AP

Stretching the textures of Jazz and improvised music without pushing parameters into dissonance and distastefulness is Porto-based guitarist known by his initials, AP. An educator as well as player AP, whose mouthful of a real name is António Pedro Saramago Campos Neves has blended a quintet of unexpected instruments to define the umbilical cord which connects his eight compositions.

AP, who has recorded in the past with the likes of Miguel Sampaio  and José Diogo Martins, has puts together flutist João Pedro Brandão, saxophonist/flutist Gil Silva, pianist Miguel Meirinhos and drummer Gonçalo Ribeiro as full partners here. That’s because except for the concluding “O Sonho” and the appropriately titled “Guitar Murder” his licks and fills are no more prominent than sax slurs, flute peeps, rolling keyboard clips or drum accents.

Meirinhos for one creates measured and melodious, stop-time and swinging, sequences with the same facility. Frequently there is also piano/guitar confluence with keyboard clanging and string flanges rising to the same pointed tones or intersecting with decorous piano asides. Meanwhile Ribeiro’s cymbal clangs, ruffs and shuffles are used to enrich and accent the tunes without adding unneeded attention. On tenor Silva offers smooth Cool Jazz  reflections, although he’s more likely to create doubled transverse trills with fellow flutist Brandão.

Tracks vary from the frisky to the formal, with the pianist’s metronomic or processional strokes responsible for much of the latter which also keeps the tunes in horizontal evolution. Upwards turning flute  breaths or lyrical interludes from horn players are responsible for much of the friskiness, while guitar flanges and keyboard stabs add varied textures as well.

With lado umbilical balancing between motifs such as guitar string whooshes, profound keyboard exercises and horn expressions which can take or harmonica-like tremolos or brusque reed slurs, “Erosão” is a fine instance of confirmed interaction. A squirmy and squirrely piece, it layers in ascending timbres drum rumbles, key clips flute trills and crystalline guitar frails until it swiftly descends to a united coda.

Ther intricacies of the Portuguese language titles may lose their interconnection for those not familiar with the language. Still for everyone overall the CD preserves an accomplished performance.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Parto 2. Canção dos Passos 3. O Voo 4. Erosão 5. Tela em/ Branco 6. Despertar 7. Guitar Murder 8. O Sonho

Personnel: Gil Silva (tenor, soprano saxophones, flute); João Pedro Brandão (flute); Miguel Meirinhos (piano); AP (guitar) and Gonçalo Ribeiro (drums)