Rodrigo Amado This is our Language Quartet

Recorded in 2019, but replete with the unbridled improvisational aptitude the members still exhibit today it’s no misnomer to describe the This is our Language Quartet as Wailers. Those wails combine the ecstatic tone-probing that has characterized Free Jazz since its 1960s germination with the acuity added with modern recordings and instrumental techniques.

Leader and saxophonist Rodrigo Amado is Portuguese, while the others are Americans of different generations. Besides working individually and as a quartet with each of the others, the saxophonist has recorded with everyone from Luís Lopes to Alexander von Schlippenbach. Elder statesman of the Yanks, saxophonist Joe McPhee’s lengthy career has involved music with notable players throughout Europe and North America. Bassist Kent Kessler is best known for his membership in bands with Ken Vandermark; while drummer Chris Corsano has recorded with saxophonists as different as Akira Sakata and John Butcher.

The unconstrained tautness Free Jazz combos always express is reflected in how this quartet approaches all six tracks. Propelled with the connective power of Corsano’s  hollow cracks, press rolls and hard smacks as well as Kessler’s thick woody string strums and arco buzzes, the two saxophonists have a base on which to shape their improvisations. With quick reed bites, note-bending slides and elongated honks, their linear expression is alternately tandem, intertwined or contrapuntal. Tracks like “Violet Souls” which begin with a capella reed playing evolve as minimalist doits plus vocalized expression from within the horn’s body tube give way to an R&B-like blaring with the exposition thickened with spiccato string squeezes and resonating cymbal slaps.

Interactive reed variations advance with different pitches, speed and tension. The stacked reed flutters on “Subterranean Night Color” for instance, are transformed from speedy multiphonics to slower concentrated linear drones involve this sleight of horns without identifying whose timbres are whose.

The only exception to this is “Theory Of Mind III (For Joe)”, a trio outing where Amado’s homage to his playing partner begins with bird whistle shrieks and encompasses descending and repeated reed whoops and yelps as Corsano pumps out ratamacues and drags. Meanwhile Kessler’s near the bass scroll pitches prolong the dissonance during the otherwise  horizontal evolution.

Each band member has produced notable sounds on his own or in varied combinations. Nonetheless Wailers shows how well they can sound when they execute group ideas and implementation.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Wailers 2. Hot Folk 3. Violet Souls 4. Theory Of Mind III (For Joe) 5. Subterranean Night Color 6. Blue Blowers

Personnel: Rodrigo Amado (tenor and alto saxophone, bird water whistle); Joe McPhee (tenor saxophone); Kent Kessler (bass) and Chris Corsano (drums)