Juanma Trujillo

Exhilarating in a performance with Freebop and Harmolodics echoes, this live club set from Barcelona shows that Iberian improvisers can hold their own with other exploratory musicians – even if the leader, guitarist and chief composer is Venezuelan. Guitarist Juanma Trujillo, now a Catalan resident has recorded with the likes of Vasco Trilla and Hery Paz. Others in the quartet include dual tenor saxophonists Albert Cirera and Miguel Pintxo Villar, bassist Masa Kamaguchi and drummer Ramon Prats, who among them have recorded with a variety of international musician including Igor Lumpert, Agustí Fernández, Olie Brice and Luís Vicente.

Not letting intensity go to waste the five consistently stud the four tracks with engaged expositions which include Trujillo’s projections from focused strums, chiming flanges and whammy bar echoes; the drummer’s ruffs and metallic clanks, a commanding pulse from the bassist and saxophone extensions that encompass altissimo squeaks, ascending doits and vibrated swing.

Probably the most groove-affiliated piece is “Humo (for Andrew Hill)”, which in spite of the dedication appears to have more in common with tracks by James Brown or Marvin Gaye than Hill’s more austere compositions. It’s built on clench guitar string bending, weighty drum pumps and a thick, but controlled bass line. Besides this though, here and elsewhere, both saxophonists have space to torque irregular vibrations and note bending tones into the stratosphere as they intertwine or confront each other’s output. Crisp guitar chording and reed bites move the piece forward until all timbres unite at the end.

All isn’t pressurized and percussive however. At points while one saxophonist is searching stops and timbres, the other creates a linear continuum; then they switch rolls. There are warm and reflective guitar string runs, especially during Trujillo’s balladic interludes as well as some of the themes which at points sound positively Arcadian. Connective strumming from the guitarist also exemplified productive comping as do lyrical inserts from the saxists. There’s even a point during the concluding “Jardin” that string strums towards supple Latin American dance cadences rather than tougher Jazz or even Spanish Toque rhythms.

Memorable all around, Música Para Quinteto should be encouraged to stretch out more past the time limit of this less than 40-minute album.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Howl 2. Conflagration (for  Los Angeles) 3. Humo (for Andrew Hill) 4. Jardin

Personnel: Albert Cirera and Miguel Pintxo Villar (tenor saxophones); Juanma Trujillo (guitar); Masa Kamaguchi (bass) and Ramon Prats (drums)