Rodrigo Amado / The Bridge: Beyond The Margins

You might think saxophonist Rodrigo Amado's quartet The Bridge is an allusion to Sonny Rollins' performing and recording hiatus between 1959 and 1961. One spent practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge which links Manhattan and Brooklyn. Besides the name, Amado's previous release, Refraction Solo Live At Church Of The Holy Ghost (Trost, 2022), his first unaccompanied recording, draws inspiration from Rollins' sound and references some of the great man's music.

More likely, Amado's bridge is the span linking the spirit of improvisation Rollins applied to composed music and modern free improvisation. Of the three tracks captured here, two are instantly composed by the quartet and the third is a cover of Albert Ayler's "Ghosts." You might also notice the bridge the Portuguese saxophonist builds between nations with a German pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach, a Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, and an American drummer Gerry Hemingway. While this is a first meeting between the saxophonist, Hemingway and Håker Flaten, Schlippenbach recorded with Amado's Motion Trio on The Field (NoBusiness, 2021). The pianist may be the perfect "bridge" for this unit as his six decades in jazz have touched on free jazz while also adopting a passion for the music of Thelonious Monk.

The two improvised tracks, "Beyond The Margins" and "Personal Mountains," the bulk of the recording, share the lead between the musicians. Each is given the role of accelerator and/or brakeman, as the pieces expand and shrink in an organic way. The sounds draw from both inside and out, Amado pulls from Rollins as much as he does from another hero, Joe McPhee. With Hemingway and Håker Flaten supplying color and shading, The Bridge is both rhythmic and dissident, calm and agitated. The wily Schlippenbach flies free while inserting Monkish thrusts and jabs throughout.

The quartet's cover of Ayler's "Ghosts" may be the highlight here. Amado eases into the simple melody as if he were modeling Lester Young before he shifts into the Ayler paint-peeling tenor sound. The quartet preserves the childlike Ayler approach. Its uninhibited sound at all times threatens to detonate. With cymbals ringing, keyboard plonk, and twiddled bass, Hemingway draws the spirits home with his beautiful vocalization and prayer.

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