Rodrigo Amado The Bridge

Lisbon-based tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado has never let borders stand in his way when it comes to finding sympathetic collaborators. Part of numerous Portuguese bands, he’s also been part of groups with the likes of Joe McPhee. The Bridge, his newest configuration, continues his interaction with German Free Jazz pioneer pianist Alexander Von Schlippenbach, and now adds Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and U.S. drummer Gerry Hemingway.

With multiple decades of creative music experience among them, the quartet members don’t take any time setting their parameters. It’s Free Jazz all the way, an axiom confirmed by the second encore, a leisurely version of “Ghosts”, where backed by drum shuffles and keyboard jolts, the saxophonist integrates mewling cries, line fragmenting and triple tonguing into an affecting variation on Albert Ayler’s classic. More crucially the refined improvisations band members bring to “Beyond The Margins”, the CD’s 40½ minute centrepiece show how unstructured improvising has evolved in the 60-odd years since the style was first solidified.

There almost from the beginning, the pianist settles into a comfortable groove where his alternating plinking and pummeling expositions match Monk-like inferences with unexpected pivots. The drummer’s hard pumps contribute to the elastic time feel. While the bassist’s expertise in squeaky bowing and a chiming stops are particularly prominent when swing interludes are introduced at intervals.

Stradling emotion and energy, the saxophonist takes the changes as a matter of course, adapting his slippery tongue stopping, extended altissimo passages and positioned smears with a hearty vibrato to the others’ input. Lyrical asides take the form of puffs that dialogue with Von Schlippenbach’s tapping strains and bottom-board plucks. Sideways suggestions and shading doesn’t alter the toughened linear flow though, driven by Hemingway’s galloping thumps and characterized by Amado’s doits, honks and slurs. More conventional reed routes enter his playing, especially when the pianist’s shifts towards Monk contrafacts. But this too confirms the evolution of Free Jazz as well as each players’ speedy responses to tonal stimuli.

Beyond the Margins is just that – and expressed in a memorable fashion – as this international quartet shows how Free Music is still crucial as it evolves.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Beyond The Margins 2. Personal Mountains 3. (Visiting) Ghosts.

Personnel: Rodrigo Amado (tenor saxophone); Alexander Von Schlippenbach (piano); Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (bass) and Gerry Hemingway (drums, voice)