Rodrigo Amado's Motion Trio + Peter Evans: The Freedom Principle

Saxophonist Rodrigo Amado requires a proper foil to his music making. Not so much a player who is his converse, but more like a complementary player. One who completes or enhances his sound. In trumpeter Peter Evans, he has found his homogeneous antithesis.

Heard on two recent recordings, the LP-only release Live In Lisbon> (No Business, 2014) and this studio date, The Freedom Principle, Amado's sound has never sounded better.Such has been the prescription for most of Evans' collaborations. He has complemented and enhanced recordings by Evan Parker, Mary Halvorson, Nate Wooley, Mats Gustafsson, Piero Bittolo Bon, and Peter Brötzmann, to name a few. With news that he has left the insurrectionist band Mostly Other People Do The Killing, expect more of these collaborations in the future.

Amado's Motion Trio has built an impressive catalog beginning with their self-titled debut in 2009. They followed up with a live and a studio date with the confederate trombonist Jeb Bishop. Like the Bishop recordings, this studio recording is sonically pristine and overflowing with ideas.

Of the three lengthy pieces, the title track is the longest (at nearly 27 minutes) and the most diverse. Amado seems content to act as the musical stanchion here. His towering tenor drafts the plan that is illustrated by Evans, Gabriel Ferrandini's drums, and Miguel Mira's cello. Evans, who has released several solo improvised trumpet discs, including Nature/Culture (Psi, 2009), flits, darts, and dances around the saxophonist's maundering tones. Likewise, Ferrandini favors a rattle, chatter and perpetual motion with his drum kit.