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Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio meetings with Peter Evans

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Portuguese, Lisbon-based saxophonist (and photographer) Rodrigo Amado's main musical vehicle in recent years is the Motion Trio, a powerful, rhythmic unit that collaborated before with Chicagoan trombonist Jeb Bishop (The Flame Alphabet, Clean Feed, and Burning Live At Jazz Ao Centro, JACC, both released on 2012). Amado and this trio new collaborative endeavour unites these excellent musicians with New York-based innovative trumpeter Peter Evans for two burning sessions, live and in the studio. Both releases highlight Amado and his trio as one of the strongest voices in the European free jazz and improvised music scene.

Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio & Peter Evans
Live in Lisbon
NoBusiness Records
2014

This limited edition vinyl of 300 copies was recorded at the Teatro Maria Matos in Lisbon on March, 16th, 2013. The first piece, "Conflict is Intimacy," frames the spirit of this powerful meeting. Both Amado and Evans are charismatic and opinionated leaders, well-versed in the history of modern and free jazz, proficient in employing an impressive array of extended breathing techniques and with a original, distinct sound of their own.

Both enjoy the driving, muscular rhythm section of cellist Miguel Mira, who uses his cello as a compact double bass, and drummer Gabriel Ferrandini. Mira and Ferrandini offer Amado and Evans a hyperactive, rhythmic basis for their muscular, restless flights. There are fleeting moments when Amado and Evans lock around the same ideas. But most of the time they encircle each other serpentine lines, charge the shifting motifs and the searching dynamics with empathic, emotional power while building and releasing the tension, but never settle on clear, linear structure.

The second piece, "Music Is The Music Language," states the musicians philosophy. The tight, intimate interplay is about creating and nurturing music together, sharing ideas and supporting the other while fearlessly testing ideas and moves. For these musicians music is a social act in its deepest meaning, shared between the musicians and the audience, affected by the changing spirit of the time and space, reflecting the modesty and compassion of all who understand that the music is bigger than the individuals who shape it form. The quartet demonstrates this approach with elegance, imagination and poetic power,

Rodrigo Amado Motion Trio & Peter Evans
The Freedom Principle
NoBusiness Records
2014

This session was recorded two days later at the Namouche Studios in Lisbon. The first piece, 27-minutes of "The Freedom Principle," expands and diversify the powerful, passionate vein of the live performance. Amado leads his trio in a patient yet searching interplay, and soon Evans joins and ups the temperature and the intensity of communication. Both Amado and Evans challenge each other all the time, even on its most quiet, contemplative parts. Often the two sound possessed in a dense, colorful dialogue, and both fly over the constant shifting, nervous pulse of Mira and Ferrandini. All are focused on structuring a coherent sonic envelope.

"Shadows" enable all to stress their ability to form a spare piece out of experimental, sonic searches, methodically gaining power and volition and throughout its course highlighting the imaginative usage of extended techniques by all. Evans opens the last piece, the shorter one, only 12-minutes of "Pepper Packed," with a gentle, talkative solo trumpet, than Mira and Ferrandini begin their own intimate and empathic dialogue. When Amado joins he keeps emphasizing the intimate, relatively relaxed interplay, framed as a quiet, soulful ballad.

Tracks and Personnel

Live in Lisbon

Tracks: Conflict Is Intimacy; Music Is The Music Language.

Personnel: Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Peter Evans: trumpet; Miguel Mira: cello; Gabriel Ferrandini: drums.

The Freedom Principle

Tracks: The Freedom Principle; Shadows; Pepper Packed.

Personnel: Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Peter Evans: trumpet; Miguel Mira: cello; Gabriel Ferrandini: drums.

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