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Amado, Rodrigo Northern Liberties (w/ Johansson / Strom / Nilssen): We Are Electric (Not Two)

A leader on the Portuguese free jazz scene, tenor saxophonist Rodrigo Amado assembles a collective quartet with three exemplary Norwegian improvisers--Thomas Johansson on trumpet, Jon Rune Strom on double bass and Gard Nilssen on drums--for a dynamic concert at ZDB club in Lisbon in 2017, three dialogs of sparking, fiery interactions and a final "Response".
 

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Personnel:



Rodrigo Amado-tenor saxophone

Thomas Johansson-trumpet

Jon Rune Strom-double bass

Gard Nilssen-drums


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UPC: 5906395187768

Label: Not Two
Catalog ID: MW 1016-2
Squidco Product Code: 31468

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Poland
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded live at the ZDB club in Lisbon, Portugal, on July 11th, 2017, by Cristiano Nunes.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Improvised music is a convenient catch-all for a host of spontaneous styles, from ambient to noise, conversational to chance, but what Northern Liberties play is insistently free jazz, a category to which it might have belonged before its 2017 recording date. There is, however, nothing dated about this music. It might be the contemporary music that best befits the category of jazz in general, an acoustic music at once collectively improvised and insistently rhythmic. Its roots aren't far from the surface. While Amado has already released CDs by his best-known ensembles in 2021, This Is Our Language and Motion Trio, the present CD demands attention, presenting a band with three stand-out younger Norwegians -- trumpeter Thomas Johansson, bassist Jon Rune Strøm and drummer Gard Nilssen - who match Amado's hand-in-glove rhythmic precision and intensity. While Amado's This Is Our Language band name invokes Ornette Coleman, two of the Norwegians -- Johansson and Strøm - are members of Friends & Neighbors, a band named for a Coleman composition.

Part of what makes Amado a special musician is the absence of rhetoric, those too-common wanderings in the tenor's storehouse of volume and assorted noises. Certainly, his playing can be as vast and dense as almost anyone's, but it's always intensely focussed on the communicative and collective potential of the moment, with elements like tension, necessity and possibility informing the spontaneous act. This may be only the band's third get-together, recorded live at Lisbon's ZDB following a concert in Porto and a Lisbon studio session, but they're communicating at the molecular level of pitch, rhythm and figuration. At the opening of "Spark", Amado and Johansson are playing repeating micro-figures, rapidly varying them, shifting notes, subdividing beats and multiplying both connection and distinction, all highlighted by the quality of the recording and mix.

The interaction is fundamental here. Johansson plays trumpet as a high-wire act, a free improviser who seems to live in the wonder rather than the shadow of the recorded history, knowing there was once a Lee Morgan or Woody Shaw, playing free trumpet with an incandescent brilliance that makes him insistently the partner here, not simply a foil. While Strøm does the things that are expected of bassists, fluid but forceful maintenance of pulse and tonal centres, he also brings in arco elements that range from chamber orchestra to industrial, expanding the collective creation. Nilssen is a powerhouse, touching on everything else that is going on. For all of the energy that informs "Spark" and "Ignition", however, the first half of "Activity" is pure cave of the mysteries, long drones and split tones draped on space.

Companion listening? Time runs deep here. I'd suggest Rollins with Don Cherry at the Village Gate 1962, Cherry's Where Is Brooklyn? with Pharoah Sanders, or maybe Ornette on Tenor. None is a precise match, but they all share something ineffable."-Stuart Broomer, The Free Jazz Collective


Get additional information at The Free Jazz Collective

Artist Biographies

"Portuguese saxophonist (alto, C melody, baritone, and tenor) Rodrigo Amado specializes in free-form, composition-in-the-moment jazz, and his various projects and trios have given him an international following. Born in Lisbon in 1964, Amado began studying the sax at the age of 17, briefly at the Hot Club Music School of Lisbon and with mentors Carlos Martins, Pedro Madaleno, and Jorge Reis, among other leading Portuguese jazz artists. With diverse musical interests, he explored how improvisation is handled in other genres, although his work with his various ensembles like the Lisbon Improvisation Players and the Motion Trio (with Miguel Mira and Gabriel Ferrandini) falls clearly under the umbrella of 21st century jazz, and he has been an in-demand studio player on numerous recorded projects. He started his own label, Clean Feed, in 2001, with brothers Pedro and Carlos Costa, before leaving the imprint in 2005 to start a second label, European Echoes. Also an accomplished professional photographer, Amado continues to be a bright light on the Portuguese and international improvisational jazz scene."

-All Music, Steve Leggett (http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rodrigo-amado-mn0000249324/biography)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Thomas is born and raised in Skien,Telemark. With a bachelor degree from the University of Stavanger, and Masters from The Norwegian Academy of Music, he is a part of the strong young Norweigan jazz elite. He has done extensive touring in Scandinavia, Europe, Japan and USA, with both his own projects and as a sideman in several other bands.

His main project is Cortex, which is a quartet consisting of Thomas, Kristoffer Alberts, Ola Høyer and Gard Nilssen. Cortex is a Norwegian band which plays enerergetic jazz of the finest brand. With over one hundred live perfomances and four highly acclaimed albums, they position themselves as one of the strongest additions to the Norwegian jazz scene.

Thomas is also active in several other projects, such as: All Included, Friends & Neighbors, Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit, and Scheen Jazzorkester.

Thomas currently lives in Skien, working as a freelance trumpet player and composer. Thomas has in recent years toured and played at several festivals and clubs at home and abroad, with both his own and others projects. For projects and livedates, check the pages on the menu at the top of the page."

-Thomas Johansson Website (http://www.thomasjohansson.no/?page_id=22)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Strøm grew up on an island in the north-west of Norway. Influenced u. A. By Gary Peacock and Frode Gjerstad , with the first shots were (East of the West, 2011), he plays in the Norwegian free jazz scene with Paal Nilssen-Loves Group Large Unit, Petter Wettre and Mats Gustafsson Nu Ensemble, also with musicians like Mats Äleklint , John Dikeman , Martin Kitchen , Thomas Johansson and Tollef Østvang in formations such as SAKA Trio, Universal Indians, All Included and Friends & Neighbors. 2013, it issued a solo album Jøa.

-Wikipedia (translated Google) (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Rune_Str¿m)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Gard Nilssen (born 24 June 1983 in Skien, Norway) is a Norwegian Jazz musician (drums) and composer, and member of the bands Bushman's Revenge and Puma.

Nilssen was educated on the Jazz program at Trondheim Musikkonservatorium (2003). He was voted this year's young jazz musicians in 2006 with the group Puma. Otherwise Nilssen is very active in bands like Bushman´s Revenge, Lord Kelvin, and Heidi Skjerve Kvintett.

Nilssen was chosen to represent Norway in the artist development program Take Five, a music developer program promoted by the London-based concert promoter Serious."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gard_Nilssen)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Spark 17:23

2. Ignition 12:23

3. Activity 12:34

4. Response 5:24

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Collective Free Improvsation
Quartet Recordings
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
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Search for other titles on the label:
Not Two.


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