Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio with Alexander von Schippenbach

Rodrigo Amado
Northern Liberties
NotTwo MW 1016-2

Of all the creative musicians from Portugal, perhaps the one with the highest international profile is Rodrigo Amado, A versatile tenor saxophonist, the Lisbon-based Amado leads his own ensembles and makes it a point to play with other musicians whether local or with associates such as Americans Joe McPhee. Those adventurous integrations continue with these striking sessions, each of which shows how Amado functions in classic Jazz combo situations. Recorded at a Vilnius festival, The Field adds veteran German Free Music piano stylist Alexander von Schippenbach to Amado’s long-constituted Motion Trio featuring cellist Miguel Mira and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini for one more than 56-minutes of improvisation. Recorded two years earlier in Lisbon, Northern Liberties’ four shorter instant compositions has the saxophonist working alongside three younger Norwegian musicians: drummer Gard Nilssen and trumpeter Thomas Johansson of Cortex and bassist Jon Rune Strøm from Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit.

Immersing himself in the classic piano-less quartet on the later disc, Amado’s renal smears, stuttering bites, split tones and flattement shares space with the equally confident Johansson, whose output includes plunger emphasis, bleating smears and foreshortened peeps. Helping to heat up the interactions are the bassist and drumming whose churning accompaniment never simmer at anything less than a boil. Although “Activity” begins as a quasi-ballad with a low-pitched reed buzz complemented by arpeggios from bowed cello and reflective brass, it eventually pumps up to add to the allegro and staccato presentation of the other tracks. Reminiscent of Don Cherry’s interaction with different tenor players, contrapuntal evolution lies with portamento squeaks and plunger tones from Johansson moving upwards along with reed smears and slurs backed by press rolls and the bassist’s sul tasto slices.

“Spark,” the first track is the most protracted variant of this. Double bass thwacks, drum ruffs and cymbal smacks set the scene as Amado and Johansson vigorously slide into the exposition with high-pitched reed bleats and screams and rippling triplet from the trumpeter. With plunger extensions, Johanssonen energy is such that he appears to be masticating the trumpet mouthpiece. Sympathetic to each other’s sound spirts, the horn players attain a zenith of Aylerian screaming while staying true to the initial theme.

While von Schippenbach first recorded Free Jazz when Amado was two years old, he situates his playing within the Motion Trio’s orbit as he has with many other configurations over the past 60 years. When the saxophonist first joins the pianist’s key clips and pops and the cellist’s walking plucks, he exhibits a breathy Ben Webster-like tone which quickly rises in intensity and pressure following the pianist’s lead. Playing off Mira’s fluid pulse, the pianist soon exhibits low pitched triple patterning and circular comping. Even as the pace accelerates to allegrissimo, goosed by Amado’s foghorn-like reed smears and flattement, von Schippenbach detours into allusions to traditional melodies before returning to the theme. With soundboard and internal string plinks plus reed bites and Ferrandini’s powerful thumps, the improvisation picks up speed. Altissimo reed doits and expelled multuphonics meet anvil-like keyboard vibrations so that the resulting intensity suggests blurred visual motion. Challenging the others with half-swallowed notes, Amado finally shakes the narrative down to a more moderated pitch and joining high-pitched keyboard clangs creates a responsive finale. These two accomplished instances of Amado’s art show his expert adaptations to varied situations.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Liberties: 1. Spark 2. Ignition 3. Activity 4. Response

Personnel: Liberties: Thomas Johansson (trumpet); Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone); Jon Rune Strøm (bass) and Gard Nilssen (drums)

Track Listing: Field: 1. The Field

Personnel: Field: Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone); Alexander von Schlippenbach (piano); Miguel Mira (cello) and Gabriel Ferrandini (drums)