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Rodrigo Amado
For Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, improvisation isn’t only a process of making music, but an end in itself and a cause he pursues with great passion. His long span project Lisbon Improvisation Players and other groups he formed with, for instance, Ken Filiano, Steve Adams, Dennis Gonzalez, Carlos Zíngaro, Kent Kessler, Paal Nilssen-Love, Miguel Mira or Gabriel Ferrandini, all share the same method of opening the concept of real-time composition to as many perspectives as possible.
With one foot in modern jazz and the other in free improvisation, what he likes most is to play in the jazz idiom, without any tunes or preconceived structures, but forging a work of strong structure, clear direction and deep meaning, in real-time. So, his improvisation, although not free in formal terms, is free anyhow in its strategies and in the open spectrum of possibilities it offers musicians working with him. And that ambiguity is what interests him.
Born in Lisbon in 1964, he studied saxophone since he was 17 years old. Since then, he developed an intense activity focused mainly on the Jazz and Improvised music fields. Studied briefly at the Hot Clube Music School of Lisbon and had private lessons with some of the leading jazz players in Portugal, namely Carlos Martins, Jorge Reis and Pedro Madaleno.
Some of the musicians he played or recorded with: Lou Grassi, Steve Swell, Herb Robertson, Lisle Ellis, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Hebert, Gerald Cleaver, Luis Lopes, Aaron Gonzalez, Stefan Gonzalez, Paul Dunmall, Raymond Strid, Sten Sandell, Per Zanussi, Adam Lane, Joe Giardullo, Harris Eisenstadt, Tomas Ulrich, Alex Cline, Bobby Bradford, Vinny Golia, Dominic Duval, Mike Bisio, Scott Fields, Daniel Carter, Federico Ughi, Chris Jonas, Michael Thompson, Wade Matthews, Gail Brand, Michael Attias, Andrew Drury, Sture Erikson, Rachim Ausar Sahu, Per-Ake Holmlander, Jan Roder, Elliott Levin, Mark Whitecage, Peter Epstein, Greg Moore, Phill Niblock, João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Sei Miguel, Rafael Toral, Manuel Mota, Ernesto Rodrigues, DJ Ride, Carlos Barretto, Ulrich Mitzlaff or Nuno Rebelo, among many others.
In September 2001, Amado joined brothers Pedro and Carlos Costa to start the label Clean Feed, totally devoted to record creative contemporary jazz and improvised music. Very quickly, Clean Feed found itself at the vortex of the international creative jazz scene, releasing projects that reached far beyond what was initially imagined. In 2005, Amado left the company and started his own label, “European Echoes”, focusing mostly in his own work. Since then, he is spending more and more time with his own projects, with music and photography. He also writes on a regular basis for one of the most prestigious Portuguese newspapers, Jornal Público.
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by Mark Corroto
Imagine the blank canvas that tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado and drummer Chris Corsano set out to fill in this live recording from Lisbon, Portugal's ZDB in September 2016. Between them, they have nearly three hundred recordings and three times as many performances--an arsenal of sounds, textures, and ideas ready for deployment. Their orbits often intersect: Amado leading his Motion Trio, The Attic, The Bridge and collaborating with Luís Lopes, Alexander von Schlippenbach, among others; Corsano sharing stages and studios with ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado / Chris Corsano: The Healing

by Troy Dostert
Among recent partnerships in free improvisation, the saxophone/drum tandem of Rodrigo Amado and Chris Corsano has been one of the most dynamic and incendiary. They have joined forces in one form or another since the early 2010s; the recording which first put them on the map was their effort with Joe McPhee and Kent Kessler, the widely-celebrated This Is Our Language (Not Two Records). They continued this fruitful project with equally stirring results on A History of Nothing (Trost, 2018) ...
Continue ReadingZlatko Kaučič: Zlatko Kaučič@70 - Inklings

by Mark Corroto
I am tempted to call Inklings, a tribute to 70-year-old Slovenian drummer, composer, and percussionist Zlatko Kaučič, a celebration of his long and inspirational career. Yet, I hesitate, for much like the indefatigable octogenarians Han Bennink and Louis Hayes, Kaučič shows no signs of slowing down. It would not be surprising if he, like Roy Haynes, remained vital well into his late nineties. One reason to honor Kaučič now is the arduous and unconventional path he has taken. At 17, ...
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by John Sharpe
Inviting guests to supplement his core bands has proven a winning formula for Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado in the past, and the gambit bears fruit again on La Grande Crue. This time out, French pianist Eve Risser is the plus one, following in the footsteps of trombonist Jeb Bishop, trumpeter Peter Evans and pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach. She joins the outfit known as The Attic, completed by Amado's countryman bassist Gonçalo Almeida and Dutch drummer Onno Govaert. Amado's ...
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by Troy Dostert
While it is always challenging to keep up with the prolific output of saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, one consistently sure bet is his Attic trio, which has been a working ensemble since at least 2017, with a series of stellar recordings that have helped stake Amado's claim as one of the premier free improvisers of his generation. Accompanied by drummer Onno Govaert and bassist Gonçalo Almeida, who joined the trio on its sophomore release, Summer Bummer (NoBusiness, 2019), Amado navigates his ...
Continue ReadingThe Attic & Eve Risser: La Grande Crue

by Glenn Astarita
The Attic & Eve Risser's La Grande Crue is a multi-directional ride through the world of free jazz, featuring the talents of Rodrigo Amado on tenor saxophone, Gonçalo Almeida on bass, Onno Govaert on drums and French pianist Eve Risser. The Attic, renowned for its intuitive and spontaneous style, welcomes Risser into its musical ecosystem, crafting a dynamic and provocative album that unfolds across four extended works. The album commences with Corps," a track anchored by a somber ...
Continue ReadingRodrigo Amado New Trio CD

Source:
All About Jazz
Three years after Teatro, his first trio recording with North-American double-bass player Kent Kessler and Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, widely acclaimed by international reviewers and considered by many a major chapter in Portuguese jazz history, Rodrigo Amado releases The Abstract Truth, an homage to the art of Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. A studio recording, The Abstract Truth is all about the truth that exists in the act of total improvisation, a complex and demanding discipline that projects, unbiased, what ...
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