for a few minutes, amid which Amado unfolds a almost serene melody, as if we wanted Take a breather before taking us to the final part, where the percussive propulsion gains relief while the soil of Amado guides us to the end of the play.
The next stop, "Hole", is opened by the sax, in another mode (Amado sounds unmistakable here), with the band developing in a different way, free, more fluid, loose improvisation. A certain ripple of tension ends up being a relevant mark in the course of the concert, which follows with "Spring", which begins with percussion and bass (here fingering), bringing the most contemplative passages, heating only in its second half; And "Board", the longest of the set (16 minutes), with sax and drums marking the opening of a process that leads us to a ground below (in which Almeida shows great ability to create gloomy climates once again with wielding the Bow) that will be the core of the piece. The conclusion of this process is nothing less than a sweeping finale. As the last stop, there is "Nail", the shortest of the set (5 minutes), which sounds like a true encore (I do not know if it was like that on record day), where the musicians farewell with extreme fury at the most explosive point And centered of the presentation, a puzzling paunch.
Finally: here is an incredible group, which offers us a vibrant album, one that revitalizes our belief in the possible extreme beauty of free music."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moment's Notice By Stuart Broomer

"The Attic documents a meeting of three Portuguese improvisers in what may already be the signature Lisbon performance space for free jazz, the Caligari-esque angles of the third floor of SMUP (Sociedade Musical União Paredense), the rehabilitated music society of Parede, a beach-side town a short drive or rail ride along the Tagus River to the Atlantic Ocean where Pedro Costa and the SMUP collective present excellent music, local and imported, with startling frequency.
The performance brings together three musicians who might define some of the essential qualities of Portuguese free jazz. Gonçalo Almeida may be best known as bassist and composer for Lama, a trio with trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and drummer Greg Smith that has also worked as a quartet with the addition of Chris Speed or Joachim Badenhorst. Rodrigo Amado is a saxophonist of the first rank, increasingly celebrated for both his Motion Trio (both with and without guests Jeb Bishop and Peter Evans) and touring and recording with Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Chris Corsano. Drummer Marco Franco is a member of the group Clocks and Clouds and has worked across a broad spectrum of improvised music, from the abstractions of cellist Ernesto Rodrigues to the folk-flavored idiom of guitarist Marcelo dos Reis. Together, Almeida, Amado and Franco may define an essential free jazz: their music is direct, emotionally and structurally focused and absolutely alive to the performance situation and the possibilities of new expressive ground.
The CD opens with Almeida bowing harmonics, suggesting at once the sustained drone of a tambura and the traditional bird imitations of an erhu, creating a combination of meditative calm and creative ambiguity; as Amado and Franco enter, it takes on a stronger modal cast, recalling some of the focused intensity of Pharoah Sanders as Amado's multiphonics come to suggest a throttled cry. It's this intensity and directness that come to characterize all the music, moving through the almost-bop, almost-blues, almost-ballad of "Hole" with Almeida and Amado matching upper-registers at the conclusion. There's an increasingly dense expressionism to "Board." Following a conversational intro of drums and tenor and a bass solo of bowed harmonics, Amado re-enters with swirling, low-volume harmonics, gradually coming to the fore, building intensity with concentrated repetition of subtly shifting patterns. Almeida digs deeper into his propulsive lower register and Franco, a remarkably fresh drummer, finds new combinations of sounds and rhythms and spaces between. The relatively brief "Nail" is an explosion, the rhythmic tumult firing Amado's rapid plosives and falsetto wails. What's most remarkable here is Amado's ability to control the furies, building tension and form by alternating wails and squeals with precise rhythmic declarations.
Together with the recent Desire & Freedom by Amado's long-standing Motion Trio (Not Two) with cellist Miguel Mira and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini, The Attic represents a very high level of group interaction and clarity. Eschewing formal compositions, The Attic achieves free jazz with structure and economy that approach Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite (Riverside, 1958), just about the most structured and economical music that comes to mind. Amado's expressive content draws on techniques from Rollins, Sanders and Ayler, among many, but there's a distinct voice here, characterized in part by a rapid, tight vibrato that further emphasizes the sheer rhythmic invention. This is wholly realized music that deserves to be widely heard."
------------------------------------------------
Salt Peanuts

by Jan Granlie
"Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, we have hit several times in recent years, including through his Motion Trio with trumpeter Peter Evans. In the trio The Attic he has joined forces with the two countrymen, bassist Gonçalo Almeida and drummer Marco Franco. They made this recording during a concert in SMUP, paired on December 22, 2015, and all suggests that there are three musicians who get along with each other we hear.
The avant garde scene in Portugal has later grown to grow. Not least thanks to Amado and his international collaboration with musicians such as Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Chris Corsano (the album "This Is Our Language"), and of course, his Motion Trio.
At "The Attic" we meet close collaboration between three musicians, who have a common idea of which way they should go musically.
It opens with the hefty "Shadow", which opens with string bass, before all three find each other in an intense and beautiful free-range song. This develops and grows in just over 12 minutes, and all the way we get a cool "comp", with Amado as the leading in front. Amado has many heroes of the 60's inside, and it is possible to recognize both John Coltrane, Archie Shepp and Phaorah Sanders in his powerful game.
"Hole" starts with the tenor saxophone, which almost sounds like a fog at the start, before the other two come in and almost tries to convince him that he can not hold that way. And eventually he listens, and the three begin a nice "conversation". Together with "Spring", this is the record's quietest song, even if they can not say that they move into the world of ballads. Here I think Franco delivers brilliant drumming as "support" or assistance to Amado, while the bass of Almeida tries to keep the two in the drains.
"Spring" is probably one of the quieter outings. But the bass's glissando in the beginning adds an exciting foundation to the others. Franco comes in and "puzzles" a bit by the drums, before Amado "takes a ballade-Coltrane", but also something George Adams could do, and everything is extremely intense, although it's not "fast and good." Here we get beautiful games from all three, and the game Amado here delivers is in champion class, so we have hardly heard it for many years. There is something real and rotten in the ballad game of Amado, which almost makes it go cold down the spine.
In the "Board" there is a completely different mood. Here is Franco who sets the "agenda" and the other two just follow his ideas, and from the start we get awesome games from Amado. Here the three musicians move almost apart from each other instead of approaching each other, which gives a nice openness to the soundtrack. And Almeida's complaining ironing board helps to "handle" the two others in a great way. And while the song lasts for over 16 minutes, exciting things take place all the way. The drummer and the saxophonist stop a little bit and listen to the bass's song song, but the bass does not turn out. Eventually it sounds like he accuses the other two of things he does not like, and Amado answers, just as hesitantly. The discussion goes vigorously, while Franco is a little distant. And it's all exciting to keep up with. And finally, it seems that Amado convinces Almeida that he is right and the three reunited in a hefty 60's improvisation that smells a bit fraught. It's actually long since I've heard an tenor saxophonist delivering jazz music of the kind we get from Amado. It's just getting over. And beneath him, he fiercely boils from Almeida and Franco, until the three fall of fatigue at the end.
Then we think it will calm down in the final track "Nail". That the musicians in a way will run away in a way that will get the "ordinary listener" to hear more of the battle. But no, then! The Attic wants listeners like me! Because here they take off! They drive out in a hundred, and I think that the comparison with Adam's longer up in the review was all right. For here Amado does what he can to correct the tenor saxophone, while the other two hoarse on him in the background. If he does, I do not know, but this has to be one of the best attempts since Mats Gustafsson went mad with Gush many years ago. This is loud music the way we love it and it's impossible to sit still while it's going on.
The songs on the record are made of the three in common, and something tells me that they have agreed that one of them will start somewhere, so you'll see where you get. This is a common way to do it within the more free part of the jazzen, but it is rare to experience that it works as well as here. This is a record that draws the story from the true tricks of the 60s into our time, which then delivers to the degrees. This is a trio that should be worn around Europe on a gold chair and presented to anyone who has the least interest in improvised music, and as part of some form of travel. For the sake of tough and cool music, look for a long time! Toast!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dusted magazine by Derek Taylor , May 23, 2017

"Bassist Gonçalo Almeida leads the roll call describing the Portuguese trio on The Attic, but the freely-improvised music recording in the winter of 2015 is very much an egalitarian affair. Tenorist Rodrigo Amado and drummer Marco Franco are the other points of the triangle. The album title presumably refers to the Lisbon performance space where the trio convened, but it's also a handy metaphor for the myriad of heirloomed idiomatic ingredients that feed into the band's buoyant and versatile sound and are renewed in the bargain.
The first of five pieces affixed with one word titles, "Shadow" commences with an advanced arco improvisation by Almeida laced with sharp-edged harmonics, elegant glissandi and overlapping drones. The bassist's abundant implementation of extended techniques isn't exorbitant in the least and Amado's raw-throated, but disarmingly tender entry works in brilliant contrast to the earlier beauty as Franco adds penumbral accompaniment on brushes and sticks. The three soon accelerate into a headlong organized tumble bursting with energy and ending in sudden silence.
"Hole" opens with Amado sounding sustained reed overtones sans accompaniment in much the same manner Almeida did in the opening piece. Honks and slurs join sparse and staccato commentary by bass and drums, the semblance of rhythmic pattern surfacing out of the slowly churning tumult. The tenorist's dry, striated tone and agile register blurring recall Joe Henderson as a somewhat surprising antecedent, but a complimentary one. Almeida builds an aggressively bubbling and rumbling ostinato that Franco splatters and stamps with sideways stick strokes.
An audience member's cough initiates the more atmospheric inquiries of "Spring" as Franco turns to shakers, bells cymbals and Almeida explores natural echo and dampening effects on his strings. Amado sits out the opening minutes, arriving with a winding upper register line that exudes unalloyed emotion. As a freely-associative invocation of the titular season the piece succeeds. "Board" and "Nail" work equally well in succession, juxtaposing another gradual-to-coalesce extended excursion with a finale replete in concentrated intensity and comparative brevity. In the right sets of hands, familiar tools and blueprints can still bring fresh results."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Free Jazz Collective
By Eyal Hareuveni, May 15, 2017
"The Attic documents a live performance of an ad-hoc trio of three prolific Portuguese musicians working in the greater field of free jazz - double bass player Gonçalo Almeida, known from the LAMA and Albatre trios, the Tetterapadequ quartet and the Spinifex quintet, tenor sax player Rodrigo Amado, leader of the Motion Trio and the international This Is Our Language quartet (with Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Chris Corsano), and drummer Marco Franco, known from trumpeter Luis Vicente's Clocks and Clouds quartet. The trio was recorded at the SMUP, in Lisbon's suburb Parede on December 2015.
This ad-hoc meeting of these strong-minded musicians radiates a raw immediacy and also a strong affinity. The sense of freshness charges this meeting with a sense of danger and the liberty of taking chances and accordingly all five pieces flow but not in a linear manner. Still, the three musicians always opt for a highly collaborative and supportive interplay without asserting clear leading roles. In a way, this trio actually applies - literally - Amado's prescriptions for his own Motion Trio, as were the titles of the pieces of its latest release: "Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword", "Liberty" and "Responsibility" (Desire & Freedom, Not Two, 2016).
Almeida opens the performance with a commanding arco solo on "Shadow". Amado later stresses the harmonic development suggested by Almeida with charismatic emotional calls, while Franco solidifies the rhythmic basis with subtle colors and all three together build to a powerful spiritual ritual. The following "Hole" is free-associative improvisation that avoids settling on a pulse or a clear narrative, but still moves in a tight and intense interplay. The sparse and lyrical "Spring" emphasizes, even more, the versatility of this trio as it shifts quickly between simple melodic motifs and pulses. The longest piece, the 16-minutes "Board" is structured as a classic, fiery, free jazz piece, spiraling patiently around a playful, muscular pulse that becomes more intense, stronger and ecstatic as the song progresses. The last, and shortest, piece "Nail" deepens the trio collective rhythmic interplay with a manic, Ayler-ian blow-out that brings to mind the sheer, boundless energy of outfits like those of Peter Brötzmann or The Thing.
------------------------------------------------------------------
AMN Reviews
May 9, 2017 ~ Mike

"If you are looking for top notch free-improv, saxophonist Rodrigo Amado should be your go-to guy. His approach sounds notably different than the typical European or American "free" style, though it can be hard to define exactly why. With his various groups, Amado explores instantaneous compositions, makes occasional use of extended techniques, and tempers discordance with angular clarity. Perhaps it is his expressiveness that sets Amado apart - when listening to his recordings you cannot help but feel that he is playing directly to you.
Recorded live in December 2015, The Attic features Amado on tenor, Gonçalo Almeida on double bass and Marco Franco on drums. The album kicks off with Shadows, featuring three minutes of bowed playing and scraping from Almeida before Amado joins in with high-register, distorted lines. Franco takes more of a background role, working the cymbals while his compatriots play off of one another. Throughout the album, Amado fluidly switches between playing inside and out, providing staccato punctuations and drones. When Franco is on, he is wonderfully busy - not unlike Gabriel Ferrandini, another drummer who frequently works with Amado. Almeida switches fluidly between bowing and plucking, playing the bass as a lead instrument.
Perhaps the most outright exciting track is the finale, Nail, which is a mile-a-minute blowout. In this short burst of energy, Amado and Franco duel for the lead with Almeida maintaining an active rumbling in the background. While a rough Peter Brotzmann comparison could be made, the frantic pace of this track is just one aspect of Amado's overall approach.
Highly recommended."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MULTIKULTI PROJECT by Józef Paprocki

"The wonderful dialogue of the trio of improvisers and the show of controlled madness - these words may be the shortest possible description of a wonderful recording that we have just received at the hands of editorial activity of the Lithuanian NoBusiness outbuildings.
This outstanding concert of free improvisation and creative jazz was recorded in Parede, Lisbon, Portugal in 2015 by Rodrigo Amado saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, bassist Goncalo Almeida and drummer Marco Franco. This is a demonstration of how the Portuguese stage of creative music continues to delight audiences - free jazz played by a well-understood trio that draws on contemporary music, free improvisation and a half-century-old tradition of Ayler, Coleman and Taylor.
The strong, fleshy and dingy tone of the saxophone Amado, the dense, creative game (especially the bow) Almeida and Franco's alert pulse evoke the smoky atmosphere of the sixties. The ability to lead a collective narrative, the amazing ability to listen to the partners' actions and trust them in such a wonderful way that it can not be released from the recording. When adding to this, Amado's ability to create hymnic, powerful-sounding themes almost in the spirit of Alberto Ayler - we get a record that every free jazz lover should hear. And buy it probably will end it ... Needless to say!"
------------------------------------------------
Music and More, by Tim Niland

"This is a stellar freely improvised session featuring Rodrigo Amado on tenor saxophone, Goncalo Almeida on bass and Marco Franco on drums, recorded live in Portugal in December of 2015. "Shadow" opens the album with scraping bowed bass that is recorded beautifully, giving the sound a physical immediacy and presence. After the epic bowed bass opening, Amado's raw, rending saxophone and Franco's measured percussion enter, imposing their power upon the proceedings, burning a path through everything before them like a flaming sword and developing a strong and supple improvisation, flexing and adjusting as the music demands, creating a towering collective improvisation among equals. "Hole" and "Spring" develop deep dark growls of saxophone and howling long breaths of scaling air. Sharp percussion and plucked bass meet shorter bursts of saxophone, building a biting improvisation that surges forward. The muscular playing drives through and then open space emerges for a change of pace, with deep elastic bass and scattered percussion. Slightly softer and reverent sounding saxophone glides in, merging carefully with the other two instruments. Their improvisation grows organically encompassing the sound space by playing with wit and energy, which builds deeper as the performance progresses and choppy saxophone with drums bob and weaving in tandem. The music is further buoyed by furiously bowed bass and develops a swirling intensity. The lengthy centerpiece "Board" begins with smears of bowed bass, which is eventually met with skittish percussion. Raw taut saxophone joins the fray as the volume and intensity of the music increases. The group develops a powerful collective improvisation, drawing on a wealth of knowledge in pursuit of pure sound and vision. This sixteen minute plus improvisation is very impressive and continually evolving, finally into a filling-rattling drum solo with ominous bass in support. The concluding track, "Nail," is an absolute blast, with everyone playing their hearts out at full speed. The music surges forward like an unstoppable wave, gathering energy as it rolls on. There is soaring saxophone and vicious drumming yoked together with superb bass playing. Savage in its intensity, it is an absolutely thrilling ending to a terrific recording, one of the finest of the year to date. The Attic - No Business Records.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE QUIETUS, by Stewart Smith , April 24th, 2017

"Portugal's avant-jazz scene continues to surprise and delight. Recorded in the loft space at SMUP, a pioneering arts venue in the Lisbon satellite of Paredes, The Attic brings together three of the country's finest improvising musicians: bassist Gonçalo Almeida, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, and drummer Marco Franco. Amado's star is on the rise, following 2015's excellent This Is Our Language with Joe McPhee, Kent Kessler and Chris Corsano, and last year's superb offering from his own Motion Trio. He's a generous collaborator, and The Attic is as much Almeida and Franco's show, with the bassist's elegant and powerful playing often setting the scene.
'Shadow' opens with a beautiful bowed solo. Playing in the instrument's higher register, Almeida teases out elegant melodic phrases, shaded with darker double stops. There's a beautiful clarity and light to this piece, with its modal harmonies giving rise to lines that remind me at times of European folk forms and minimalism. Amado plays the tenor in a pinched altissimo that sounds uncannily like a stopped trumpet, but for the fluidity of the steps, adding to music's heightened sense of otherness. By the end, he's making like Pharoah Sanders at his most blissful, giving a spiritual jazz sermon from some holy mountain.
If Franco is a subtle presence on the quieter tracks, his colouristic approach takes on a fauvist intensity on 'Board', where he scurries around the kit, firing off short fills and accents over a free pulse. Combined with Almeida's rock solid bass strut, it gives the music a non-linear momentum, so it breathes and flexes, rather than tearing off in a single direction. 'Nail' comes in hard, with Amado blowing in a classic free jazz style over Almeida's dark and woody bass. Franco's drums crash, rumble and splash, but his light touch ensures each hit lands with a gymnast's agility, rather than a blunt force. Amado alternates between high, strangulated tones and guttural honks, filling the gaps with cheeky staccato triplets. Yet while some saxophonists would deliver such sounds with macho volume and blare, Amado plays them with a subtler, rounded tone. He's authoritative but never domineering, serving the collective improvisation."