By Paul Acquaro
Part two in the ongoing coverage of Jazz em Agosto 2022. See part 1 here.
Monday, August 1
I then followed a blue dotted line on my Google maps from the top
of the hill down to the Principe Real neighborhood, with a stop for
a drink in the Amoreiras Garden / Marcelino Mesquita Garden, a lovely small park with a dense canopy of leaves. The park also abuts the Reservatório da Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras, a terminal
building of the aqueduct which contains an indoor reservoir. Also
not open, but it will be on my agenda to return to in
the coming days.
For now, back to the Gulbenkian Foundation where the concerts shift from
the focus on Chicago to the fantastic music being made right here in Portugal,
with a few geographical outliers thrown in.
6:30 p.m. Anteloper
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| Anteloper. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo |
At an early point in the pandemic, during the first set of
lockdowns, I watched a streaming show by trumpeter Jaimie Branch.
It was a low-fi, high-tech affair, in which Branch simply let her
creative process drive the show. She played some trumpet,
captured and reprocessed the sound, added some layers of
electronics, and let it happen. She even sang a slightly sideways
version of Moon River.
The duo Anteloper is this, but energized and magnified. Branch,
along with drummer Jason Nazary, also allow their combined muse dictate in all of its unbridled creativity what happens on
stage. The duo play against a motion image backdrop featuring kaleidoscopic images, sometimes overlaying images of antelopes,
birds and tigers. These changing shapes and color schemes are a
constant behind each set they play, which I am told is very
different each time.
In the smaller auditorium of the Gulbenkian, the act of sitting
during the set felt almost out of place. What they were doing --
Nazary playing complex drum patterns over electronic beats and
amorphous pulsations, and Branch fiddling with samples, playing organ,
and looping her trumpet -- would be entirely appropriate for
being in an altered state of mind at big sweaty party in a
warehouse that is soon to be torn down to make way for more luxury
condos. On the other hand, the act of creation was also
quite interesting to witness, and the results of thier sonic explorations was really enjoyable.
At one point Branch sang a lounge tune with the refrain, "we are not the earthlings that you know. It really makes you think, it really makes me drink." It was a fun tune and added a bit of gentle humor to the set. Aside from this Os Mutante moment, the music draws from hip-hop, punk, and 70's Krautrock (especially when Branch laid into the keyboards), but constructed out the controlled chaos, it is very much its own thing.
9:30 p.m., Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble
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| Black Monument Ensemble. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo |
The show began with an empty stage and the group's manager coming
out to press play on a recording. As the song played out, the members of
the Black Monument Ensemble took their places: Angel Bat Dawid on
clarinet on the left side, Damon Locks on samples and electronics
on the right. Then, in the backrow, the incredible rhythmic nexus
of drummer Dana Hall and percussionist Arif Smith, and front and
center, both of the stage and of the music, the singers Erica
Nwachukwu, Monique Golding, and Tramaine Parker.
The group began with a catchy sample that the
percussionists locked into immediately. Dawid unveiled a serpentine
melody delivered with a distinctive tremolo, and then the singers
began. An effervescent melody filled the air, simple and
unbelievably catchy, it hooked the audience immediately. Later, Locks'
narration added density to the breezy music, tracing themes of
freedom and the conditions in the U.S.. "I can't rebuild a nation,
no longer working out," rang out the repetitious and sweet-sounding
chorus of one song, direct and effective.
Another important ingredient of the music's secret sauce was in the
rhythms. This was underscored by a drum and percussion duet that
drew a fit of applause from the enthusiastic crowd. After a
ceremonial-like leaving of the stage to the sounds of the drums, to a standing ovation, the group came back for a final piece. From behind me I heard in a
hushed voice, "wow, they never do an encore!"
Tuesday, August 2nd
6:30 p.m. -
A Escuta ('To Listen'), a film about Carlos "Zíngaro" Alves
Portuguese violinist Carlos "Zíngaro" Alves is a seminal figure in
the countries avant-garde musical history. He is a self described
"well behaved misfit" who chose very deliberately to follow his own path.
For a while, if you follow the news clipping that appears briefly
on screen during the wonderful 65-minute film, Zingaro, being so outside of the culture, did not have
anyone to play with in and around Lisbon. In fact, he spent much of
his formative years playing outside the country. This is obviously
a situation that has changed and Zingaro can now be
found playing in many different configurations in Lisbon, including
Jazz em Agosto this year with Turquoise Dream.
Inês Oliveira's film is a fresh blend of styles. A
classic documentary approach is used for the aforementioned career
retrospective done through showing old headlines, interviews, and
concert programs, and an intriguing clip of Zingaro in perhaps the
early 1980s performing a piece of new music accompanied by a giant
stack of electronic gear. Then, employing a cinéma vérité approach, a
lengthy film-within-the-film follows the quartet of Zingaro, Joelle
Leandre, Paul Lovens, and Sebi Tramontana between performances on a
recent tour in Europe. Finally, choreographed segments show Zingaro
deep in thought, holding his violin, and simply waiting.
It is in small interactions, like one where Leandre has to carry
her bass up a set of narrow stairs and then assemble it with
Zingaro and Tramontana's help, or the conversation about the harsh
reality of the creative music life while on a train to Vienna, that provides tacit commentary. Voice overs provided by Zingaro ruminate over the what led him from needing at a young age to be different, and to now, as he thinks about how to use the time he
has left well.
It is fantastic film, that in a gentle and loving way gives a glimpse
into the inner-life of an important and vital artist.
9:30 p.m., Tashi Dorji / Turquoise Dream
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| Tashi Dorji. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo |
Tashi Dorji,
who readers of the Free Jazz Blog are likely to be already well informed about, took to the amphitheater stage on Tuesday night just as the sun
had set. A lone figure in the middle of the large stage, he began
his set with a violent slash at the strings of this electric
guitar. Then, he paused. Then again, he struck the strings. A
pattern began to emerge: a pause then a doubling down of forcefully
strum arhythmic tonal clusters, sometimes a single high note would
ring out clearly. Dorji began looping the rhythmic textures and
layered on additional sound.
In some sense, Dorji was exploring and reinventing the guitar, live on stage. For a listener who has fixed ideas of how a guitar is typically played, they must see the guitar anew, as an object with many possibilities to make sound, including ones still waiting to be found. For example, at one point Dorji flipped the guitar over and rammed its
headstock into the stage, letting the resonant vibration of the
strings then ring out. It was a bit painful to see a guitar played
this way, but I trusted it would be ok, as he is the professional.
The experimentation goes beyond the guitar itself as well. During an extended section, Dorji laid the guitar on the floor and harnessed the resonating frequencies of the amplifiers and maybe
even dabbled with the flow of electricity itself, to make an
expressive array of tones. Using his looper, he developed a
stomping rhythmic figure that he then used to accompany himself to
a powerful end.
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| Turquoise Dream. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo |
When Turquoise Dream took to the stage they, in
some sense, picked up with Dorji let off with textural sounds and some unorthodox approaches to their instruments. The acoustic quartet is
Marta Warelis on piano, Helena Espvall on cello, Marcelo dos Reis
on acoustic guitar, and Carlos “Zíngaro” on violin. The
quartet's playing is free, ego-less and and unfraid. They began by creating a whirl
of sound. Zingaro played a series of elongated tones as the cello
and guitar played single, rapid notes, and the piano added a
sprinkle of harmony.
The group played in long concentrated passages, each musician
engaged with their instruments in a seemingly solipsistic way, but were actually quite attuned to each other. The different
solo strands would come together to reach intense musical peaks. There were no solos but each player
would come to the fore at times, and often it would be Zingaro
whose melodic contribution would cut above the others. Sometimes
too, small sounds became important ones, like a scrape on the cello or a
prepared plinking from the piano.
At one point, placing the guitar in his lap, dos Reis used mallets to strike his instrument, hitting the body of the
guitar for its resonance and the strings to create an exotic
chime. Another improvisation (each piece was short and had a
distinct form) began quite harshly, but even through the most
dissonant statement, the music was imbued with sentimentality,
buoyancy, and in Zingaro's bowing, hopefulness. It was a lovely
set, made so especially through the mix of gentle and somewhat
musically violent moments.
Wednesday, August 3rd
9:30 p.m. The Voltaic Trio / Ahmed
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| Voltaic Trio. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo |
The first group of the evenings double header was the Voltaic Trio.
I had a reviewed their album 290241 and spoke about their
"face melting blast of electric noise and a wealth of harsh, but
nonetheless, fascinating rhythms and textures" and was excited to
experience it live. The Portuguese trio is Luís Guerreiro on
trumpet and electronics (he gravitated to the latter this evening),
Jorge Nuno on very electric guitar, and João Valinho on drums.
The set opened with an electric buzz and fizz from Guerreiro's
complex seeming set up, which he delivered with flair,
seeming to want to physical push a whole bunch of sound at Valinho whose
drumming was an artful mix of heavy beats and a lithe pulse. Nuno's
guitar buzzed along side the electronics. As the voltage increased on stage, Guerreiro pulled out
his trumpet and blasted out a heavily effected series of long
notes. The sound was a dense thicket of crackling and buzzing
energy with some ringing notes from the guitar.
Nuno then experienced a technical issue, losing sound from his
guitar. Guerreiro and Valinho valiantly covered with an intense
electronics and drum duel, keeping the energy alive. When
Nuno returned, the frustration seemed to pour out of him through his instrument
with the energy amped up even higher into a explosive freak-out.
The brief return of trumpet slid right in and added another layer
of tension.
The next song took a more direct rock angle as Nuno rhythmically
discharged a series of power chords, Guerreiro's electronics made a
circular buzz, and Valinho worked out a series of slippery thwacks.
Excellent and electric set, and many kudos to the band on how they
handled the technical issue.
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| أحمد [ahmed]. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo |
After a quick change over, أحمد [ahmed] took the stage. Comprised
of the British pianist Pat Thomas and saxophonist Seymour Wright, Swedish bassist Joel Grip, and French drummer Antonin Gerbal,
the quartet creates music from the songs of the American bassist
Ahmed Abdul-Malik, who integrated Middle Eastern and North African
music styles in his compositions. With such far flung origins and
influences, it makes serendipitous sense to have them playing in
the middle of the festival whose theme connects US and Europe.
As I had described the group's performance at
JazzFest Berlin 2021, أحمد [ahmed] "spent the better part of an hour
locked in a hypnotic and demanding groove." This is their thing, and it's a physical wonder how they pull it off.
The set began with Gerbal playing a light "Caravan"-esque drum
pattern. One could hear the exotic influences and accents and
retro-groove. Wright came in with a purposefully disjointed phrase
as Thomas concentrated on tone clusters in the middle range of the
keyboard, hitting the high end of the keyboard with his palm for
accents. Grip was the rock for the music to cling
to, his bass line locked in tight with the drums.
The music is demanding, the group takes a phrase and begin working it in
all possible ways and shapes. The riff is like a tape set to loop
as the tape player is shaken, the voltage changed, and the play head jostled. The music is dynamic, building up to a formidable tempo
and then kept at a high energy level for the next hour. At this pace,
I would imagine the group to start seizing up, like an overheating
machine. At some point, maybe 30 or 40 minutes into the set, they began to slow down, stretching out the notes and lowering the
tempo. One might have thought, 'ahh they're winding down', only to be
surprised at the quick reversal and the band reaching for a new
high.
Phew.
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